“I think that’s everything,” Jim said, looking over the trunk of their Subaru.

They had spent the last hour stuffing it with what Jim was pretty sure was much more than they could ever need for a 3 day trip to his parents’ house.

Typical things like the pack n play and clothes (though Pam had packed a suitcase each for the two of them and a separate bag for Cece, which seemed like a bit much), but also other extra things, like Cece’s door swing, the high chair (it had taken him an hour to collapse that, and he had a feeling it’d take just as long to put back together), and a very large bag of toys.

But Pam had been insistent that they’d need all of that just to be safe, and Jim wasn’t planning on arguing with her before the 2 hour trip to Philadelphia.

Philadelphia. The new location of the ‘Halpert Thanksgiving Extravaganza’ as Larisa had nicknamed it when she was around 12, and had stuck ever since.

Thanksgiving with the Halperts was quite the event. And busy. Very busy. Jim’s parents, brothers and their wives and kids, sister and her boyfriend, as well as the three of them, all in his parents’ new house in Philly.

Last year Jim and Pam had hosted; mainly because Cece was a baby at the time and they didn’t want to travel. And not only had they been hosting Jim's family, but Pam's as well.

After that, they quickly decided they would not be offering to host everyone again anytime soon. Their house was much too small to host 12 people, and it was all to hectic for either of them to want to host again, as much as they loved both their families.

The fact that Betsy and Gerald hosted the whole Halpert clan pretty much every year really was amazing to the both of them, and was something they both had so much more appreciation for now.

Luckily this year, not only had Jim’s parents offered to host, but his brothers and their families were staying in a hotel, so the three of them and Larisa were the only other ones actually staying in the house.

“I don’t think we missed anything, so looks good to me,” Pam nodded in agreement, bouncing Cece lightly on her hip as they both looked into the back of the car.

Turning her attention to the toddler on her hip, she asked “you ready to go, Cece?” to which the little girl reacted to by clapping her hands and shouting “ya mama!”

“That’s enough for me, let’s get going.” Jim said with an over exaggerated expression and sigh of relief, before closing the back hatch and taking the keys to go lock up the house while Pam buckled Cece into her car seat, handing her her stuffed puppy (which had also been lovingly named Puppy) in hopes to keep her happy on the drive.

Cece and car rides were a thing that did not go hand-in-hand. At all. For reasons no one could quite understand, Cece absolutely hated riding in the car. So while the drive wasn't that long, it had potential to feel very long thanks to that.

"Are you gonna be a good girl on the ride?" Pam asked Cece, looking down to buckle her own seatbelt as Jim did the same next to her.

"No!" Cece responded, bursting into giggles and kicking her legs lightly.

"Well, at least she's honest," Jim said under his breath with a quiet laugh, looking over his shoulder as he pulled out onto the street and headed towards the entrance to their neighborhood, before looking back towards the toddler.

"Honesty is good policy Cee, keep it up." he told her, though he quickly added “And behaving in the car. That’s great too.”

"One-is? Cece one-is?" Cece asked back, her eyebrows raising in question.

 -----

They were only 30 minutes into the drive when things started to go badly.

The traffic was absolutely terrible due to travelling on the day before a holiday, Cece was already getting fussy, and now Helene was calling on the phone.

"Hey mom-" Pam answered, moving her hand around the backseat blindly in an attempt to find the stuffed puppy which had been dropped and seemed to completely disappear into the abyss that was the floor of the car. But before she could even finish what she was going to say, Helene cut her off.

"You're going to Jim's family for Thanksgiving again?" She asked with a tone that actually sounded somewhat annoyed much to Pam’s surprise.

"Yeah, we are. I thought we already talked about that?" Pam asked right as her hand hit the puppy and she picked it up, handing it to Cece who immediately stopped her fussing in favor of quietly babbling on to the stuffed animal in her hand.

As she straightened in her seat again, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. They had talked about it, a while ago at that. Pam had even offered to stay home and spend the day with Helene and Penny instead of leaving, but Helene had said no. She’d even gone as far as to encourage them to go to Philly instead.

