"Hey, Mom, why don't you tell us that story about Rory again?" Kerry asked her mother one snowy afternoon.

"Oh yea!" her sister Bridget looked up from the fashion magazine she was reading. "I love that story! The one about Grandpa on his birthday, right?"

Rory groaned, setting his hot chocolate on the table. "No, Mom, please don't-"

"Oh come on, Rory!" Bridget said. "You were sooooo cute!!"

"Yea. I just want to run over and hug you every time I hear it." Kerry teased.

"Why do you think I don't want Mom to tell it?" Rory asked rhetorically.

"And then, you'll tell me to get away from you, and I'll play fully hit you, and you'll hit me back, but harder, and then I'll hate you again." Kerry continued, ignoring her brother's interruption.

Bridget and Cate laughed.

"Ok, fine. Tell em." Rory relented.

"Soulja Boy- Tell 'Em!" Kerry laughed.

Her sister, brother, and mother all stared at her.

"What?" She looked genuinely confused.

"I'm glad you came around, Rory, because I was going to tell them anyway." Cate, their mother said.

"Ha!" Bridget said.

"Tell 'em, Soulja Girl!" Kerry blurted.

"Um, that joke was old two minutes ago. What makes you think it would be funny now?" Bridget said.

"Whatever."

"When Rory was three. . . " Cate broke in, "I took him to see Grandpa Jim on his birthday. Rory was very exited to see Grandpa, and he had a special present for him. . . "

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"Mommy! Mommy!" Three year old Rory Hennessy bounded down the stairs. "I made a present for Grandpa!"

"Really, Rory?" Cate asked, mildly interested. "What did you make for him?"

Rory smiled and darted back up the stars once more. He came back down lugging a gigantic photo album. It was nearly as large as his body.

He carefully carried it to the couch and dropped it on the cushion. "Come look, Mommy."

Cate came and sat next to her son, helping him along as he struggled to pull himself up onto the couch. "Oooh, you made a photo album!"

“No, mommy.” Rory shook his head. He opened the photo album to the first page. That page contained his slightly smudged hand print stamped on in green, and in another place, traced in pink. His name was scrawled out written in bright yellow crayon. “I made a picture book!”

“A picture book?” Cate asked. She flipped through the first few pages. “Where did you get the pictures?”

“Daddy made me copies.” Rory said. “He got them from the magical thingy by the computer. I glued them in myself. Isn’t it pretty?”

“Yes, very pretty.” Cate mumbled as she turned another page.

Pictures were stuck on at on angles with bits of glue and ribbon leaking out. Random colors of construction paper were pasted behind some photos, others weren’t. Glue even leaked through to the other side of the page in some cases. But, it was still very precious to Rory, and he had obviously worked very hard on it.

“I did a good job, huh Mom?” Rory asked. He smiled. “I did it all by myself, ‘cept where Daddy and Ding-Ding helped me.”

“Ding-Ding?”

“My elephant, Mommy. You know him. He likes you.” He help up the elephant and proceeded to have it ‘kiss’ his mother.

“Oh.” Cate laughed. “That Ding-Ding.”

“Do you know another?” Rory asked.

That elephant had been dragged every where with Rory. It somehow managed to always end up filthy and had even lost an eye, which Cate had sewn back on without Rory noticing. It had almost no fuzz left from being washed so many times. Rory adored it.

“Come on, Let’s go to Grandpa’s.” Cate said, finally getting up from the couch. “I’m sure Grandpa will love his birthday present.”

An hour later, they pulled into the drive way.

Rory ran up to the house, lugging his gigantic gift. He jumped up to reach the door bell, and his grandfather opened te door a moment later.

“Hi Grandpa!” Rory practically jumped into his grandfather’s arms, he was so exited.

“Hey, Rory.” He hugged his grandson and kissed his daughter. “Hello, Cate. How are you?”

“I’m good, thanks. Uh, Rory, didn’t you bring your grandfather a present?”

Rory’s face lit up. He picked up the giant photo album and tried to place it in his grandfather’s hands.

“What’s this?” his grandfather asked.

“Open it! I made it all by myself.”

Cate cleared her throat.

“Ding-Ding helped.”

Cate coughed.

“And Daddy copied the pictures with the magical thingy.”

“The scanner.” Cate mouthed.

Grandpa Jim carefully flipped through the pages. There were pages from his wedding, pictures from his childhood, and everything in between. They were in no order, because Rory had put them in at random times.

There were pictures of his family, pictures from the day his grandchildren were born, and even Bridget’s first day of kindergarten, and Kerry’s, too.

This had to be the most meaningful present he had ever received.

He finally got to the back. There were three blank pages.

“Why are there three blank pages?” he asked his grandson.

Rory looked up at his grandfather and smiled the biggest smile he had ever smiled. Then, he said something very deep and meaningful for a three year old. “They are for memories to come.”

Grandpa Jim could only hug his little grandson.

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“Awwwwwwwwwwww!” Bridget gushed.

“You were so cute!” Kerry said. She jumped up to hug her brother.

“Go away.” he said.

She playfully smacked him.

He hit her back, hard.

She stuck her tongue out. “I hate you.”

“I hate you too.”

“I love you guys!” Cate said, hugging all her children.