For the first time in a long time, Jim Halpert woke up to his alarm, and not his daughter crying and/or calling to Pam and him.

Granted, his alarm was set a lot earlier than he normally had it, but still. It was kinda impressive.

Thankfully, the alarm was quiet enough that it miraculously didn’t wake Cece up, which was mainly what he’d been afraid of.

But it had been loud enough to wake Pam up. Which was something Jim had been hoping not to do.

“What time is it?” Pam asked sleepily from next to him, her hand lightly hitting against his chest in what he guessed was a half-asleep attempt to find where he was.

“Early,” he answered back in a hushed voice, turning over from where he’d ended up on his back to wrap his arms around her for a short moment, burying his face against her neck as he sighed in defeat.

“How early?” She asked, her hand moving back to pat lightly against his hip, though she still had yet to open her eyes.

“Six AM early,” he replied, though his words were muffled against her neck so he tilted his head up again, “I’m going out at six in the morning, in the dark, and in below freezing and snowy weather, to cook a bird for everyone. I hope you’re all thankful for that sacrifice today.”

“Mhmm, very much so,” Pam said sleepily, taking her hand off his side to cover her mouth as she yawned.

“want me to get up with you?”

“No, don’t,” Jim said hurriedly, unwrapping his arms from around her so he could sit up, “Mom doesn’t expect you and Larisa up for another hour or two, so no need to get up with me. I’ll behave.” he teased, leaning over to kiss her cheek before finally climbing out of the nice warm bed that he really didn’t want to leave behind. And his wife too, of course, but… The bed was tempting.

“Mmm, okay,” Pam said quietly, her volume and tone indicating that she was already starting to drift off again.

-----

“Mama? Mamaaaa…” Cece whined, pressing herself up against the side of the pack n play, staring over at Pam as she continued to sleep through it. Finally, Cece just shouted “MAMA!” as loud as she could, which made Pam immediately jolt awake.

“What? What’s wrong, baby?” Pam asked worriedly as she quickly sat up and put her glasses on, sleepy squinting in the direction of the toddler in attempt to see what was wrong.

“Hi Mama!” Cece said with a triumphant smile, bouncing up and down in excitement that she’d finally woken her mama up.

“So bad, waking me up like that!” Pam sighed, but she couldn’t help but laugh and shake her head as she scooted to the end of the bed to lift her beaming daughter out of her bed.

“Mown kiss Mama!” Cece insisted, struggling to turn in Pam’s grasp for a moment before she pressed a few wet kisses to her cheek, then promptly sat back and waited for her to return the gesture.

“Good morning, sweet girl,” Pam said with a smile, pressing a much less slobbery kiss to her daughter’s own cheek, before she got up off the bed to change Cece.

“Where Daddy?” Cece asked as Pam laid her down on the bed, her head tilting back to stare at the ceiling as she sat.

“He’s outside with Granddaddy, getting things ready for today,” Pam explained, reaching for a clean pull-up. They’d been trying to transition Cece towards potty training now, but they hadn’t really gotten past the stage of pull-ups only during the day.

“We’re gonna eat so much good stuff today, and your cousins are gonna be here too!” Pam said excitedly, pulling Cece’s pajama pants back up and picking her up to sit against her hip again.

“Coosin?” Cece asked with a confused tilt of her head, a small pout landing on her lips in the way it always did when she wasn’t quite sure about something.

“Yes, Vanessa and Jeremy. Remember them?” Pam asked, pushing the bedroom door open and walking down the carpeted hallway towards the stairs as they talked.

“Nope!” Cece responded with an over exaggerated shake of the head, her short curls bouncing back and forth against her cheeks when she did.

“Well,” Pam started with a laugh, crossing across the living room and sunroom so they could go out onto the back porch where Jim and Gerald stood, “hopefully you’ll remember them later, because that might make-”

“DADDY!!!” Cece shouted as soon as Pam pushed the back door open and she could see Jim’s face, putting a hard stop to anything else Pam was going to say as she quickly started to squirm away from her and desperately reach towards him at the same time.