"I know we did, but... It isn't that great, Pamela. It really isn't great at all. Every time there's a holiday, you three are off spending it with Jim’s parents and I'm just here by myself." Helene said, her tone wavering a bit as she spoke. That, along with the unnecessary complaining told Pam one thing. Her mom was definitely drunk, which was honestly a pretty big surprise. Her mother never got drunk.

"Hey mom? Listen," Pam said, raising her voice a bit to get her mom's attention as she started to go off on another tangent, causing Jim to give her a quick questioning glance before his eyes returned to the road.

"I know you're having a tough time, but we already talked about this.  We're spending Thanksgiving with Jim's parents this year, you and I already talked about that and you said it was okay," she said, being careful to keep her tone steady and patient,

"And we do spend holidays with you. If anything we spend more with you and Penny than Jim's family. We were together for Halloween, and Fourth of July, and Christmas Eve and Day, and Cece's birthday even. So can we just-"

Pam was cut off again by Helene saying something in a voice that sounded like she was crying now. That's when she knew this really was out of her hands.

"Mom, how about we talk about this later? I'll see if Penny can come over for a bit, but let's pick this up again later. Okay?" There was silence on the other end for a beat, but finally Helene agreed and the two exchanged 'love you's before Pam finally hung up.

“What was that?” Jim asked with a concerned tone as Pam dropped her phone into her lap, moving his hand from the gearstick to her thigh to give a comforting pat.

"My mom, just being drunk and sad the day before Thanksgiving," Pam said with a sigh as she went back on her phone to text  Penny, telling her what had just gone on and that she really should go over to their mom’s house.

"I think she's still having a hard time dealing with stuff like that without Dad being there and with Penny not living at home anymore. She definitely knows how to make me feel like crap for not sticking at home, too," she sighed, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling as she tried to figure out how this would end up.

She knew her mom would eventually calm down and get more level headed and realize how ridiculous that was, but it was still a pretty big mood dampener.

And she really didn't want to go into the weekend like that.

"You didn't do anything, so no reason to feel bad," Jim assured her, shifting his hand again so he could run his thumb against the top of her hand lightly, his eyes still staying on the interstate as they crept along through the traffic, "It's just a big shift from what she's used to, even now that it's been what, two years?" he asked, and Pam nodded, moving her hand to lace her fingers with his.

"That's all it is, so don't worry about it too much. I can promise you she isn't mad at you, it's just her emotions talking. And also the wine, I'm sure," He added, which earned a laugh and small smile from Pam much to his relief.

 -----

They kept on stopping and going through the traffic for what felt like hours but Jim was sure was probably only 20 minutes, before Cece decided it was time to start up her first real fit of the trip.

It started with her throwing her puppy over into the trunk of the car, and then immediately bursting into tears.

"What's wrong, baby?" Pam asked, doing her best to turn in her seat to face her daughter, who was just crying and pointing back towards the trunk in response, kicking her legs against the back of Pam's seat unhappily, "You have to tell me what it is, Cece. What's wrong?"

"Puppy! Go 'dere!" Cece finally got out between sobs, her tiny hands clenching into tiny fists in frustration, and then it clicked in both her parents' minds what had happened.

"Cece, did you throw it?" Jim asked suspiciously before Pam could, his eyes moving to look at the toddler through the rearview mirror, and Cece quickly shook her head.

Throwing was Cece's current phase, much to everyone around her's disappointment. Everything got thrown. Toys, her toothbrush, Pam's phone, food, basically anything she could get her hands on usually went flying.

"We can't get it back now, Cece. You threw it and now we can't reach it!" Pam explained in a playful tone, attempting at getting Cece to finally learn about throwing as they'd been trying to get her to understand for weeks, as well as keep it light so she'd (hopefully) stop crying.

This, of course, backfired and sent the toddler into wails.

"Nice, mama," Jim teased, earning himself a light smack on the arm from his wife in return.

"Guess I'm going back. Sorry babe, you're on your own up here." Pam said with a playful pout towards him as she undid her seatbelt and climbed into the back in an attempt to calm the wailing toddler and track down where Puppy had gone.

"Want daddy!" Cece shouted, kicking her legs again as Pam buckled in next to her, pointing towards the front seat to emphasize her point.

"Daddy's driving, you can't have daddy right now," Pam explained, shifting so she could look over into the trunk.

"NO! Daddy!" Cece shouted again, and started off onto another set of wails.

