Every day should be a holiday, 2038

Round 33: December 2038 (Summer)

last update/next update

David Sitko is 56 and Kirstin is 54.

(Charlie is 26, Camilla, Lila and Connor are 25, Sebastian is 22, Adelaide is 20 and Grace and Everett are 8)

Narrated by Kirstin Sitko

Sometime last year, David and I decided that two people living in a five bedroom house was more than a little ridiculous. So we sold it and we bought this house instead.

For me, the major draw was the front garden and the covered porch, which is just so charming.

I have a stressful job, so I sometimes like to and enjoy the peace and quiet for a while. Now that it’s so warm, I’m so thankful for that shaded spot.

For David, it was the huge fireplace in the study that finally sold him on this place. I find it a bit ostentatious, to be honest, but David absolutely adores it.

He loves to just sit by it and read. It’s never lit now but once it starts to get cooler again, David will have it going every night.

I’m glad we made this move though. This is the first place David and I have ever lived where we didn’t need to consider the desires and needs of anyone but ourselves.

The whole place is just perfect for us and it didn’t take us long to settle in.

Last Christmas, we were still in the process of moving in and the idea of doing anything at all for Christmas was out of the question. We all ended up cramming ourselves into Camilla and Charlie’s unit instead. This year though, David wants us to host.

Personally, I’m not thrilled about it. I wish we could just go visit the girls at their own homes and save us all the trouble of hosting anything elaborate.

But the girls will want to see each other on Christmas Day, as well as us, and for that, a gathering here makes the most sense. So we're holding Christmas here this year.

I shouldn’t complain too much, because David’s planning on doing all the cooking himself. His brother and his sister are both chefs, so he picks up a lot of cooking tips and recipes from them.

He enjoys it and I don’t, so I just leave him to it.

I took on the task of doing all the Christmas shopping instead, which I quickly regretted. It’s like everyone forgets how to move through a store without getting in everyone else’s way.

I just about got into a fist fight with one woman over a Water Wiggler for Grace and Everett. I won, of course.

David thought I was a bit nuts when I told him about it. He said I should have just left the store and bought one online.

I thought he knew me better than that! I’m too proud to be able to walk away from that kind of situation. Once I got into it with this woman, I knew there was no way I was walking out of that store without a Water Wiggler!

Grace and Everett were thrilled with it though, so at least it wasn’t all for nothing.

We set it up for them in the backyard so they could use it right away. Adelaide and Sebastian quite enjoyed splashing around with the kids as well.

David and I have offered to keep the gift here at the house for the twins, until Charlie and Camilla find their new home. Hopefully there, they’ll have a backyard big enough for running around under the sprinklers.

They've been looking around already. David was sure to mention a couple of lovely houses for sale in this very street.

He’d love it if they moved right in across from us. Me, I understand if they want to move a little further away. David and I lived with my parents until they died and it wasn’t always easy, especially with Mum. She was as stubborn as I am!

Likely, Camilla and Charlie will stay in Sullivan though. Charlie is often on call for work and the fire station is nearer to here. He doesn’t like the idea of being woken in the middle of the night and having to drive for over half an hour to get to work.

Connor and Lila want to move in together within the next couple of years and David is quite excited about the prospect. The way he sees it, that’s the first step on the way to marriage and babies.

David has really been missing having babies in the family. Grace and Everett are growing up so fast.

He’s convinced there will come a day when they’re too cool to hang out with their old grandpa.

Connor and Lila are in no rush for kids though. I can see a lot of myself in Lila and I wasn’t ready for kids until I was almost 30.

And then when I found out we were having twins, I wondered if I was really ready after all!

Lila is hoping the fact that both Camilla and I had twins was just a fluke and that twins don’t really run in the family.

I thought it was best not to remind her that her grandmother was a twin and her dad is also a twin, with another set of twin siblings to boot. Twins could well be running through our genes!

Adelaide doesn’t always bring Sebastian around when she visits but his family did their celebration on Christmas Eve, so this time, he came along.

I haven’t always been thrilled about Adelaide’s relationship with Sebastian. I think, at times, she’s been too wrapped up in him, to the exclusion of all else.

I may have to concede defeat on that point. They’ve been together since she was 14 and she’ll be 21 next year. Adelaide hasn’t always made the best decisions but she and Sebastian seem to be very happy.

I didn’t talk to Sebastian much at Christmas but David did. I don’t know what they were talking about but they were getting along better than they have before.

Perhaps Adelaide and Sebastian have both matured a little. Adelaide does seem to have made some changes in her life. She’s trying much harder with her classes and has pulled her GPA up to a 3.2.

That’s certainly not a wonderful average but it’s much better than I feared she’d end up with. A year ago, I was worried she’d flunk out completely.

I can hardly even express how relieved I am! If she keeps it up, she'll actually graduate this time next year.

I wish she’d take a similar attitude to figuring out exactly what she wants to do with this eventual degree but I probably shouldn’t push too hard on that.

There was no room for us all to sit down for lunch, so some of us had to stand, including me.

We could have gone to sit in the living room but I guess none of us wanted to be left out of the conversation!

David took care of absolutely everything and I didn’t have to lift a finger. It made the whole day stress-free for me. If he wants to do Christmas this way again next year, he will get absolutely no complaints from me!

Extras:

This one just cracks me up, because it looks like making fun of her grandma and Kirstin isn't too happy about it!

Notes:

• End of the round! Yay! I've already started doing the birthdays and will finish them off hopefully today. You guys wait until you see Beau Hamilton - he is absolutely adorable!
• This house was one I did for two challenges - the garden was for Here We Hoe at The Sims Daily and the actual house was for February's Build a Box challenge at N99. It was nice to kill two birds with one stone. And I'm inordinately proud of the garden on this lot.
• Adelaide has been doing pretty well at uni. She was rolling a lot of Fortune wants, so I ended up giving her that as a secondary. In turn, that's meant she's been a lot more likely to roll study wants. So she and Kirstin are getting along a lot better. They were rolling lots of wants for each other during the visit.
• And I know I always say this but again, tons of romantic wants from Connor and Lila. Sims everywhere want to know their secret! They're a high two bolts but I have never had a couple so into each other!