Christmas Eve dinner at my mom and dad’s house was about to get legendary. My brother and his new wife were there, with her parents, and Mr. Zoom and his mom were there too. When the conversation turned to politics my brother left the table for a minute.

He came back and put a box in front of my mom, and a box in front of his wife’s mom. “This isn’t a huge Christmas gift, it’s just a little something,” he said as he took his seat again. The table went silent. The moms opened the boxes and a piece of paper flicked about in a way that I could see it was an ultrasound sonogram. I screamed.

I never scream at anything that isn’t a spider.

My brother is 44. His new wife is 40. They weren’t going to have children. They had other plans. They were too old. Both of them have very dangerous jobs. So many reasons not to.

It was as if we believed with all of our hearts that the Earth was flat, and someone just proved to us beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is round. So very round. And I was and still am so excited that I screamed.

“Yes!!” I yelled after everyone was fully briefed. “The pressure is off of me and you guys are going to be excellent parents!”

“It was unplanned,” she said, even though we didn’t ask and it doesn’t matter to us. “I was feeling so tired and after two home pregnancy tests and some tears, I told him [my brother] ‘well, I found out why I’ve been so cranky and tired lately…’”

She continued “And fortunately, I had a Dr. appointment already set up for the next day … to … well … It was supposed to be the appointment to get me back on birth control …”

And with that, we all burst into cyclonic laughter. Because you just don’t wander near this family without something exactly like that happening.

“Was it the honeymoon?” her dad asked. “Yes, it was Tahiti,” they said.

“Will the baby have dual citizenship?” yes, that was me asking - and someone threw a dinner roll at me.

Mom and dad to be are very happy now. They had all of the screening for high risk pregnancies done and have made their decision to go ahead with it. And we are going to laugh and cry and scream and laugh some more, right along with them.