Thursday 30 December 2010

Buy me a pony

Round 29: December 2030 (Summer)
Eliot Lane is 44, Cordy is 37, Timothy is 10, Simon and Matthew are both 5 and Charlotte is 1.
(Augustin and Hanna are both 75, Linnea is 70, Luc is 37, Ruby is 3 and Marcus is 1)

Narrated by Eliot Lane

Online shopping is the way to go. Why fight crowds and all that insanity when you can do it all from the comfort of your home? In your pyjamas, even!

I was in charge of buying most of the Christmas presents for the kids this year. So by the beginning of December, they were all wrapped and under the tree.

I was possibly a little smug about how well I'd done.

There were a few things I couldn't find online so Cordy took one for the team and braved the stores. Even with my reminders and the fact that she only had a few presents to buy, she still forgot and left it until the last minute.

The stores were packed, naturally, so it was pretty ugly. Cordy said she almost came to blows with a woman who tried to fight her to buy a teddy bear they both wanted - the last one, of course.

Cordy won. I couldn't find the damn thing online but Charlotte started reaching out for it in the store one time, so we really wanted to get it for her.

This is the first Christmas where Charlotte will be at all aware of what's going on, so we wanted to make it special. Even if she ends up playing with the wrapping paper.

Charlotte was a huge surprise for both of us but we can't imagine the family without her in it now.

Having a girl after three boys felt a little strange. But at this age at least, Charlotte doesn't seem so different to what her brothers were like.

So far, Timothy, Simon and Matthew are all very good with Charlotte.

I'm sure they'd all rather play without her sometimes.

She's very attached to her brothers though and they generally get along pretty well.

I hope Charlotte turns out to be as active as her brothers are though, or otherwise she's going to be trampled. Our boys are very rambunctious!

This Christmas Eve, Timothy decided he was too old to help leave a snack out for Santa, so he watched DVDs in the living room with Cordy instead.

Simon and Matthew are still totally into Santa though and this is the first year Charlotte has been included. We had fun doing the cookies without Timothy but it was still a tiny bit sad to see him leaving that part of his childhood behind.

But Timothy was the first downstairs on Christmas morning, so I guess he's not totally grown up yet!

I don't know how long he was down there but he looked pretty bored by the time I came downstairs.

We didn't make him wait too much longer for the presents. Timothy's main gift was a Playstation, which he's been wanting for a while. All the kids can play together as well, which is nice. They all love that...and Cordy and I will probably play with it a bit too.

Matthew wanted a skipping rope. We asked him what he wanted and that's all he ever asked for. We got him a few more things but the skipping rope was the real hit of the day. He won't be using it inside any more - we were a little lenient because of Christmas.

I think Cordy enjoyed playing with Charlotte's teddy bear as much as Charlotte did.

She was making it talk about completely bizarre topics, like the budget deficit and medical ailments. Charlotte doesn't care, of course; it's more for our own amusement than anything else.

Charlotte adores the bear. It's already covered in drool.

Simon got the noisiest gift. He's been taking piano lessons this year but he wanted to pick up another instrument as well. Hence the violin.

You'd think a kid picking up a violin for the first time would sound awful but he wasn't too bad at all.

He couldn't wait to play it for his uncle Luc when he stopped by.

Predictably, Luc told me we should have got him a guitar instead. I think he's a little young for that just yet. Maybe in a few years, if he's interested.

I love when the kids get to hang out with their cousins. Their cousins on my side are so much older than them but Luc's kids are close to Charlotte's age, at least.

Charlotte and Ruby seem to like each other more than Charlotte and Marcus do. She and Marcus are only a month apart but aren't getting along too well so far!

Marcus likes Napoleon better than he likes any of the kids.

Dad has been the most involved of the kids' grandparents, seeing he's been the one to watch them while we're at work most of the time. As a result, they're probably closest to him.

The kids do love their grandmas as well though!

I think Cordy will always be a bit weird with Linnea. They can get along when they try and I think that's as close as they're going to get.

I know Cordy finds her mother a bit much at times.

Linnea does genuinely love the kids though, so I'm happy Cordy has loosened up a bit in regards to her mum. I think it's good for kids to have all their grandparents around, when at all possible.

