2.13 Merry Xmas, and five birthday cakes!

Between the recycling center and the junkyard business, combined with Joelle at the consignment store, Lilli manages to keep her finger on the pulse of Elba. "So, I hear from my cousin Sally, who is Nick's neighbor, who heard it from his daughter Amanda, who got it from her boyfriend, who is friends with Eric, that your grand-kids are all headed for university!", gushes Joelle.,"You must be so proud!"

"Very much so." enthuses Lilli, "The house will be so quiet with them all gone!". Joelle understands and sympathizes with Lil over the empty nest feeling.

A truck arrives delivering dozens of small crates and one two much larger ones. The crates are all marked with labels announcing 'FRAGILE', 'THIS WAY UP', and 'Made In Champs Les Sims'. "There's almost a hundred bottles here, and why did you even buy a Nectar making thingy?' asks Casey, having watched the delivery men unpack it and set it up in the basement. "Ahh, its finally arrived!', replies Marcus, dodging the question, "Are the nectar making guide books here anywhere?".

"A triple wedding? Are you sure? That sounds complicated!", says Casey in shock. "It makes sense Mum", explains Natalie, "First of all, its financially and environmentally responsible.", Maggie who is known to be eco-sensitive nods enthusiastically, "Secondly, we would all pretty much be inviting the same people to each wedding.","And thirdly it stops any fights over who gets married in what order."

"Dom and Maggie were going steady before I even met Eric, or Dylan met Jazzy, but Dylan is the oldest, but then also Eric proposed to me first.", Natalie explained. "We were even considering drawing straws when Mags suggested we could all get married at the same time.", Dylan inserts. "And Maggie's parents are getting on in life, we don't want to wait until next year!", Dominic added.

"And I suppose you have planned your careers, were you are going to live and all of your babies names too!", Casey said sounding a little grumpy. Eric reddened slightly, and developed a sudden need to survey the carpet. Jazz also reddened slightly, but with her dark olive skin tone it was less noticeable. Maggie and the triplets just stood expressionless, not certain of the intent behind Casey's question.

Marcus, who had been silent for the whole meeting had some idea of what was troubling Casey and broke the tension by saying, "We wanted to raise our kids to be independent thinking and self reliant individuals Casey, and I think we have done well, Dylan can you go get what looks to be the second most expensive bottle of nectar from the basement please?"

"The second most expensive?" asked Casey, "Of course, I'm saving the most expensive for the wedding toasts!", says Marcus happily.

Later that night Marcus and Casey had a deep and meaningful discussion about her earlier comment. Casey wasn't ready for her children to grow up and have a life without her, and she was disappointed that the children had planned everything on their own without needing to consult with her.

While spring and a grand spring wedding was just around the corner, winter was determined to hold Elba in its icy fingers for as long as possible, and on several occasions they got off the bus to discover that school was closed for the day due to the snow, which frustrated them to no end, as they had to wait for the next bus home.

More importantly Maggie was still floating on a strong 'B', and was desperate to raise her grades before finishing school as she didn't want to be left behind when the others went to uni.

Marcus explained to the triplets that their mother was feeling left out, so Natalie encouraged her mother to take her out hunting as often as possible.

In the last week of winter, Maggie's mother called the Jettstars house to let Maggie know that her father had just passed away.

"I can Boogie, I can Disco, and I can Smustle my butt off, but I have know idea how to Waltz, Mum, Dad, can you teach us?", Natalie asked one night.

The kids all got dressed up for their lessons.

On the second last day of school, Maggie finally broke her 'B' streak, and earned an 'A'

The next morning Eric stopped by to have a talk with Natalie. "I'm and adult now, and a responsible member of the community.", Eric said in a serious tone. "And as a responsible member of the community, it would be irresponsible of me to be seen smooching a teenage girl, so therefore until you age up, there will be no more smooching.", said Eric remaining deadpan.

"That by the way also includes no making out, no necking, no snogging, no sucking face, no tongue wrestling or tonsil hockey, no canoodling, no cuddling, no nuzzling, and definitely no amorous hugs until you age up appropriately!." he finished, straining to keep a straight face.

"Oh, so that's how its going to be now that your all grown up, is it Mr Eric Grayson?", Natalie arched an eyebrow. "Well just so you know, Mr all grown up, if you intend to deny me such a large collection of my favorite things all day, I fully except that you make up missing quantities of said activities the moment that I have dealt with those diabolical candles!" 

Eric's parents were the first guests to arrive at the party, Eric was shocked to discover his mother was finally pregnant, his parents had been trying for another baby since Eric was a child.

Margarita's mother arrived shortly after with Margaret, Maggie's slightly younger sister

Jaimie-Lee from the facility next door also arrived with some of the girls. Jade and Sonya brought husbands, Lola brought her sim fu instructor, boyfriend, fiance, and Nina showed up with a much older vampire lady friend.

Secretly the boys were hoping that the cakes might some how set fire to the table cloth or something, so they could show off their firefighting skills that they had been studying in addition to schoolwork, Dom and Dyl had all the theory, they just want practical experience.

Not one of the five different flavored cakes suffered spontaneous combustion, despite this a certain hooded figure appeared from nowhere and queued for cake. Lilli glared at Grim across the table, Grim held her gaze for a moment before looking away. Lilliana had beaten him at 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' on several occasions, and besides, there was no way he was leaving before he got what he came for.

'A slice of one of Lilliana's home baked cakes, grab the old lady that he was here for and out of here', Grim told himself. Not that he feared Lilliana, a reaper knew no fear, she just made him feel like a kid caught with his bony hand in the cookie jar. 

When Grim left, he took Mrs Wong-Jonas with him, leaving Margaret a teen orphan and putting a dampener on the evenings festivities. Margaret was worried a social worker would come and take her away, but Casey and Marcus assured her that she could stay with them until she aged up, and that if any social worker did come, they would tie them up in so much red tape, that she would be an adult before it was untangled.

Chapter Notes: MERRY CHRISTMAS 2018!

Title, well Xmas, derr, and 5 cakes because Eric aged up a day earlier than the others, also I'm amazed at how many sims suffer from spontaneous combusting cakes, Ive never had one, I though with five in one party the boys could see what sort of firemen they would make, but noooo......  

Maggie and Marg had a rough week :o
SP? had already given custody of Margaret to someone after her father died. I was going to add her to my current hoard, but (A.)so many sims , and so much loading lag already... and (B) she will age up in 3 sim days anyway.

Technically, Natalie is now the main sim, but like a lot of RLCs I've read/am reading, I will wait until she returns from uni.

Both of the mystery house guests that I'm holding prisoner in the basement showed up to the party, and it wasn't until I had uploaded the pics to blogger that I realized.

Had error 12 for about 6 hours solid and none of the usual tricks worked until I fixed it by using MC on town hall to do a full reset.. 26,889 objects :o

Seeing as it takes form 60 to 90 minutes to do a full wardrobe change (Everyday/Formal/etc.), I hadnt saved for 8 or 9 hours and was quite happy with a 6 hour solution :)