Breakfast at the Bartlet farm was unlike anything Jean Paul de Bourbon had ever experienced. By the time he made his way down to the first floor, earlier than he would have liked, the entire family was up. Surprisingly he found them seated at the kitchen table not in the more formal dining area. Mrs. Bartlet was in her bathrobe standing at the stove with Nicholas on her hip. She was singing softly along with radio, her hips swaying gently to the music as she danced with her son and continued to stir something on the burner. She paused every now and then to take a bite from the mashed banana in her small sons' hand and to dip the boy to the strains of "Proud Mary".

"Rollin', rollin' rollin' on the river," she sang to the boy and he gave a hearty giggle as his mother dipped him nearly upside down with every "rollin'," she sang.

Jean Paul didn't think he'd ever seen his mother in the kitchen, never mind cooking and singing in her nightclothes with a laughing babe in her arms. Cooking was the cook's job, children were the nanny's responsibility and one did not appear at breakfast until fully dressed. He doubted his mother even knew the words to "Proud Mary". It truly surprised Jean Paul that a woman as important as the First Lady did her own cooking and child rearing when she was out of the White House.

The President surprised him almost as much. The leader of the free world sat with Zoey at the kitchen table wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt and was eating a plateful of eggs and toast while he chatted with his daughter. Aislinn sat in the high chair next to him dipping her plastic spoon into her scrambled eggs and getting it everywhere. She had obviously not mastered the art of using utensils yet. Jean Paul watched the little girl stick her fingers into the eggs and ketchup mixture and squeeze them bringing her fist up to her mouth for a bite, her face soon smeared with the mess. He could not believe that the President simply sat there with an amused look on his face while his child played with her food, ate with her fingers and generally made a mess. The man didn't even blink an eye when he picked her bottle up off the floor and she thanked him by pressing a sticky hand to his cheek.

"Ah, you're up," Zoey smiled at her boyfriend. "Please sit down. There are eggs, French toast and cantaloupe here and mom is making Nicky some oatmeal over there."

"He's been on an oatmeal kick lately and that's all he'll eat, "Abbey added. "Just like daddy it HAS to be MAPLE. They're two peas in a pod."

"There is no other flavor even worth mentioning," Jed nodded. "Nicholas is a New England boy through and through and he has wonderful taste."

"So what'll it be?" Abbey turned to the young man who eyed the seat next to Aislinn's messy highchair with distaste.

"Just coffee please. I don't eat breakfast." He sat down next to Aislinn and she took one look at the strange face sitting next to her and began to cry.

"Dada…Dada" she reached over the side of her high chair trying to squirm away from the stranger.

"She doesn't like me," Jean Paul said, cringing at the chaos and noise level at this hour of the morning.

"She doesn't know you," Zoey placed her hand on his. "Once she gets to know you she'll love you."

Abbey lifted a skeptical brow toward Jed at that statement then watched him lift their daughter out of her high chair to calm her down.

"It's okay, Aislinin," he soothed her. "Calm down. Jean Pierre is a friend of Zoey's." He turned from bouncing the little girl on his knee to look up at Jean Paul. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, young man. Didn't your parents every tell you that?"

"No. I don't think that topic ever came up for discussion, and my name is Jean Paul."

"We're cutting a tree down today." Jed ignored the correction. "You should eat something."

"Why are we cutting down a tree?" Jean Paul looked perplexed by the strange looks he got from all three adult Bartlet's.

"It's Christmas, Jean Paul," Zoey said. "Don't you have a tree at your house?"

Jean Paul smiled at her reference to the 16th century Chateau that he lived in as a "house". "Well, yes, of course. But, I guess I never thought about how it got there."

"Well, here we go into the woods and we cut one down," Jed informed him, his tone clearly indicating what he thought about Jean Paul not knowing where the family Christmas tree came from.

Abbey set a steaming mug of coffee down in front of Jean Paul. She saw him hesitate, knew he was waiting for her to "fix" it for him. "There's cream and sugar right front of you on the table. Make yourself at home." Abbey cast an amused smile Jed's way and placed Nicholas in his high chair to start on his oatmeal."

****

Cutting down the Bartlet family Christmas tree was another eye opening experience for the young Frenchman. First of all he watched Zoey's parents bundle Aislinn and Nicholas into their snowsuits hats and mittens, then they all had to don heavy parkas, gloves and boots. Jean Paul thought they all looked like something out of Admiral Peary's party attempting to reach the North Pole. The twins were placed in a sled and they finally began the trek over the lower pasture to where the small pine Christmas trees had been planted years ago when they'd first moved in.

Jean Paul watched with awe, as the Bartlet family debated, argued and tried to persuade each other the tree that they wanted was perfect. It seemed to take them forever to agree upon one but finally they did and the President began to move forward with the saw.

"I can do that, sir" Jean Paul stepped toward him. Jed stepped away from him holding the saw protectively against his chest and everything got quiet. They all remembered what had happened the time Doug had tried to take over Jed's job of cutting the tree.

"Dad always cuts down the tree," Zoey informed him. "It's tradition."

"Tradition, that's something you know about, isn't it, Jean Claude?"

"It's uh, Jean Paul, sir."

"I'm sure it is. Hold the kids back I'm going in." Jed got down on his knees then lay flat on his belly to get under the tree and began sawing the nine-footer down.

"I'll hold the top." Abbey moved forward to hold the top of the tree so it wouldn't fall too soon. "Zoey keep hold of the kids."

Zoey grabbed Aislinn holding the little girl back then watched as Nicholas made a mad dash forward toward his parents.

"Jean Paul, could you grab him?" she asked.

Reluctantly Jean Paul reached for the little boy. Nicholas shrieked as the strange man grabbed the hood of his snowsuit with more force than needed, yanking him to his butt.

"Nicholas, let Jean Paul hold you." Zoey told her brother.

"NO! NO! NO!" Nicky's face turned red as he fought against Jean Paul's restraining hands, kicking at him with all his toddler wrath.

"Stop it you little br…"

"JEAN PAUL!" Zoey cut him off before he could refer to her baby brother as a brat; she could already see the glare her mother was sending their way.

"That's quite enough," Abbey told him sternly, then looked down at her indignant son. "And as for you Nicholas, stop carrying on."

"Maaammma…" Nicholas sniffled straining in Jean Paul's grasp.

Abbey started to let go of the tree but Zoey stopped her. "It's okay, mom, I'll hold them. Nicholas come here." Zoey opened her arms and the little boy stumbled through the snow to get to his big sister. Once in Zoey's care along with his Aislinn he turned to give Jean Paul a scowling, very Jed-like look.

With the excitement of Nicky's tantrum over Jed continued to cut down the tree, the twins chortling with glee as their father called out a loud "TIMBER" and the tree fell with a soft thud into the snow.

Jean Paul, Vicomte de Conde de Bourbon stood slightly apart from them all wondering just what in the world he had gotten himself into. Zoey's family was not at ALL like what he had expected.

****

"What is that?" Jean Paul asked, watching as Jed reached into the closet and took out a metal pan on the end of a long wooden handle.

"Haven't you ever seen a popcorn popper before?" Jed lifted a brow.

"Not like that. We usually put a bag in the microwave at school."

"Sheer laziness. There is nothing like freshly popped popcorn straight out of the fire."

"The fire?" Jean Paul was puzzled.

"It's an antique popcorn popper," Zoey grinned, taking pity on her boyfriend. "You put the pan over the fire and pop your corn.

"Puhcon…puhcon…" Aislinn and Nicholas danced around the as of yet undecorated Christmas tree with excitement.

"Almost ready, kiddo's. Tell your mother to get her butt in here with the popcorn kernels."

"Mumma butt…butt…mumma…butt" The two skipped into the kitchen.

Abbey turned from where she stood making hot cocoa from scratch.

"Tell your father to get off his own butt and come get the kernels himself. I can't stop stirring the milk, it will scald."

"Dada…butt…butt…"

Zoey laughed as the kids came scampering back in. With a sigh, Jed rose and made his way in stocking feet to the kitchen to get the kernels.

Zoey continued to work on the strand of lights while Jean Paul moved to the archway leading into the kitchen watching the President spank the First Lady lightly on her shapely rear and watched her retaliate by snapping at him with a dishtowel. He stood at that spot for a moment admiring Abbey Bartlet's curvy little form. Her faded jeans clung to the gentle swell of her hips and rear, then nipped in at her tiny waist. Her full breasts thrust out against the sleek camel colored cashmere turtleneck that showed off that sexy figure to its best advantage. With her cloud of shoulder length burnished auburn hair she could easily pass as Zoey's older sister rather than her mother.

"Are you ogling my mother's ass?" Zoey whispered coming up behind him.

"And what if I am? Does that bother you?"

Actually it did, but Zoey couldn't tell Jean Paul that. She knew how much he disdained the puritanical streak that permeated American life. The last thing she wanted was for him to refer to her yet again as bourgeois. "You have every right look to look at beautiful women."