As much as we loved our Christmas, we were also both ready to collapse at the end of the day once the kids were all in bed. It's kind of a relief to be able to stop thinking about Christmas for another 11 months or so.

Extras:

Being that Nick and Eliot are the only two Sims in the military career, they bring each other home from work all the time.
This round was no different, except for the fact that Nick was way more interested in Charlotte than anybody else.

And hey, there are four kids in this house, so I was quite happy to have someone autonomously tend to Charlotte. And given how long Nick has wanted a baby, and how close he has now to having one, it just seemed extra sweet!

Notes:
  • Title is from Buy Me A Pony by Spiderbait.
  • So there's a belated Sullivan Christmas update for you. At one stage, I thought I was going to get this out on Christmas Day but that was pure insanity. It was just never going to happen!
  • Charlotte had never met Ruby or Marcus before, yet Ruby accepted her huggle right away and Marcus wasn't having it at all. Odd!
  • Last family update of the round! I've also put my round summary up today. January birthdays will come tomorrow or the day after that - depends on how much time I get. :)

19 comments:

  1. What a sweet family Christmad they had, and I am sure santa loved the cookies. I totally get why you love little Charlotte, she is so adorable. I wonder what's she going to be like when she grows up.

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  2. Such a nice Christmas. All about family, just the way I love it. And with 4 kids, too. That's the most fun part of Christmas. Children being giddy and amazed.
    Charlotte is a sweet little girl. I'm sure she will be spoiled by all her brothers :D

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  3. Thanks for reading and commenting!

    Speechless, Santa was lucky there were any cookies left for him! It was quite a battle keeping Simon and Matthew away from them, even for the short time it took me to take the picture!

    I'm quite curious about Charlotte myself. She looks quite a lot like her aunt Naomi did as a child, so possibly, she'll look like her.

    Karolin, absolutely! I love seeing little kids at Christmas.

    I think Charlotte might end up being spoiled by just about everyone!

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  4. LOL, loved the shopping scene. I agree, Charlotte is sure to be spoiled beyond belief.

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  5. what a large and fun family! I remember you wanted to have all boys but still, Charlotte kind of completes them, in a way. That picture with the bear is cute.

    Wow, do your lots fill up that much or did you teleport some sims in? for the shopping scene?

    And I love to read about christmas - I liked that each child got their own little present that they loved :)

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  6. What a cute update! Extra cute with Charlotte. I'm really glad they had a girl now, though the boys are very cute, too.

    What a fun and crazy Christmas they had. I like that they all got something that really suited them and the store scene was great.

    And aww, how sweet to see Nick with Charlotte at the end. Can't wait to see how he is with his own.

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  7. Apple Valley, I don't know why, but Cordy already hated that townie! There are a whole bunch of people towards the end of Cordy's relationship panel who she can't stand but I have no idea why!

    bbop, with Cordy and Eliot, in the end, I decided I'd be happy for them to have a girl as well. I remembered that I never got a girl who looked like Naomi and I thought this might be my chance! My huge family with all boys or all girls will have to wait. ;) I'm happy they had Charlotte.

    No, I teleported most of those Sims in for the shopping scene. I was such a nerd with it too. I made sure all of the Sims I teleported in would have a reason to be in a toy store. I'm so lame, lol.

    I didn't really mention presents in my last Christmas update but it was fun thinking up what each kid would receive so I'll do that again. I'll try to remember the poor parents next time too!

    Danielle, me too! She's so snuggly - love Charlotte!

    I'm glad you liked Christmas with the Lanes. It was really fun to do, especially seeing Christmas at James and Madelyn's house last time was a total nightmare!

    I can't wait either. Sarah just entered her second trimester in game, so she's visibly pregnant and she and Nick are both very excited. :D

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  8. Wow! It must have been quite a pain to stage that crowd! You did stage it, right?

    What a lovely holiday for them! Charlotte is the little doll of the family. It's too bad that Charlotte and Marcus don't get along--maybe that will change when they get older.

    Luc and Nick in the same update?! *drool*

    That song! I love Buy Me a Pony! I had an Aussie internet friend back when chatting online was still a new thing, and he sent me a couple of CDs of Aussie indie music--that was one of the songs on one of the discs. :)

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  9. Rachel, I did stage the crowd but it wasn't too much of a trial. I just teleported them all in and moved them around a bit. I didn't pose them at all, because I was feeling a bit lazy, apparently. So unlike me. ;)

    Brendan and Caitlin didn't get along when I first had them meet as toddlers. Once they got to school though, they made friends pretty quickly. But they're both very nice and Charlotte and Marcus aren't. I don't know how that will affect things!

    Luc and Nick are both quite good looking Sims, aren't they? ;)

    I can't believe you know Buy Me A Pony! That's awesome. It takes me back to high school every time I hear it. It was a huge hit on indie radio back in the day!

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  10. First of all, I can't believe Simon is 10 already! When did he grow up so fast?!

    This is such a lovely family and I loved the pics of the kids playing together. And all the christmas photos look really nice too, it's great having so much family gathered together to celebrate.

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  11. Just heart warming all around, I love Christmas shots. And Nick and Charlotte, that was just too adorable. And yes, Nick is way attractive! Can't wait to see what kids he has!
    You captured the hustle and bustle of Xmas very well!

    Happy New Year~

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  12. I love Christmas updates and this one was really sweet. I'm sure Charlotte is going to be super active with all those boys around.

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  13. Charlotte is just TOO cute! I do think a dashing of freckles would just complete her cuteness! :)

    The Christmas scenes were great, love the chaos of shopping. Marcus and Charlotte are adorable little mini tots, and I like that all the grandparents are so smitten with the kids.

    The picture of Matthew and Charlotte playing is cute, he is pretty unethused there! Is he trying to teach her something? Rachael got that kind of look when she was teaching Lulu the nursery rhyme. so funny!

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  14. Charlotte is adorable! You could take shots of her and put them up all day long LOL!

    So Cordy is finding a way to deal with Linnea. I was going to say 'finally' but that makes it sounds like Cordy's fault.

    I love the shopping scene! It's gorgeous!

    And Happy New Year to you!

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  15. Sari, oh, Timothy, you mean? I know, it's crazy, isn't it? That means Cordy and Eliot have been married 15 years. I remember Cordy got pregnant with Timothy around their 5 year anniversary. :)

    Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.

    Drew, I admit, it was easier to do Christmas so close to real life Christmas than it was when I did it...whenever it was last time. The "hustle and bustle" was still all too familar!

    Happy New Year to you as well. :)

    Nicole, thank you! Charlotte's looking like she's pretty active already, not that Cordy or Eliot could tell yet. I have the advantage of being able to check her personality and her OTH!

    Maisie, hint taken! ;) I might try out some freckles on Charlotte today, if I remember.

    Christmas was really fun for me this time and I'm excited to do it again (already!). Ione's family and then Lia's family are scheduled for Christmas this round.

    Ah, yes, Matthew is trying to teach Charlotte a nursery rhyme. He got there eventually but she was very uninterested for a while. :)

    S.B., I really could! Charlotte's such a cutie. :)

    Cordy and Linnea are two very different women, who will just have to try and get along. They're probably in as good a position as they'll get, at least for now. It's no one's fault, really - their lifestyles are very different and they don't agree on too much. I imagine they'd stick to talking about the kids and avoid a lot of other iffy areas.

    I'm really surprised the shopping scenes are going over so well, considering how lazy I was when I did them! I guess the simple things work well sometimes.

    Happy New Year to you as well. :)

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  16. Oh yeah, I meant Timothy! I don't know why I typed Simon, I guess it was very late here when I commented ;)

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  17. Sari, I figured it was something like that!

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  18. Lovely christmas-update! I like all the presents the kids got!
    And I like the picture where Cordy is shopping, it really looks as busy as it always gets in the shops around those days!

    And Charlotte is adorable! I'm sure she's going to break some hearts when she grows up.

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  19. Tanja, I bet the kids liked them too! That was always my favourite part of Christmas and probably still is, if I'm being honest!

    I started to do the shopping pictures with no one around and then thought "wait a minute...it's Christmas!" It had to be crowded, so I'm glad it looked okay.

    Gosh, Charlotte as a teen...I can't imagine! I think she's going to be a feisty one!

    Thanks for commenting!

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