“There’s my Cece!” Jim said, raising his eyebrows and grinning widely as he walked over from where he and Gerald had been standing at the smoker, opening his arms to take the toddler from Pam.

“Daddy! Daddy, daddy!” Cece said excitedly, wrapping her arms around his neck and snuggling down against his chest the second he took her into his arms.

“Believe it or not, it was all about Mama when she woke up this morning,” Pam said with a roll of the eyes as she crossed her arms against the cold weather, “though that only lasted a minute, because then it was all ‘where’s Daddy!’”

“I’m just irresistible like that, Pammy. It wounds me that you haven’t realized that by now,” Jim said with a shrug, earning him a jab in the side from his wife in response.

“What’re you guys up to out here?” Pam asked, looking over towards the smoker curiously.

“Dad wanted to try to smoke the turkey this year, since Mom got him this smoker for his birthday. Neither of us quite know how to cook with it though, so this could be the most amazing Halpert turkey ever, or the worst ever too,” Jim said, his eyes widening again - but more in a ‘who knows’ expression, “we’ll just have to see and make a decision this afternoon.”

After a few minutes of chatting with Jim and eventually Gerald after he left the smoker’s side, Pam reached up to take Cece from Jim’s arms again.

“Come on, Cee. It’s freezing and you need to eat so mama and Gangy can start cooking!”

“Nooo! Mama, no!” Cece whined, burying her face against Jim’s shoulder, “stay Daddy!” she said, her words muffled against Jim’s shirt.

“Here,” Jim started as Pam stared at him with an expression that screamed ‘do something!’, “I can take a little break, how about we both go eat?” He asked Cece, tilting his head go look at the little girl who was nodding excitedly.

“It’s freezing Cece, lets get inside! Quick! We don’t want to freeze!” Jim said with false urgency, tightening his grip around a Cece when she gasped in response.

“Come on Mama! Go!” Cece said, pointing towards the back door as Jim pretend to run towards it.

Pam just rolled her eyes, an amused grin spread across her face, and opened the door, letting Gerald file in behind him before she followed along and closed the door.  

“What do you want to eat, my sweet little baby and big baby?” She asked, walking to the fridge while Jim sat the toddler down on the counter.

Cece sat in thought for a moment, tapping her finger against her chin (which was a habit she’d picked up from Jim after he kept doing it with her), before shouting “Yo-yo!”  

“Yo-yo it is,” Pam said, picking up a small yogurt cup from the back of the fridge, “your Mom won’t mind if we give her one of her yogurt cups, right?” She asked Jim, who was at the other end of the counter making coffee.

“Pam, you could give Cece every bit of food in this house, and my Mom wouldn’t mind one bit,” he reminded, snapping the top of the coffee maker down and pressing brew.

Pam nodded, taking one of the baby spoons from the drawer and handing it and the opened yogurt cup to Cece.

“Look, it’s strawberry flavored! I’m jealous!”

“Mmmm!” Cece hummed, stuffing a spoonful of yogurt into her mouth and giving a wide grin towards Pam, yogurt spilling from every corner of her mouth.

“Cece, ew! Don’t show me your food!” She said, picking up a napkin from the counter and carefully wiping around Cece’s mouth, who just sat there pouting.

“Me messy.” She said flatly once Pam left her to toss the napkin in the trash, crossing her arms as she continued to pout.

“Cece, eat your breakfast and don’t be grumpy, please?” Jim asked as he leaned back on the counter, raising an eyebrow towards his daughter, “you’re a big girl, right? Well, big girls eat nicely, so…” he said quietly, before shrugging and looking down at his feet.

Cece just stared at him for a second, before going back to shoveling the yogurt into her mouth.

Jim threw his hands up and shook his head, though he couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out.