"Ah, my Zoey" he placed his arm around her shoulder. "You are learning ma petite."

Zoey nodded, swallowing past the lump in her throat. She wasn't sure if she would ever get used to Jean Paul's cavalier attitude toward monogamy and relationships in general. Two people who were exceedingly devoted to each other had raised her. As a matter of fact she knew that if her mother had found her father ogling another woman's ass she would not have been so tolerant. The fact that it was her MOTHER'S ass seemed to rankle her even more even though it was certainly nothing new. Boys had always ogled her mother. Her mind flashed back to one day in high school when she was standing with her friends waiting for her mother to pick her up. She'd always known her mother was not like other mothers and never was that more apparent then watching Abbey drive up in her convertible BMW her long red hair blowing in the wind and trendy dark sunglasses covering her eyes. The group had gotten very quiet as they watched her and when she stepped out of the car in her short pencil slim skirt and three-inch heels the boys eyes bugged out of their heads. To this day Zoey could still hear Johnny Gilbert's voice. "THAT is your MOM, Zoey. Holy crap, she is ONE SIZZLING BABE." The fact that Zoey had a secret crush on Johnny did not endear her mother to her in that moment.

"Are they always like this?" Jean Paul asked, gesturing to her parents who were playing tug of war with the dishtowel now.

Zoey came back to the present and gave him a brave, and she hoped, bright smile. "Always."

Later, while Jean Paul and Zoey twisted the Christmas lights around the tree, Abbey and Jed settled back against the couch with their mugs of hot cocoa and warmed their feet against the fire. As Jed filled the popcorn popper with corn kernels Aislinn and Nicholas plopped down beside their parents to help with the popcorn popping. Both kids began to bounce with excitement as the kernels began popping like crazy under the lid.

"Puhcon…puhcon…puhcon" they enthused.

Once the popcorn had finished popping they poured some into a bowl for decorating and buttered and salted another bowl to munch on while they worked on stringing popcorn and cranberries to hang on the tree.

"I'd forgotten how much fun this is," Abbey said. "We haven't made popcorn strings since Annie was little."

"Too long." Jed agreed. "Okay, Nicholas, I need a cranberry," he instructed his son.

Nicholas picked a cranberry out of the bowl and handed it to his father so he could thread it along with the popcorn.

Abbey glanced up and saw the dog under the tree. "Max" she called out sharply. "Stop drinking the water from that tree." Max came out from under the tree and moved to his mistress rubbing his head against her leg to apologize for his transgression.

Once the popcorn strings were finished and with Christmas carols playing on the stereo, the Bartlet family began decorating their Christmas tree. Abbey, Jed and Zoey took the higher limbs while they helped Nicholas and Aislinn decorate the lower limbs. Jean Paul held back a bit, uncomfortable with the whole family thing. He felt out of place as Jed, Abbey and Zoey reminisced over different ornaments remembering when they'd been made or given as gifts. His family did not decorate the tree and they certainly wouldn't have done it with strings of popcorn and cranberries. Nothing but Tiffany ornaments would have done for his family's tree and they certainly would not have paused to dance with the children to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" or "Jingle Bell Rock,"

Once the tree was decorated there was a bit of an argument over who was going to get to put the angel on the top of the tree. Finally a compromise was reached when Nicholas agreed that Aislinn could put the angel on the top if he got to turn on the lights.

With a little help from her father, who climbed the ladder with her, Aislinn got the angel on the tree and Nicholas flicked the switch clapping when the tree lit up brightly. Their admiration of the tree was interrupting by the ringing of the phone. Abbey stopped hanging stockings on the mantle to go and answer it.

"Ohhhhh, Jeeedddd…" Abbey called out from the kitchen a few moments later. "Could you please come here for a minute?"

"You two leave the ornaments ON the tree," Jed told his children, as he turned to go and see what Abbey wanted. Nicholas and Aislinn had discovered that it was just as much fun to take the ornaments OFF the tree as it had been to put them on.

"What's up?" He asked her.

"I just had an interesting conversation with a Sandy Lazar from the New Hampshire Humane Society."

"Uh…yeah…I…uh…"

"Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Well…uh…I might have called her expressing interest in getting a puppy."

"And you didn't feel the need to inform me? You thought you'd make it a done deal and once I saw the puppy I'd cave."

"Well…"

"Don't well me," she chucked him under the chin. "I know you too well."

"You did promise me that this year we could get the kids a puppy."

"Jed, we have a dog."

"Yeah, we do. But come on, Abbey. Max is really yours."

"And we have a cat."

"Kids need a dog, besides the cat lives in Maryland. I didn't make any definite arrangements. I just asked her to keep her eye out for a collie or setter cross or something."

"Well, she just called to say that someone brought a litter of what looks like collie/sheltie puppies into the shelter. Evidently they found them in a dumpster. She wanted to know if we were interested in going to have a look at them."

Jed paused for a moment trying to gauge his wife's mood. "Are we?" He asked.

Abbey took in the excited gleam in his eyes, knew what joy it would give him to see the children's excitement Christmas morning. He was right, she told herself. Max played with the kids but only when she was around. He was her dog through and through. "I guess we do."

"Yes!" He pulled her in for a big bear hug.

"Okay, Jed, okay. I have to breathe."

Jed laughed and let her go. "So when do we go take a look?"

"I think tomorrow morning will be soon enough. I need to put the kids down, it's way past naptime."

****

"I think they like you." Sandy Lazar laughed as she watched three sable Shetland Sheepdog puppies jump on Jed's legs.

"Are they males or females?" Abbey asked.

"Those three are females."

"Girls always find me irresistible." Jed squatted amidst the puppies.

"You are so full of it," Abbey rolled her eyes.

As Jed played with the pups before him, Abbey discussed the sad circumstances of the puppies' early life with Sandy. Before long Jed felt a cold nose touch the back of his hand. He looked down to see a small fluffy tri-color pup shyly asking him for consideration.

"You want some attention, do you?" He lifted the puppy up looking into her sweet dark eyes. The puppy leaned forward to gently lick his chin.

"I think we have a winner," Abbey smiled and moved forward to pet the little black, tan and white puppy. "Is it a female?"

Jed lifted the puppy to take a peek. "Yup, she's a little girl."

Abbey knew from experience that things went a little better if you had a male and female in the house rather than two of either sex, so they had agreed to look for a female.

"Well?" Abbey asked.

"What do you think?"

"She seems pretty sweet and she's very gentle."

"Shelties are great with kids," Sandy told them. "They can be a little noisy but they're very loving, very loyal and very playful. She'll be happy on the farm or just as happy in the White House. They're very adaptable and people oriented."

"What do you think?" Abbey took the puppy from Jed. 'You want to come live with us?" The puppy tucked her wet nose into Abbey's neck. Abbey laughed. "I think that's a yes."

"I know you wanted her for Christmas. Will you be looking to adopt her today?"

"Yes," Jed said. "Our daughter Elizabeth said she'd keep her until Christmas Eve so the twins don't see her."

As if on cue Elizabeth entered the room. "Is this the one?" she asked, seeing the puppy snuggled in her mother's arms.

"This is the one."

"She's adorable. You don't see too many of these black ones."

"She's a tri-color," Sandy said. "Black, tan, and white."

"Does she have a name yet?"

"No, she's going to belong to the kids so we'll let them name her, "Jed told her.

"Oh you poor little thing." Liz scratched the pup behind the ear. " I have a feeling we're looking at "Spongebob" here," she smiled, knowing how much her toddler siblings loved that cartoon.

"Or Nemo," Abbey said. "Finding Nemo" is a new favorite.

"Bite your tongues both of you," Jed warned them.

"Well, I better get moving," Liz looked at her watch. "I have to pick up Annie at swimming practice. You do know that after having this puppy in my house my daughter is going to be bugging me for a dog."

"We have four more puppies that need adoption," Sandy told her.

"I'll keep that in mind," Liz laughed. "Now, I really have to go."

"Okay. Thanks for keeping the puppy for us, sweetheart." Jed kissed her cheek.

"You're welcome."

"And you ARE coming to the skating party, right? After all we aren't going to see you Christmas day since you decided to go to Doug's parents house." The statement was made with such disgust that Elizabeth had to smile. She knew her father would love to keep she and Annie completely to himself. Doug was another story.

"Yes we are and, if you remember correctly, we did spend Christmas day with you and mom last year. We have to be fair. And yes, we will be there for the skating party, you know Annie would kill me if she missed it. She's already invited four or five of her friends so get ready for a bunch of giggling teenage girls."

"My life has been nothing BUT giggling teenage girls," Jed sighed.

"Poor daddy," Liz stuck out her bottom lip in a teasing pout. "You know you wouldn't have had it any other way."

"You're absolutely right." He opened the door for his daughter to enter her car.

"See ya at the party!" Liz called out as she drove off down the lane.

TBC...