Wednesday 31 August 2011

Every day should be a holiday

Round 31: December 2034 (Summer)
last update/next update
James Novak is 59 and Madelyn is 54.
(Maia is 32, Aaron and Calvin are both 31, Ethan is 28 and Connor is 21)

Narrated by Madelyn Novak

Since his classes are finished now. Connor has been back in Sullivan helping James out at the car lot. He's mainly been doing the books though; Connor has no interest at all in sales.

Connor is temporarily staying with Ethan and Maia in their spare room, just until he gets a job, which he can't do until he officially graduates. James is paying him a fair wage at the car lot, so that's helping.

He's very confident of gaining a position in the SCIA next year once he does graduate though. Connor will graduate with a 4.0, so they should snap him right up. All our boys did really well at university but a 4.0 is just amazing! We're very proud of him.

Christmas is coming up and James and I are going to have all of our sons, plus Aaron's husband Calvin and Ethan's fiancée Maia over at our house for the day.

I've probably spent a little bit too much time and money decorating our house for Christmas this year. I did two trees, one upstairs and one downstairs and I had James hang lights in about half of our windows.

I enjoy it. It gives me a chance to be creative around the home, which I don't always get to do. There aren't many other excuses for redecorating.

James is humouring me, mostly but he did think the snowman candle I bought was a little ridiculous. I don't care though. I thought it was cute and fun.

Unfortunately, we didn't get much of a chance to enjoy our home at Christmas. James developed an awful cough a few days before.

By Christmas Eve, it had become clear he had the flu. James was exhausted, had no appetite and a high fever along with it.

I was so worried about him that I ended up waking him up and taking him to the emergency room.

I almost took James back home again when I saw how crowded it was but he was sick and I wanted him seen to.

The poor admissions nurse had her work cut out for her.

Finally though, James was admitted. James, of course, insisted it wasn't necessary.

Dr. Clarke disagreed, fortunately. She was glad I made him come in and said they would keep him at least overnight and try to bring down his fever.

So we both ended up spending the night in the hospital. I wasn't planning on it but I ended up dozing off in the chair and not waking up until morning.

James was feeling a little better the next day, so I said I'd check with a doctor to see if he could eat some breakfast in the cafeteria.

They were okay with that, though James still didn't have much of an appetite.

Still, he was looking so much better and it was a big improvement over the last few days.

Aaron, Ethan and Connor all visited James in hospital and stayed for a good while. Even though he was feeling better, hospital is still a pretty miserable place to spend Christmas and I think seeing the kids lifted his spirits a little.

We decided to save most of the exchanging of gifts for a time when we could all be at home but James got to open some books the kids got him.

It was a bit disappointing to not be able to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day but I like to think we made up for it when we all got together.

After all, we had plenty to celebrate, on top of James getting out of hospital. In just a week or so, Connor will be officially graduating from Suffolk University, with honours.

The very next day, Ethan and Maia will be getting married.

And then, if that wasn't enough, Aaron and Calvin used our late Christmas gathering to announce that in the new year, they're going to apply to adopt a child!

James and I are so excited for them. This might end up being quite a long process but Aaron and Calvin will be amazing parents! It's unbelievable to think that we might be grandparents sometime soon.

Notes:
  • Title is from Every Day Should Be a Holiday by Dandy Warhols. I'm going to use this song as the title for all future Christmas updates. It's a fun song and I like getting it stuck in my head. ;)
  • James was the last Sim to roll the flu ROS...and at Christmas no less! Poor guy. I thought it was quite fitting that a neat and organised man like James would have the flu for exactly 24 hours though. I infected him at 1pm and I got the pop-up about him being all better at the same time the next day!
  • Aaron, Ethan and Connor all received a $2000 painting from their parents for Christmas. None of them are flush with cash, so they'll be selling them and buying things they need with the money.
  • I have Aaron and Calvin moved into an actual house now, so I figured it's time for them to start a family! :D I can't wait to make them fathers.

20 comments:

  1. Ha! I am so paranoid! I kept expecting that James was going to die from the flu. I guess I'm still not over Amelia.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved the update. The decorating looked like fun and all the big news and excitement. Graduation, wedding and baby! Wow! You always have such great maxis recolors for your clothing, I adore James' striped shirt.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LaurelCrossing, I think I'm getting a bit complacent with the flu in my hood. I haven't had a death in quite a while!

    Thanks for reading!

    Apple Valley, glad you liked it. I need more Christmas deco, without buying the holiday pack though. Getting bored with what little I have!

    It's definitely exciting times for this family - a lot of big changes happening, so next Christmas will possibly be quite different for them.

    I am 99% sure James' outfit is by fanseelamb. It came in a pack with an insane amount of recolours. I use them for my older guys quite a lot. :)

    Thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Poor James! Having to spend Christmas being sick in the hospital, can't be a lot of fun! But they made up afterwards!
    Unlike James I really liked the decorations Madelyn added to the house for the holidays! And the snowmancandle was cute and fun!

    This family has a lot to look forward to, Connor's graduation, Ethan's wedding and Aaron and Calvin finally ready for adoption!
    I can't wait to see it all :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Carla,

    I really like the pics of the hospital, the waiting area with the busy nurse in the background and the interesting looking patients waiting... I think we never saw the waiting area, so this was very interesting.