“What do you want to eat?” Pam asked, pulling the fridge and squinting into it. The fridge was full of food to be prepped and ingredients to make food for Thanksgiving, but not much of anything else.

Jim poked his head over as well, his eyes scanning the food in front of them.

“Hmm, one single fried egg for the two of us? Or how about a couple strawberries?”

Pam just laughed, and pulled out two more yogurt cups, thrusting one out towards him (which he took gratefully, regardless of his dramatic sigh).

“GANGY!” Cece shouted right as Jim poured and handed a cup of coffee to Pam, causing them to both turn around.

“Cecelia!” Betsy said back, quickly scooping her granddaughter into her arms, Cece wrapping her arms around her grandmas neck the second she picked her up.

“Gangy!” Cece exclaimed again, pressing her head down against her grandma’s chest, and much to everyone’s dismay, dropping her yogurt cup to the floor in the process.

“I got it,” Jim said quickly, grabbing the paper towel roll and bending down before Pam could even react.

——-

“Pam, could you hand me the macaroni noodles?” Larisa asked, and Pam quickly handed the box to her before going back to the lemon pie recipe she’d been scrutinizing.

Pam, Betsy, and Larisa had spent the last 2 hours cooking for the afternoon. So far they’d made stuffing (which was not being stuffed in the turkey, after Larisa’s uproar), an apple pie, sweet potato pie, and prepped some potatoes to be mashed.

Now Pam was listening to Cece quietly singing to herself from the den where she was sitting with Jim and Gerald who were ‘watching the dog show’ (though it was so quiet she was pretty sure they’d fallen asleep) while she made the third pie of the day, Larisa tried to figure out how to make granny Halpert’s fancy macaroni, and Betsy finished her second glass of champagne and started her green bean casserole.

“Hey, you guys need any help?” Jim asked sleepily as he appeared in the doorway, rubbing at his eyes, confirming Pam’s suspicion about him being asleep.

“We’re actually close to done, now,” Betsy said, smiling at her son as he walked over to wrap his arms around Pam’s waist, watching her mix the ingredients for her filling from over her head, “did you know you’d married a master pie maker?”

“Oh Betsy, how you flatter me!” Pam teased, tilting her head back to kiss Jim’s chin before turning back to her mixture.

“DADDY!” Cece shouted from the den, followed by a tired groan from Gerald.

“Sorry,” Jim said, kissing the top of Pam’s head before letting go and walking back towards the den, “Daddy duty calls!”

——-

3:30pm on the dot, everything was done. All the side dishes, the turkey (which had turned out surprisingly well much to Jim and Gerald’s joy), deserts, all cooked and finished.

Everyone was changed into their nice Thanksgiving outfits, and Pam had even managed to tame Cece’s wild curls into little pigtails. Pam and Betsy had been thrilled, since it greatly matched the little dress Betsy had gotten her. Cece was less than thrilled, and was letting everyone know it by her grumping here and there.

“Where the hell are Pete and Tom? I’m starving!” Larisa groaned, throwing her head back against the back of the sofa.

Everyone had gathered around in the den while waiting for the other two Halpert siblings and their families to arrive, and they were still nowhere to be found.

It was 4:10, they were supposed to arrive at 4 and eat by 4:30. Sure, they were only 10 minutes late, but that 10 minutes felt like a long time in everyone’s very hungry minds.

“Language! There’s a baby here!” Jim exclaimed with mock disbelief, clearly joking as he reached over and placed his hands over Cece’s ears (who shrugged out from his hands in with a little hmmph sound)

“There they are!” Larisa shouted a few minutes later, jumping up to answer the door when ‘Tom, Pete, and Co.’ walked past the front window.

“It’s about to get chaotic,” Jim whispered to Pam as he leaned over to her ear, kissing her cheek briefly.

He stood up and scooped Cece into his left arm, and offered his free hand to Pam to help her up.

“Noo!” Cece complained as he picked her up. Her cousins ran through the door and she watched them, her mouth open a little bit. Pam couldn’t help but snicker at the sight of her daughter clearly trying to remember their faces.