Yeah, it was gonna be a long ride.

 -----

"You made it!" Larisa called, running down the front steps of the house to greet Jim as he got out of the car, quickly wrapping her older brother up in a tight hug, "mom was starting to get worried you guys had gotten in a fiery wreck or something with how long that took."

"Traffic was hell, baby was hell, the usual," Jim explained with a grin as he wrapped his arms around his sister as well, though he quickly let go and stepped aside as Pam climbed out of the backseat, Cece on her hip with Puppy in hand and her head on her shoulder.

"Cece, look who it is!" Pam said with an excited gasp, pointing to Larissa as she stood in front of them.

Cece's head shot up and she gasped as well, immediately struggling against Pam's grasp as she reached out towards her aunt, shouting "Wissa! Wissa!" as she did so.

"It's my favorite niece!" Larisa grinned, giving her sister-in-law a quick hug before taking the sqiurming Cece from Pam's arms and whispering to her, "don't tell your cousin I said that. It'll be our little secret, okay?" she asked the toddler in her arms, who nodded back and shouted an excited "Kee' Wissa secwe!"

"I'll take her inside so you guys can unpack?" Larisa offered, and Jim nodded, making a small shooing motion towards his sister, which she just responded to with a roll of her eyes and setting off towards the house, talking to Cece as she continued to babble on.

"There you are!" Betsy said as they finally pushed the front door open a few moments later, arms overflowing with everything as they had tried and successfully made it in one trip from the car, "I was starting to think you'd never make it. And when Cece came in, but no Jim or Pam, I started to wonder if she somehow learned to drive!"

"Hey, Betsy," Pam said with a small smile and laugh, letting go of her suitcase to wrap her arm around her mother-in-law as she greeted them, Larisa and Cece appearing in the doorway.

"That two hour drive ended up taking four," Jim explained with a dramatic groan, giving his mother an awkward one armed hug and kiss to the top of her head as he spoke, "day before Thanksgiving traffic seems to get worse every year. And we had to work until five, and pick up Cece, and then we still had to pack when we got home," he explained with a sigh, shaking his head.

"Oh! Cecelia was asking for a snack," Betsy said, eyeing the toddler suspiciously as she just blinked back at her grandma innocently, her thumb stuck in her mouth, "but I wasn't sure if she should have one this late or not?"

"A snack would actually be great," Pam said, reaching down to grab a hold of her suitcase again, "she got dinner before we left but I'm sure she's hungry again. She's gotta be tired too, though, because her bedtime was an hour ago and she still refuses to sleep in the car," she explained, and Betsy gave her a sympathetic smile, before gesturing to the stairs.

"Go unpack! We'll find something for Cecelia," she said, lightly pushing on Pam's back with a laugh, "You guys are in the first room on the left."

As they got to their room and started to put everything down, Pam's phone chimed and she pulled it out, sitting down on the bed and squinting at the small screen to read the rather long text from her Mom.

"Is that your mom?" Jim asked, sitting down next to Pam as she nodded and extending his hand to rub her back gently as she read.

"She said she's sorry for being ridiculous, and that she isn't mad at me. And to tell your mom hi from her, and that she'll call us tomorrow," she said after a couple moments of silence and typing back her response, setting her phone on the bed.

Jim grinned and patted her back as they both stood up again. "See? Just like I said, it's all good."

"I'll unpack everything and set up the pack n play, and you can go get Cece ready for bed?" Jim offered after a few minutes of unpacking, prompted by them both hearing Cece start to fuss from downstairs, but Pam just shook her head.

"She'll much happier for daddy to come get her. So go, make your little girl's whole day."

Jim just grinned and nodded, kissing Pam on the cheek before going back down the hall. Cece was nothing if she wasn't a daddy's girl, and  they both knew that good and well.

"You have to go to bed Cee, it's so late! Mama and daddy wanna sleep too," Pam heard Jim say as his footsteps sounded up the stairs, followed by some unintelligible whining from Cece, and then they appeared in the doorway.

"Look, mama set your bed up next to ours and everything! You get to sleep with us tonight!" He said excited, trying to keep her from having yet another fit. Pam just smiled as she watched the two of them interacting. It really never ceased to amaze her just how good he was with their daughter.

