All Thanks
Come Gather 'Round People
Wherever You Roam
And Admit That The Waters
Around You Have Grown
“These are all ugly.”
Sally’s nose scrunched up in disgust as she ran her hand over a rail of bras.
“And frilly.”
Willow put her hand over a rack of training bras, bypassing the pink and holding up a plain orange one.
“Sally, if you don’t get a bra, you’ll never learn about the greatest feeling in the entire world.”
Sally raised an eyebrow in silent question. Willow flicked the bra back on the rack.
“Taking it off.”
Sally rolled her eyes but Willow was saved from a cutting barb in response when a young girl with bouncy black curls and thick-rimmed glasses suddenly came over and waved.
“Hi, Sally.”
Sally looked up, blushed, and tried to block the rack of bras behind her.
“Oh. Hey, Az.”
A woman ran over then, puffing out a breath.
“Azalea! Stop running off! Your father has spoken to you about this,” she said sternly before looking at Willow and Sally, “Oh, hello. I hope she wasn’t bothering you.”
“This is Sally,” Az replied matter-of-factly, “We go to school together.”
“Oh hello,” the older woman, presumably her mother smiled, slightly forced as she looked Willow up and down, “Are you the nanny?”
Willow was slightly startled by that conclusion.
“Oh. No.”
“She’s my sister,” Sally said, causing Willow to blink rapidly.
Az’s mother cleared her throat.
“Well, we better be going.”
“Bye Sally,” Az waved energetically.
“Bye Az,” Sally waved her fingers back.
There was a pause after they left before Willow spoke.
“…is she your friend?”
Sally shrugged one shoulder.
“She’s super smart. We’re going to the Mathlympics in January.”
Willow’s eyes widened.
“Sally, that’s amazing! Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I got a lot of things going on, I can’t tell you
everything,” Sally scoffed and turned back to the bras, finally finding one that appealed, “These are kinda cool.”
Willow smiled at the themed garment.
“Pikachu,” she said, looking at the two red cheeks on the cup area, “Peek-a-boob.”
Sally gave Willow a withering look, who held up her hands defensively.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry. Let’s get it!” she saw Sally hesitate and took some cash out of her wallet, “Or you can go do it by yourself?”
Sally took the money and went toward the register.
Bra hidden in a paper bag, they walked to the front of the store and waited for Tara to come out from the grocery section.
When she eventually pulled up, wheeling a cart, she looked more than flustered.
“Shopping the day before Thanksgiving was not my wisest idea.”
“Looks like you got a great haul,” Willow complimented, peering into the bags.
Tara’s shoulders slumped slightly.
“I almost had to wrestle a lady for the raspberry jam.”
Willow pushed a bag open to look in, seeing several jars inside.
“You could have given her one.”
Tara glanced sideways at Willow, who promptly shut up except to push the cart forward.
“Let’s get out of here.”
They filled the trunk with the bags and drove home to empty the contents on the kitchen table.
“Uh, I need to uh…” Sally said, backing away toward her room with her paper bag behind her back, “Yeah.”
She ran into her room and (almost) slammed the door.
“New bra,” Willow whispered.
“Oh, she got it?” Tara asked, placing a hand on her heart, “Remember picking out our first bras?”
“I remember feeling funny watching you put one on and thinking I was jealous,” Willow answered as they both sat at the table, “Rosen-no-boobs was Cordelia’s favorite taunt at the time.”
Tara shook her head softly and rubbed the spot between Willow’s shoulder blades in circles.
“Oh guess what she called me today!” Willow said after a few moments.
“Cordelia?” Tara asked with a frown.
“No, Sally!” Willow replied in an exaggerated whisper.
“Oh honey,” Tara grimaced, tapping the spot under her palm, “She doesn’t mean it when she calls you the village idiot. I know we’ve been going easy on her but I’m going to have to talk to her because it’s not okay—”
“Tara,” Willow interrupted with a bright smile, “She called me her sister.”
Tara was stunned.
“She said that?”
“And she didn’t even whisper ‘of Satan’ or anything else below her breath,” Willow added eagerly.
Tara brought her hand around to Willow’s chin, holding it to pull her in for a kiss. They parted with an audible ‘mwah’ and Willow handed Tara a roll of labels.
“Let's get to work.”
A few minutes later, Sally came out of her room. There was nothing very obviously different and neither Willow nor Tara made any embarrassing comments.