They completely ignored Larisa, in favor of “Uncle Jim!!!” as they shouted and ran towards him, throwing their arms around him.

“No! My Daddy!” Cece whined, her hand reaching down to swat at their heads, only managing to actually hit Vanessa on the head.

“Cece!” Pam scolded softly, carefully grabbing her daughter’s hand and returning it to her own side, as Jim wrapped his free arm around his niece and nephew.

“How are you guys?” Jim asked, ruffling Jeremy’s head when he let go of Jim in favor of hugging Pam.

“I’m good,” Vanessa said with a small smile, her voice quiet and shy as ever. As Jeremy peeled off of Pam, Vanessa went to hug her as well, all but whispering “hey Aunt Pam.”

That was one thing Jim was always grateful for, how well Pam had meshed with his family. They’d only been together for a little more than 3 years now, but with how they were with her and how she was with them, it was as if she’d known them for years. It’d been like that ever since the first time she met them.

“We made it!” Pete shouted as he and Tom rushed in behind the kids, their wives - Laura and Kathryn - walking up the sidewalk behind them.

“We’re starving after the drive, can we eat yet Mom?” Tom asked Betsy while both brothers hugged both their parents.

One thing Pam noticed right away (but of course didn’t say anything about) was this : they hadn’t brought any food. Which felt small and insignificant, and Pam was pretty sure she shouldn’t be thinking about it, but it still kinda bothered her… Everyone in the house had spent all morning and afternoon preparing, and they didn’t bring anything, or even come when Betsy had asked them to?

Pam was sure she was just being ridiculous, but when she glanced at Jim she noticed a small frown on his face and knew he was thinking the same thing she was.

-----

Thanksgiving dinner was going great. All the food had turned out great, Jim had been able to set up Cece’s highchair with no trouble, everyone was happily chatting and eating. Exactly what Thanksgiving should be, in Pam’s eyes.

That got cut short though, when Pam heard her phone ring from the other room for the third time in the last 5 minutes.

“I think I better answer that, excuse me,” Pam said quietly, pushing her chair back and quickly walking back to the kitchen.

Jim bit down on his lip as she watched her go. After looking around the table, he winced when he saw everyone had gone quiet to try to listen to what Pam was saying. But she wasn’t really saying much, so the conversation was clearly very one-sided.

At that point, he was pretty certain it must’ve been either Helene or Penny, and from the look on Pam’s face when she walked back, he was even more certain he’d been right.

“You okay?” He asked under his breath when she sat down and the chatter around the room picked up again.

Pam just nodded, placing her napkin back in her lap once she was fully seated again.

“It’s fine, I’ll tell you about it later.”

Jim nodded, scooting  his hand over into her lap to move his fingers across the top of her leg, something he knew usually comforted her.

“So!” Betsy said, trying to steer the mood of the room back to something more cheerful, “Shall we go around and tell what we’re thankful for?” She asked, and everyone nodded in agreement.

It was mostly generic things coming up from around the table as each person stood up.

Tom had said something about being thankful for a good work quarter and a good Phillies season, and ‘oh yeah, Kathryn and Vanessa too’. Pete had said something of about the same measure.

Betsy got really emotional saying about how happy and thankful she was to have her kids and daughter-in-laws and grandkids all under one roof, and Gerald agreed with what she’d said, though he added ‘and also that good Phillies season’.

Vanessa had said something about her friends, and Jeremy said “sports, video games, and my dog.” And after Pam and Jim spent a good 3 minutes trying to explain to Cece what the concept of being thankful for things was, she just shouted “Puppy and Daddy!”

When it came around to Pam, she swallowed hard, but smiled and stood up.

“I’m thankful for Jim, for being my best friend and partner through everything and forever. For Cece, for being my sweet, silly, and crazy little girl who made me lucky enough to be her mom. For all my family here today, and for my mom and sister back in Scranton.”

