Angela jogged up the stairs and swung the door to her father's study open. "Here," she said breathlessly, "could you sign this?" She held out a letter to her father.

Richard DeLanci looked up from a stack of papers and took the letter. He skimmed over the letter before placing it down on the desk and taking out a pen. But instead of then signing the letter, he opened the top drawer of his desk and produced a fresh sheet of paper and an envelope.

"I'd like you to send this as well," he said, the pen flying over the surface of the paper.

"You're writing your own letter?" Angela asked.

"Not exactly. Here," he handed Angela the note and envelope.

"Thank you! Bye!" Angela cried, running out of the room.

As she pounded back down the stairs, Angela paused to read her father's note. "Dear Danny and Ryan..." she muttered to herself. Angela read silently for several moments. One sentence in particular caught her eye. "Two round-trip tickets to New York in time to spend Christmas with us?!" Angela read aloud. Her eyes grew wide and she frantically fumbled to open the envelope her father had also given her. Reaching her fingertips inside, she pulled out two round-trip train tickets to New York City from Boston for the date of December twenty-third. She let out a squeal and ran down the stairs.

"Johnny, look at this," Angela said, shoving the letter and tickets in his face.

"Danny and Ryan are going to be spending Christmas with us?" Johnny said, reading the letter.

"Well, if they're not busy, yes."

Johnny snorted. "Why would they be busy? Who are they doing to spend Christmas with?"

"That's not a nice thing to say!"

"But it's true. They don't have any family."

"Then they can use these tickets and come spend it with us. Besides, if things..." Angela looked at her feet and sighed, "if Mom hadn't died, they would have been a part of our family."

Johnny smiled slightly. "Yeah, they would have. Well, it's better late than never."

"Yes, yes it is. Now," Angela said, taking the letter and tickets back from Johnny, "I'm going to go mail this then I need to do some Christmas shopping, pick up something at the print shop and then I need to stop by the Newsboys Lodging House. You wanna come?"

Johnny shook his head. "I can't. Dad's making me stay here and play bridge with Grandpa, Great Uncle Leo and Great Aunt Rose," he replied dryly.

Angela made a face. "Yeesh. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, me too."

"Old people patrol?" Frankie ventured, coming up beside Johnny. Johnny nodded.

"Jon-na-than!" a shrill voice called from the living room.

"Excuse me," Johnny said, "I'm off to find a bridge partner."