“Come to help?” Tara asked with a soft smile.
Sally shuffled forward, clearly getting used to the feel under her top. She sat near them and appeared to be contemplating the groceries.
“I don’t really get what we’re doing.”
“Well one of each thing goes into each bag,” Willow explained, “But we have the bags labeled differently like vegan or dairy-free and stuff so we have to be careful to put the right things in.”
Sally continued to frown.
“No, but…why? To put in other people’s fridges?”
“In community fridges,” Tara replied and realized Sally might not know what those were, “Like a fridge for a whole neighborhood where people who need a little extra help buying food can pick some up and feed their family.”
Willow nodded.
“Last year we volunteered at a soup kitchen but we need to be on the road to Sunnydale early so this year we’re doing this instead.”
“Why do they need a whole kitchen for soup?” Sally arched an eyebrow, “You just open a can.”
Willow and Tara exchanged a look and realized they hadn’t explained their Thanksgiving charity very well.
“A soup kitchen is a place people go to get hot meals when they can’t get one anywhere else,” Tara put down what was in her hands for a moment to give Sally her full attention.
“And a community fridge is somewhere people can go to get ingredients to make meals when they can’t afford to buy them,” Willow added, “Like a food bank but people leave food for other people to collect themselves instead of going to the food bank or them giving it out. It makes it easier to give fresh food and helpful for people who aren’t able to travel to a food bank.”
Sally’s eyes told them she was working it out slowly.
“They…give you food if you don’t have any?”
Willow and Tara nodded and Sally’s eyes suddenly welled with tears.
“How come they never gave me any?” she asked with an audible lump in her throat, “Before.”
Willow and Tara immediately got out of their respective seats and walked around either side of the table to squish Sally into a hug between them.
“Because a lot of adults didn’t do right by you,” Tara said, choking up as she kissed the top of Sally’s head.
“No one should ever go to bed hungry,” Willow added, glassy eyes meeting Tara’s, “And you won’t ever again. We promise.”
Sally sniffled and she turned her head slightly.
“All this food is for people who are hungry?”
“Hopefully a little bit less hungry tomorrow,” Willow answered, reaching over to rub Tara’s arm.
Sally suddenly pushed her chair back and ran into her room. Willow and Tara looked at each other for a brief second, deciding whether to follow or not, when Sally came out with her Halloween bucket, still half full.
“I want to share my Halloween candy. I've been saving it but maybe other kids need it more.”
Tara reached over and put a hand on Willow’s knee to steady herself. Her mother had spoken to her and Willow about Sally’s Halloween in private so they would know not to playfully steal a Snickers — so she understood how big a gesture this was.
“You don’t have to do that sweetie.”
“Yeah, that’s all yours,” Willow added softly.
Sally looked down at her bucket, conflicted, then up with wide eyes and rushed into her room again. She came back out with her coin purse and emptied it out, revealing a few dollar bills, several quarters, and some change.
“Will this buy enough candy?”
Both Willow and Tara smiled and helped count it out.
“Why don’t we go down to the store on the corner and pick some out?” Willow suggested when they collected close to ten dollars.
Sally agreed and they gathered it all back into her wallet and they left with Willow throwing a wink back over her shoulder to Tara, who was already picking out a few dollars to hide back in Sally’s room.
The CVS on the corner was cleaned out of Cheetos but still had a fairly full candy aisle as long as you weren’t looking for anything seasonal.
Who likes candy corn anyway?
“There’s three bags for ten dollars,” Sally noted a deal sticker.
“Uh huh and you know, you’ve really inspired me so I’m going to match your ten dollars!” Willow smiled and gave Sally an encouraging nod, “Pick out six bags.”
They got Baby Ruth’s, Crunch bars, 3 Musketeers, and enough varieties of M&Ms to satisfy any sweet tooth.
When they brought it home, Sally was eager to participate in packing the bags to give away.
“Can we only do this on Thanksgiving?” she asked as she popped one of each candy in a bag.
“No, they’re open all of the time,” Tara smiled, her eyes creasing affectionately.
“You wanna do it more often?” Willow asked with a gently raised eyebrow and got a keen nod in return, “We can do that.”
“Cool,” Sally smiled and it quickly spread around the table.
“How long do you think it takes someone to blow that thing up?”
Donny regarded the giant turkey balloon flying high above Central Park West on the television.
“At least two weeks.”
Sally smiled but tried to hide it and rolled her eyes.