Jim leaned over and kissed her cheek when she sat back down, getting him a smile from her. But he couldn’t help but notice how she hadn’t mentioned her dad. That could not be good.

Jim’s little speech wasn’t much different from Pam’s, though for some reason he couldn’t quite understand it had make her get all teary.

“You okay, Bees?” He asked as he sat down again, and she just nodded, her lips pressing quickly to his in a small kiss.

“You just make me happy, is all.”

-----

An hour later, all the dishes had been cleaned up, food was put away, and everyone was relaxing in the den.

The guys were ‘watching football’, which really seemed to mean Jim was watching while Gerald, Tom, and Pete had all passed out around the room.

The women (besides Pam, who had opted to just sit next to Jim on the couch) were off in the sunroom talking about who knows what (and Jim and Pam were both fairly certain Larisa was pretty tipsy).

The kids all sat on the floor, a coloring book and crayons spread out between them.

With the occasional complaining from Jeremy about Cece scribbling on his picture, everything seemed to be going well over there.

“Hey,” Jim said quietly, nudging Pam’s shoulder with his, “want to go on a walk? Get out of here for a minute?” he asked, and she quickly nodded.

Pam went to the sun room, opting to ask Laura to keep an eye on Cece instead of Betsy, seeing as she was starting to seem pretty tipsy herself. At the same time, Jim went to get their coats, and in only a few moments they were out on the sidewalk, walking hand in hand around the block.

“So,” Jim asked after a few moments of walking, pausing for a beat to carefully choose what he was about to say, “was that your Mom calling earlier?”

Pam shook her head, her head tilting down toward her feet as she began to speak.

“It was Penny. She said Mom was being a little… Weird, but other than that things were going well. Then Dad called, asking if Penny could come over to his house instead. Of course she didn’t, since she already had plans with Mom, but that still made mom understandably really upset, and totally reset her issues from yesterday.”

Jim nodded understandingly as he listened, squeezing her hand when she stopped, his gentle way of urging her to go on.

“Then apparently Dad got annoyed with Penny for not wanting to come over and…” Pam trailed off, shaking her head again, “Needless to say, Penny was really upset. And she was in tears when she called me. And the whole situation just made me feel so bad for not being there, you know? And also made me really wonder when my Dad is gonna stop being such a jerk through all this. I mean, I love my Dad, but… God,” she said, bumping her head against his shoulder.

Jim sighed, moving his hand up from Pam's to wrap his arm around her shoulder instead. "I'm really sorry, Bees. That really is a lot to have to deal with, especially when you aren't there," he said, pressing his lips to the top of her head in a gentle kiss. 

“Can we please agree to never be like that during Thanksgiving, and not subject Cece and any other future Halpert kids to that kinda thing?” She asked, a genuine laugh following, bumping her shoulder against his.

“Absolutely we can,” Jim said, nodding adamantly as they rounded the corner back towards his parents’ house.

“Also, what the hell was up with my brothers not bringing anything?” Jim asked, his eyes wide as he looked over to his wife, who nodded quickly.

“I know! I would never think to show up to a Thanksgiving thing with no food or drinks or anything, especially if my parents were the ones planning it!” Pam agreed, her eyes widening to match his same look. This, of course, made them both break out into grins.

“Next year, we should just stick around at home for Thanksgiving. You, me, Cece, some food, and no extended family. Which kinda sucks, but also means no family drama, so I think we deserve that for at least one year,” Jim suggested, leading Pam up the sidewalk back to the house.

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

This didn’t happen, of course, as they continued to spend every Thanksgiving with the Halperts (and occasionally the Beeslys joined in as well), even as they gradually got bigger, busier, and even more chaotic over the years with the editions of Philip, Gerald and Betsy’s really big dog named Porky, and Laura and Pete’s first kid.

But the whole family would tell you that they didn’t want it any other way. It was the Halpert Thanksgiving Extravaganza, after all.