"Daddy Pooh?" Cece finally asked with a short sniffle as he sat her down on the bed and Pam went to change her into pajamas.

"Did you bring Pooh?" Jim asked as he bent down to look through her bag, and Cece just shrugged in response.

"I don't see Pooh in here. Is Bambi okay instead?" He asked, waving her Bambi picture book in the air.

"Bamy! Bamy!" Cece cheered in response, tears forgotten as she started jumping up and down on the bed while Pam tried to pull her pajama shirt over her head.

"Bambi it is," Jim said as he sat down on the bed, Cece immediately jumping back to curl up against his side as he leaned back against the pillows and started to read the Bambi book (which he almost had memorized from reading it so often at this point).

Pam laid back on the bed next to them, listening to her husband read the story as well. And before she knew it, she was out like a light right along with Cece.

"These sleepy girls. Unbelievable," Jim said quietly to himself once he'd finished the book and looked over to the girls next to him; though he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face at the sight.

He set the book down on the bedside table and carefully got up so not to move the bed too much. Luckily, Cece was always a hard sleeper, and he was able to easily lift her up and into the pack n play without her even stirring.

 -----

"Where's Pam?" Betsy asked as he returned downstairs, raising an eyebrow in his direction when he sat down on the chair next to the sofa.

"She fell asleep with Cece, and it's been such a long day that I didn't have the heart to wake her up." He explained with a laugh.

Noticing his dad wasn't around, he looked around questioningly before following Betsy's point over towards the sun room where his dad was snoring away in the chair.

"I should probably go up to bed soon too, if I'm gonna get up and help dad with the turkey in the morning."

"When does he want you to get up?" Larisa asked, looking up from the laptop in her lap for a moment.

"He told me six when we talked this morning," Jim said with a shudder, shaking his head as if that'd make the idea go away.

"Dear lord, then you really should get off to bed!" Betsy said, reaching over to pat her son's arm gently. "Go get some sleep, hun. We'll have time to chat and catch up in the morning. Me and Pam and Larissa are getting up at seven to start on the other dishes, so we'll have time then."

"You sure?" Jim asked with a small frown. They'd only gotten there a little while before, and he hadn't even gotten to talk to his mom yet. It just felt wrong not to stay up with her after that. But she just nodded.

"Go to your room, Jimmy!" She said in a mock scolding voice, and Jim couldn't help but cringe at the childhood nickname.

"Okay, okay! Yes ma'am!" Jim said, playing along as he raised his hands up in surrender.

"Night, Mom, 'Risa," He said as he stood up, bending down to give his mom a full hug as she opened her arms to him, planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Tell Pam we said goodnight too!" Larisa called after him as he walked upstairs. 

As soon as he was back in their bedroom and turned on the light in the bathroom just off the room, Pam all but jumped awake, squinting at the clock above the dresser in an awkward half asleep state.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Jim said quietly from the doorway, causing her to whip her head around to look at him.

"How long was I out?" Pam asked as she walked into the bathroom next to him, pushing the door shut quietly as she spoke.

"Only a bit, but now it's bedtime. My mom said so." Jim said with wide eyes, sticking his toothbrush into his mouth before handing her the toothpaste.

They fell into a comfortable silence as they went through their nightly motions of getting ready for bed, brushing their teeth and changing, Pam taking out her contacts as Jim washed his face.

"I heard mom roped you into helping cook tomorrow, huh?" Jim asked in a hushed voice as they settled into bed, trying to remind himself that Cece was sound asleep only 3 feet away.

"She didn't rope me into it, I offered." Pam said with a roll of her eyes, placing her glasses on the bedside table and reaching to turn the lamp off.

"Mhmm," she heard Jim tiredly hum from the dark next to her as she settled down under the blanket.

It was only a moment before she felt Jim's hand pushing her to turn onto her side, so he could do the same behind her in their usual nightly spooning fashion.

"We have a lot to make too, so we have to get started early," she said, and before she could continue, she heard (or felt more than she heard) Jim mumble from behind her, "Cece may out-sleep all of us tomorrow,"

Smiling at his clearly sleepy tone, Pam placed her hands over his on her stomach and leaned back against him more, saying a quiet goodnight before letting herself drift off with him.