“As if.”
“Probably start at Halloween, honestly,” Donny replied seriously, “Maybe they get a turkey Ouija board and suck the ghost of a turkey in there.”
“A poultry-geist,” Sally suggested and Donny laughed, which made Amy beside him smile.
Jeff was in the kitchen having taken ownership of the turkey this year, a task Kimberly was all too happy to hand off as she sipped on a mimosa. Willow and Tara were curled up on the beanbag feeding each other pretzels and just being as lovey as they could while still in good company.
They’d been up at the crack of dawn to deliver their food parcels all around LA and get on the road early enough to not get stuck in the bumper-to-bumper traffic and make it to Sunnydale in good time. Jeff was very insistent they all stayed out of the kitchen so everyone was just relaxing, or in Donny’s case, waiting for football.
After a while, Jeff came in in his ‘Resting Witch Face’ apron and sat on the arm of Kimberly’s chair.
“This room needs some music. My Dad always danced with my Mom around the kitchen on Thanksgiving.”
Tara looked up in surprise.
“M-Mr. Bogarty? Really?”
“He wasn’t always bald old Bob like you knew him,” Jeff chuckled, “He was known to woo the ladies with some moose musk. Imported it from Canada.”
Willow’s nose scrunched slightly.
“Did it work?”
Jeff shrugged one shoulder.
“He was on wife number five when he died.”
Kimberly laughed uncertainly.
“I don’t know if that’s a yes or a no.”
“And I don’t want to find out,” Willow said, quickly changing the subject, “Sally’s pretty good at being a playlist conductor.”
Jeff picked up the iPad sitting on a nearby cabinet, pulled up the streaming app, and handed it to Sally.
“You’ve got the reins, kid.”
Sally looked through it for a minute before deciding on a playlist. Donny arched an eyebrow as the music started to play.
“What is this, some Disney cr-stuff?”
Amy flicked Donny’s arm.
“Don’t act like you don’t sing ‘Let It Go’ in the shower.”
Donny blushed and Jeff dramatically offered his arm to Kimberly.
“I think it’s a lovely song to dance with my lady.”
“I concur,” Willow grinned, hopping up to do the same.
Tara happily let herself be pulled up and closed her arms around Willow’s neck while Willow’s hands settled on her waist.
The doorbell rang, saving a flustered Donny from having to extend his own hand.
“I was going for ‘Under The Sea’,” Sally muttered as her finger sped through the playlist.
Willow was all smiles for Tara as the music played, feeling totally content and safe.
You're every second and every minute
What was my life without you in it?
Don't remember, I forget
I was born the day we met“Oh.”
Willow pulled away from her, giggling, just in time to see her father hovering in the doorframe through her peripheral vision.
“Dad?” she asked with a furrowed brow as her arms dropped by her side, “Dad.”
Kimberly stood up and accepted the flowers and bottle of kosher wine from Ira.
“Ira is joining us for dinner,” she explained.
“Kimberly was very kind to proffer me an invitation at our last meeting,” Ira said, somewhat shyly.
Kimberly patted Ira’s shoulder as she settled the gifts into one arm.
“Well, with Sheila out of town, I couldn’t have you spend the day alone.”
“Yes,” Ira smiled softly, “And perhaps it’s best for all we don’t mention it to her.”
Willow swallowed several times to get the moisture back in her mouth.
“I’m sorry, meeting?”
“Our PFLAG meeting,” Ira clarified.
Willow blinked slowly.
“PFLAG?”
Ira nodded.
“It stands for Parents and Friends—”
“I know what it stands for,” Willow cut him off, somewhat abruptly, “I-I didn’t know…”
There was a silence in the air, broken only by Sally promptly changing the song to ‘Under The Sea’.
“Kimberly invited me along to that too,” Ira said quietly.
“They held their meetings at the Magic Box. I happened to be there one night and no one else showed up,” Kimberly explained, “Maureen Blaisdell started it years ago. It was a bit thin on the ground at first but we’re slowly gathering members.”
“That’s great, Mom,” Tara smiled softly.
Conversely, Willow looked like she was going to throw up.
“You’re…going to PFLAG meetings?”
Ira nodded.
“Yes. Oh,” he offered a smile, “I am a cisgender, straight ally with a beautiful lesbian daughter. I am proud.”
He looked to Kimberly, who gave him an encouraging wink. Ira clasped his hands together.
“You must be Sally,” he said, giving just a wave and respecting her space, “I’ve heard some lovely things about you.”
“They’re probably lies,” Sally replied deadpan.
Ira laughed.
“I’m Willow’s father but you can call me Ira,” he said before turning back to Kimberly, “Now what can I do to help?”
“How are you with a cipollini onion?” Jeff called from the kitchen.
“I think you’ll find my skills most a-peel-ing,” Ira chuckled as he made his way in.
“Let me put these in water,” Kimberly said as she followed him.
Tara gently tugged on Willow’s hand.
“Are you okay?”
Willow looked at Tara quickly.
“Can we go upstairs for a minute?”
Tara nodded and they headed toward the door.
“Are you going to have sex?” Sally shouted after them, then continued matter-of-factly to Donny and Amy, “They have sex even though neither of them has weiners.”
Donny turned purple.
“I’m gonna…go see if they need help with those onions.”
The other two watched him squirm and run out of the room. Amy looked at Sally.
“Wanna play Mouse Trap?”
Sally shrugged one shoulder and nodded so Amy went to the game chest to pull it out.
A moment later, Kimberly returned laughing.
“Wow, you got Donny to help cook. What’s your secret?”
Before anyone could answer, Amy’s phone rang.
“Oh rats,” she said as she looked at it, “I have to take this. It’s my sponsor. Don’t start without me.”
She left the room and Kimberly came over to help Sally set up the game.
“What’s she being sponsored for?” Sally asked curiously, “We have to get sponsors in school sometimes.”
Kimberly tried to offer little reaction.
“Her sponsor is someone who helps her not to drink alcohol.”
“They pay her not to drink?” Sally asked with an arched eyebrow, “Wish my Dad had known about that.”
“Different kind of sponsor,” Kimberly smiled softly, “Think about when you were learning to ride a bike. You needed someone who knew how to ride to teach you and show you and support you. Amy, and Donny, both need that help too just in a different way. And they call that person a sponsor.”
Sally took it in for a moment, then nodded.
“I get it,” she said as she fixed some of the game pieces on the board, “I never learned how to ride a bike though.”
Kimberly frowned.
Upstairs, Tara was watching Willow pace up and down her bedroom floor from her position on the bed.
“Honey, it’s okay to be freaking out,” she said cautiously, “But I’m not quite sure what you’re freaking out about?”
Willow turned to Tara, holding her hands out dramatically.
“Dad!” she exclaimed before spluttering, “PFLAG!”
“Yes,” Tara nodded her head slowly, “Those are two things that have an association.”
Willow’s hands flew to the side of her head.
“CISGENDER TARA!”
Before Willow could pull out any more of her beautiful red hair, Tara stood up, strode over to Willow, and cupped her cheeks.
She lifted Willow’s face and pressed their lips together; kissing her soundly until she felt Willow’s body relax under her.
As she pulled apart she rested her forehead on Willow’s and looked her in the eye.
“Okay?”
Willow could only nod breathlessly.
“Okay.”
Tara took Willow’s hand and led her back to the bed. They both sat and Willow took a deep, collecting breath.
“H-He’s going to support groups and learning new terms a-and…trying to be an ally.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Tara prompted gently.
Willow held her hands up helplessly.
Tara just nodded to herself for a moment before taking both of Willow’s hands.
“You’re afraid of intimacy.”
Willow looked at Tara with a furrowed brow.
“Now you lost me.”
Tara reached up and cupped Willow’s cheek.
“You’ve always been afraid of intimacy, darling.”
“I’m intimate regularly!” Willow protested.
“Now. With me,” Tara replied with a pointed look, “But it took a lot of work. And you know it will take a lot of work with your parents.”
Willow’s eyes widened.
“Tara!”
“Not sex intimacy,” Tara clicked her tongue, “Emotional intimacy.”
Willow’s eyes fluttered down. Tara gently stroked her hair.
“You spent so long putting yourself down that part of you is still terrified of what someone will see if they get close enough. Your whole life your parents were emotionally distant. Then you finally stood up for who you are and it was wishy-washy at best. And that was fine for you, even though it hurt because they didn’t know you. So they couldn’t judge you. But if you actually have to let your Dad know and love you…you’re afraid of living that rejection on a level you’ve always managed to avoid.”
Willow slowly lifted her gaze.
“Have you been talking to my therapist?”
Tara smiled crookedly.
“No, I’ve been listening to my Willow. And not just with my ears.”