    And I'm glad James recovered, I'm pretty paranoid too!

    Madelyn is one of your prettiest sims, she looks like her mother.

    Regards from Austria,
    Astrid

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tanja, no, having James in the hospital was quite a miserable Christmas for everyone. It'll be a better one next year, with any luck!

    The snowman candle is probably not something I'd put in my own house but I do think it's cute. I can't imagine James going for that kind of thing though!

    You won't have to wait too long for the graduation or wedding - graduation will be in January birthdays, as always and the wedding is scheduled to be the first post after that. :D

    Thanks for reading!

    Astrid, ha, those patients were all just the first townies who walked in! I just got lucky that they made for a relatively diverse looking group. Even the "nurse" is actually just a townie who ended up in scrubs randomly. She's actually the nature hobby Sim but I'm planning on using her as a nurse from now, lol. She's dressed for it. ;)

    I haven't shown much of the waiting room lately but it's been shown before a few times.

    I was just thinking the same thing about Madelyn when I was playing this family. It's a shame she didn't pass her looks onto her kids - Aaron and Connor are both total clones of James. But they're all very handsome, so I'm not complaining too loudly!

    Thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Poor James. It sucks to be sick, an in the hospital no less, around Christmas.

    A lot of changes coming for this family I see.

    ReplyDelete
  8. HeredonCove, it certainly does suck but it was thankfully not a long stay. So the family got to celebrate Christmas before the new year at least. ;)

    And yes, lots of changes! I'm excited about everything going on with this family at the moment. :)

    Thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I got my wish, more Connor! Love him, he's got this "Harry Potter" thing going on. I know, I'm crazy, lol! I too held my breath when James got the flu, you never know how these things will shake out. Nice Xmas shots!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow, so many exciting changes going on for this family, and I'm glad James survived the flu.

    ReplyDelete
  11. So I wasn't the only one fully expecting another funeral. I'm just so glad he pulled through okay.
    What a stroke of luck with the hospital extras! Still sucks to be there on Christmas. And I'm all excited about their family next round now with the graduation and wedding and possibly a grandchild for them! Done gushing now, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Drew, ha, glad you enjoyed it! You're the second person comparing my Sims to Harry Potter characters over the last couple of days. Funny, because I've never read it or seen the movies! I know who Harry is though and I can see the comparison with him and Connor.

    Eek, I really need to start taking the flu a bit more seriously again. Getting too complacent!

    Thanks for reading!

    snarkysims, yes, a ton of new things going on! It's all very exciting and it's shaping up to be a good round for this family.

    Thanks for reading!

    Fini, no, I had a feeling you guys might be expecting that while I was writing. I left it though, because I knew it ended on a happy note. It was a nice Christmas for the Novaks, if you leave out the hospital stay!

    Thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Whenever you Do Christmas updates, I miss that sims3 doesn't have seasons, it was one of my favourite expansions. In another note your hospital looks so real,clean and reception looks really good with all those sims waiting there.
    Glad he got over flu so fast, though shame It ruined their holiday plans.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Speechless, I'm surprised they still haven't announced some kind of seasons/weather pack for TS3. It didn't seem to take this long with TS2.

    Thanks for the compliments on the hospital - it's still a favourite lot of mine. I spruced it up a little bit recently, when I found some nice new hospital content.

    I would say their Christmas plans were postponed, rather than ruined. It might have even ended up being a better Christmas, seeing Aaron and Ethan didn't have to split their time between James and Madelyn's place and their partners' homes.

    Thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Pffewwww... I get so nervous with every single of this flu. Just on Christmas, what a drama it would have been! Happy it all ends well, even if Christmas wasn't celebrated on Christmas! :)
    And sooooo proud of Connor. *swoon*

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sandy, I'm starting to get nervous again too, because it's been a while since I've had a Sim die of it. I think the last one was Rose and Patience's mother, so that would have been maybe 25 Sim years ago!

    Heh, look out for more Connor later this round. :) I think he's actually scheduled for two updates, if I'm not mistaken. ;)

    Thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Ok, now that I can finally post a comment, I'm coming back to this update.

    Eww, spending Christmas in the hospital :(. But at least he was ok. And they had a great after-Christmas get together. Such great things are happening for this family! Can’t wait!

    Man, missing a month at your blog is definitely a lot different than missing a month of mine! LOL I have lots to catch up on.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Danielle, yeah, no fun at all. :( But there are no kids around yet, so no one was too upset at the idea of delaying Christmas for a little while, until James was better. They've all got lots to look forward to. :)

    Ha, I know! And I've slowed down considerably from when I first started doing this.

    Thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Yay Connor! Such a smartie. :)

    Poor James, being sick through Christmas! That's no way to spend a holiday. :(

    Oh wow, that's wonderful news about Aaron and Calvin! And to announce the news at Christmas is really sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Rachel, there was never any doubt that Connor would graduate with perfect grades and then go right into his chosen career, was there?

    I'm so excited to get the ball rolling with Aaron and Calvin! I think I only have a couple of families to play until their update? They'll be great parents.

    Thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete