Every day should be a holiday

Round 32: December 2036 (Summer)

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Tate Benton is 66 and Zelda is 61.
(James is 61, Kendal is 60, Josie is 34, Troy is 33, Audrey, Jack and Charlie are all 24, Camilla is 23, Everett and Grace are both 6, Jude is 4 and Andrew is 10 months old)

Narrated by Zelda Benton

Tate has had his current car for over 25 years now and for Christmas, I got it in my head that I was going to buy him a new one.


Until I got to the car lot, I’d forgotten that I didn’t actually know anything about cars!

Fortunately, James was there. He’s an old friend of Tate’s from university and so I knew he wouldn’t try to rip me off.

With his help, I picked out a car that we thought would be wonderful for Tate.

I’d already arranged to leave the car in Kendal’s garage until Christmas, so that was a good excuse to meet up for a chat as well.

At this stage in our lives, our talk is mostly centred around our kids and grandkids. I have four and Kendal has three, plus five of Lake’s who she also sees as her grandchildren.

Kendal really has her hands full this Christmas. She and Lake are having the entire family over on Christmas Day and Kendal is planning on cooking for all of them. I don’t know how she does it.

She laughed when I asked her why Lake couldn’t do some of the cooking. She said she wouldn’t trust him to make macaroni and cheese, let alone a Christmas turkey.

Lake is completely and utterly useless in the kitchen, so whether Kendal likes or not, she’ll be doing the cooking.

I got very lucky with Tate. Tate has always done everything in the kitchen and I've never had to learn to cook.

It’s nice to just relax with a coffee while someone else prepares all your meals. Tate really enjoys it as well, so I don’t even need to feel guilty.

He often does a test run of new dishes before Christmas, so he knows exactly what he wants to do when the family comes over on the big day.

Normally, Tate’s enthusiasm for cooking means I get to sleep in on Christmas morning, rather than getting up at the crack of dawn to prepare. But I wanted to surprise Tate with his car this year, so at dawn, I was driving it to our place from Kendal’s.

Tate was so happy with the car though, so it was worth it. He’s looking forward to selling that yellow bomb he’s been driving around for the past couple of decades. If anyone actually wants it, that is!

My gift from Tate was a makeover for my study. It now matches the new colour scheme we have through the rest of the house.

Tate has locked me out of the room for the past few weeks, so I knew he was up to something in there. But the fact that it wasn’t a total surprise didn’t make me any less happy with it. I can’t wait to start working in there again.

We spent a quiet morning together before welcoming everyone over for lunch, the first to arrive being Josie and her family.

This is our youngest grandson Andrew’s first Christmas, so we wanted to make it special for him. Of course, Andrew didn’t even know what was going on but what’s the harm? We can afford it.

I would love Josie to have another baby but Andrew has been a challenge for her and Troy.

He’s gorgeous but lots of trouble so far. Josie thinks they might be done now but they’re leaving their options open, if they change their minds down the track.

Jude couldn’t wait for Everett and Grace to arrive. He was a little young to truly play with them last year but he was excited this time.

We have play equipment for the kids in the backyard but this Christmas, it rained the whole time. They amused themselves with an old arcade game we have upstairs instead.

It wasn’t just the kids who were entertained either. The game once belonged to Jack, when he was much younger. He’d forgotten all about it and was keen to get reacquainted with it.

Poor Audrey was abandoned for a good hour or so in favour of that game!

The lure of gifts somehow got everyone back downstairs. Our family tends to be very generous with gifts, so there were a lot going around.

The children especially get such a kick out of it.

Tate and I enjoy giving gifts to our big kids as well. They can all buy things for themselves now, of course, but it’s always nice to get something you want that you might not be able to justify buying on your own.

Tate’s cooking was delicious as usual.

We don’t have enough space to seat everyone at the same table but no one ever seems too worried about that. We just sit wherever there’s room.

Everett got some food scraps on the couch but he enjoyed himself at least!

After lunch, Charlie asked Tate if he and Camilla could hold their wedding at our house. We knew he was thinking about it but this was the first time he'd officially asked.

Tate said yes right away and tried not to panic when Charlie said he was thinking some time in April!

From talking to Camilla, they’re probably going to need a little bit more time than that anyway. She’s making all the dresses and she won’t be done by April.

I’m not really surprised Charlie would be so oblivious to all that. He’s better than he used to be but he still often has an unrealistic idea of how much time and effort it takes to get things done.

It’s so exciting to have another wedding to plan though and I’m glad I’ve already had my first and last turn at being mother of the bride. Josie was such a nightmare.

One wedding coming up isn’t enough for Tate; he’s already asking Jack when he and Audrey will tie the knot.

Jack is non-committal on that. Charlie and Jack will both get access to their trust funds next year and I'd be surprised if Jack didn't look into buying a house with Audrey. I think they'll wait a while before they get married.

Tate is a traditional sort and he doesn’t love that idea but he knows there’s not much he can do about it.

It’s a bit exhausting thinking about what a big year we have ahead of us but I'm looking into it first.

Notes:

• I have no idea what happened to Tate's car! He did indeed have a yellow sedan for years and years but when I loaded his house, it wasn't in the garage. So new car for Christmas!
• Jack and Charlie will be 25 next year, so they're getting their $100,000 from their trust funds (Josie got it when she got married at 29, because I hadn't decided how I was going to do it at that point).
• It took so long for Tate to get everyone their Christmas turkey. He was traipsing up the stairs to put plates in idiotic places like the desk in Jack's old bedroom (WTF?). It seriously took about three hours in game. It took me forever to figure out it's because the new dining table is too long for that area. They can get around it on all sides but because they're Sims, they do it in really stupid and inefficient ways. So I guess I'll be switching back to a two-tile table. It was still the most fun I've had with a bunch of Sims for Christmas though!
• Round summary will go up tomorrow and then we start a brand new round of Sullivan!