Willow scooted closer to Tara.
“So what do I do?”
Tara closed her arms around Willow, tucking her girlfriend under her chin.
“You realize you’re the best Willow there ever has been and you let yourself be loved the way you’ve always deserved.”
Willow closed her eyes tightly and nuzzled Tara’s chest.
Tara kissed the top of her head.
“I love you.”
Willow could only let out a small sound which Tara understood was a return of the words.
When Willow was ready, they returned back downstairs and set the table while the men were putting the finishing touches on the meal.
Willow was feeling much more positive as they sat down to eat, until all of a sudden she took in all the food that was on the table.
Just as everyone was about to join hands, her eyes darted all around and she grabbed her chest, promptly falling back off the chair.
“Willow!” Tara shouted in alarm, followed by a similar call from Ira.
As they both rushed to be beside her, Kimberly dropped down and put two fingers against Willow’s neck. After checking a couple more things, she turned her head to the table.
“Everyone out,” she said, then louder when no one responded right away, “Out!”
Almost everyone rushed out, but Tara lingered, her eyes shimmering with worry.
“Mom—”
“Out,” Kimberly insisted softly but with a firm look.
Tara touched Willow’s face for a moment, then followed the rest of them out of the dining room and closed the door behind her.
Kimberly sat back on her heels and waited, long enough for Willow to crack an eye open and quickly close it again when she saw she was still being stared down at.
“Give it up,” Kimberly intoned softly.
There was a pause, then Willow’s eyes softly opened.
“Fine,” she said in a monotone while sitting up and crossing her arms over her chest.
“Is there a reason you’re malingering during this dinner my boyfriend worked very hard to make for us?”
Willow’s face grew pained.
“I’m sorry, okay, I just freaked out when I looked at all of the food because of my Dad! My Dad! He thinks I eat kosher so he’s going to think you cooked kosher especially for me and he’s going to eat it thinking that! And he doesn’t know that I don’t keep kosher and never really did and he takes kashrut very, very seriously and I don’t want to be responsible for him going to Gehinnom!”
Kimberly took all of that in her stride.
“Have you considered telling your father the truth?”
Willow gulped.
“Laid on the gay-now and foster kid thing recently, ‘oh hey, I don’t abide by one of the things you tried to pass down to be with your very being and soul’ feels like a lot.”
Kimberly exhaled a soft breath through her nose.
“The turkey, potatoes, and vegetables are all kosher. The only things that aren’t are the stuffing and creamed corn. And I discussed all of this with Ira when I extended the invitation.”
Willow’s nose scrunched sheepishly.
“Really?”
Kimberly nodded.
“Jeff’s mother was Jewish. He was happy to take on the cooking duties to ensure your father was comfortable.”
“So he’s like…Jewiccan?” Willow asked curiously.
Kimberly’s eyebrow rose.
“You’d have to ask him about that. He’s an adult who can speak to his cultural and religious affiliations.”
Willow pouted.
“Okay, point taken.”
Kimberly indicated for Willow to stand up and she did too. Kimberly went to open the door and Tara burst in, relieved to see Willow seeming okay.
“Willow!”
“I’m fine,” Willow said, accepting a hug as she looked around the room and tried to come up with an excuse, “I got…”
Her eyes landed on her glass of iced tea.
“Brain freeze.”
Tara pulled back and looked at Willow quizzically.
“Br…brain freeze?” she repeated with a frown before picking up on Willow’s subtle ‘please just go with me’ look, “Brain freeze.”
She glanced at Willow’s eyeline and back at her.
“Honey, in case you didn't hear me the first six thousand times, no more putting so much ice in your glass. You know how sensitive you are.”
Behind them, Ira just looked relieved and everyone else was focused on settling back into their seats.
“I know,” Willow replied, mouthing ‘thank you’ to Tara as she squeezed her hand, “I’m a dummy.”
“Don’t speak of yourself in such terms, Willow,” Ira insisted.
“No, it’s true, she’s a dummy,” Sally added helpfully.
Willow and Tara joined everyone else in sitting back down.
“Now, before the food gets cold,” Kimberly smiled, “Willow wanted to lead the toast.”
Willow had to try very hard not to shoot Kimberly a dirty look.
“Yes,” she swallowed, “Yes I do.”
She offered her hands either side of her and cleared her throat.
“I’m thankful for all of the opportunities I have been given. For knowing who I am, who I'm not, and who I wanna be,” she said, then gently shoulder-bumped Tara, “And for the privilege to do it all with this lady by my side.”
“Lame,” Sally intoned softly.
Willow grinned.
“And for Sally, who always keeps me humble.”
Sally rolled her eyes but Kimberly didn’t let her off the hook.
“Sally, are you thankful for anything?”
“I’ve never seen a turkey this big before in my life,” she admitted before glancing down and side to side, “And, um, I like…this.”
Knowing that was a lot for Sally to admit, Tara swooped in.
“I too like this,” she smiled around the table, “To be able to sit with my family and tell them how grateful I am to have them in my life. It’s important and more than a lot of people get.”
Donny was next and gave a single but affectionate nod.
“For sober livin’ and you all forgiving.”
“I'm thankful for cheese,” Amy nodded seriously before adding “And learned how a true support system works.”
“Losing my father so suddenly was extremely difficult,” Jeff got slightly choked up, “But it brought me to Sunnydale full time and that has been the biggest blessing. So I am thankful for the circle of life.”
He kissed Kimberly’s shoulder, who lit up like a yule log.
“I am thankful for my happy and healthy children and to have another smiling face around this table,” she winked at Sally before smiling at Ira, “Two new smiling faces.”
Ira nodded back graciously before realizing he was the last one to say anything.
“Oh.”
“You don’t have to, Dad,” Willow said quietly.
Before Kimberly could agree he had no obligation to say anything, he continued.
“I am thankful,” he said, looking not only at Willow but at Willow and Tara together, “I am thankful to have my eyes opened to joy.”
Willow kept his gaze and smiled.
Kimberly broke hands to raise her glass.
“And it’s important to recognize and gratefully acknowledge the Chumash Native Peoples on whose ancestral homelands we gather, as well as the diverse and vibrant Native communities who make their home here today.”
“Well said Kimberly,” Ira agreed with a staunch nod.
They all clinked glasses and got down to eating.
“Sally, do you want to tell everyone about your school fundraiser for the California Tribal Fund?” Tara suggested.
“We’re designing t-shirts!” Sally replied eagerly, “We’re gonna use software to design them which is so cool because Tara uses the same software for her school so ours are extra, extra, extra cool! And then we’re going to sell them and we get to donate the money and then we get to go to a cultural museum and learn about ancestral lands.”
“Well put me down for ten,” Ira offered kindly as he lifted his plate to receive a slice of turkey from Donny, who was doing the carving.
Sally’s eyes bugged.
“Really?”
Ira grinned affably.
“My golfing buddies could use some new leisure way.”
“Cool! Thanks!” Sally replied, bouncing in her chair, “I really wanna beat Aaron. I’m already winning at friendship because I met Nate Williamson last weekend. He doesn't believe me though. I wish we took a picture.”
“You don’t win in friendship, Sally,” Willow replied with a shake of her head.
“
You don’t,” Sally retorted.
“Watch it, missy,” Tara warned gently, but Sally ducked her head appropriately.
“Friendship is like a see-saw, Sally,” Jeff advised sagely. “Sometimes one is up and the other is down, but you stay on the ride with them no matter what.”
Sally frowned.
“But you can’t win at see-saw.”
Jeff pointed with his fork.
“Exactly.”
Sally didn’t seem too convinced but was too busy being wide-eyed at the dishes being passed around to ponder it too long.
“I always thought the kids were lying when they said they ate like this on Thanksgiving!”
There were wincing looks from Kimberly and Donny but Willow and Tara had learned it was important for Sally to express herself about her past however it came up.
“Better?” Tara smiled softly, “I thought nothing could beat my Mom’s cooking but Jeff is giving her a run for it.”
“
Much better,” Sally confirmed as she gnawed on a turkey leg, “But it’s not hard to beat canned sausage.”
“Oh, I loved those little things in my early college days,” Ira spoke up fondly, “It was hard to find the chicken ones, though.”
Willow saw Sally open her mouth, about to ask why the chicken ones, and quickly started spluttering through the potatoes in her mouth.
“Sally tell us more about, uh, those t-shirts.”
Tara smiled; sensing Willow’s unease and patted her knee under the table.
“Sally and I are learning the software together. We’re going through GIFs right now. I was recently meme’d and want to stay ahead of it.”
“GIFS!” Willow exclaimed in relief, “Graphics Interchange Format. You know, there’s debate whether it’s pronounced ‘gif’ or ‘jif’. The creators say ‘jif’ even though the g stands for ‘graphics’ so really it should be ‘gif’ with the hard g. I’m definitely team ‘gif’.”
“Fascinating,” Ira nodded seriously, “Without prejudice to further information, I believe I agree with you.”
“Yeah, fascinating,” Sally droned out, causing Donny to chuckle and Sally to smirk.
“I knew a few hard G’s once,” Amy said, followed by silence.
“More wine?” Kimberly offered Ira, who nodded gratefully.
The rest of the dinner went off with easier conversation and ended with coconut milk pumpkin pie.
“I insist I do the dishes,” Ira said, though his hand pressed against his stomach as he stood.
“We got it,” Donny waved a hand, “Kinda become my thing.”
“Scrubbing is satisfying,” Amy agreed as they stacked dinner plates, “Keeps the hands busy.”
“Let me get you a drink,” Jeff offered, putting his arm around Ira’s shoulders, “You seem like a whisky man.”
“Oh, why don’t I get my bottle of Redbreast?” Ira suggested with a twinkle in his eye, “It’s a 12-year-old and I never get to share it with anyone.”
“I can’t turn that down,” Jeff grinned and they both headed to the door to go across the street and get the bottle.
Willow just stared at their retreating forms.
“Are my Dad and Jeff…buddies?”
Tara nodded slowly.
“I think so.”
“He might not be as pious as you think,” Kimberly said in a pointed tone toward Willow as she took her wine glass and headed for the living room, “Sally, let’s go pick out some music.”
Sally followed and Tara turned to Willow with a raised eyebrow.
“What was that about? And what was with your ‘brain freeze’?”
Willow’s eyes fell to the floor.
“I freaked out when I thought my Dad might realize I wasn’t keeping kosher.”
“My mom should have told us he was coming,” Tara rubbed Willow’s back gently, “You didn’t have time to prepare yourself emotionally.”
“She doesn’t know all the stuff that’s been going on lately,” Willow defended Kimberly, “I’m pretty embarrassed.”
Tara leaned over and kissed the top of Willow’s head.
“Let’s forget about it and go dance it out.”
Willow agreed with a smile.
Tara stood and pulled Willow up with her. They went into the living room where Kimberly was twirling Sally who, surprisingly, was letting her and giggling.
Now, if she moves like this
Will you move it like that?Tara twirled Willow and Willow twisted her hips, making Tara copy with a grin.
Shake, shake, shake, shake, ah-shake itAn uproarious laugh came from the doorway as Ira took in the scene and to Willow’s complete and utter shock, he came over and started copying their moves.
Jeff came back with two whisky glasses and Ira’s bottle just as the song ended.
“Oh, I haven’t danced like that since my wedding,” Ira puffed as he took a seat next to Jeff.
Willow came by and sat on the arm of her chair.
“Dad, maybe we can do a little Shabbos dinner tomorrow night?”
Ira raised his glass high.
“I insist everyone come so I may repay your wonderful meal and hospitality,” he said, appearing almost giddy, “I admit my skills will be limited to matzah ball soup and brisket but I know a bakery that makes a pecan toffee shortbread to die for.”
“Well then I’m making my Mama’s challah,” Jeff knocked his glass against Ira’s.
“Only if you’ll show me,” Ira countered and started humming the tune to ‘If You're Happy and You Know It’, “I can still hear my mother singing as she made it — 'Over two, under one, over two’.”
He knocked the small table beside him in tune with the song, which Jeff did at the same time and laughed.
“My mother sang the same song!”
Willow looked at Tara, who just gave her a thumbs up.
Willow smiled.
There really was a lot to be thankful for this year.
Even if it was going to take a moment to get used to it.
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) but I love that Tara chose to gift Sally with the experience of flying.
So cute that Sally still has the innocence of a child in some matters (her father probably didn't use shot glasses but drank his booze from the bottle).
Another of my favourite canon moments! So this interview leads to the meme Willow teased Tara about in the epilogue of "Inevitably"?
Ed Sheeran must have a ringing in his ears... 
at Robyn, yes she would be unimpressed! But I think they can be forgiven
Good for Tara that Willow woke up to satisfy her needs and lucky for them both that Sally didn't have to pee and catch them in the act...
Amen! Yay to her self esteem restored!
How horrible and traumatic for both of them, but especially for Sheila! That info made me feel really sorry for her.