Saturday 12 November 2011

Every day should be a holiday

Round 32: December 2035 (Summer)
last update/next update

Trent Kirby is 65, Megan is 63, Claudia and Jacob are both 34, Daphne is 4 and Iris is 1.
(Finn and Victoria are both 34, Rebecca is 26, Nathan is 25, Caitlin is 12 and Keira is 4)

Narrated by Claudia Kirby

Since Daphne started pre-school, it's been just me and Iris at home during the week.

Iris doesn't spend as much of her time tearing around the house as Daphne did, so things are quiet around here most of the time.

At the moment though, all the kids are on school holidays, so Daphne is home with us too.

Daphne loved her first year at school but she was also happy for the beginning of holidays.

She's playing with her little sister as much as she can...


...and just being her usual tireless self.

I've been driving both girls down to the park recently. The weather has been so nice that it's a shame to keep them cooped up inside all day.

Last time we went, Finn had had the same idea and was down there with Keira.

Not only are Keira and Daphne cousins but they are also very close friends.

They were so excited to see each other when they weren't expecting to.

Keira is no match for Daphne's energy though.

Daphne is her father's daughter, through and through. Jacob takes her for a run with him every afternoon and she loves it.

Jacob is back on the day shift now and we're both hoping he can remain there for good.

He does still get called in sometimes, if he's needed in the middle of the night but it's nothing compared to the 6pm to 6am shifts he did when he first joined the fire service. I felt like I hardly ever saw him.

Jacob was working on Christmas Day last year but this year, he's taking just over a week's leave so we are guaranteed to have him at home with us.

We've even got to do the Christmas shopping together this year.

That's about the only part of Christmas we're permitted to plan. Mum takes over everything else. She's always been like that.

Dad knows this and he usually spends much of the lead-up to Christmas at the market.

It's really busy this time of year anyway, with everyone looking for the best produce for their holiday feasts.

Mum just likes everything in the house done her way. I wouldn't have minded helping out a little with the decorating but if she wants to slave over a hot stove all by herself in the summer, then she's welcome to it.

I never got into cooking, much to Mum's chagrin but I'm happy to taste test.

On Christmas Day, Caitlin was the only one allowed in the kitchen to cook with Mum.

She and Mum are the only ones in the family who are really interested anyway.

And I have to admit, they did an awesome job of it too. We all totally stuffed ourselves at lunch.

The kids decided to eat "later". Daphne got a new video game for Christmas and her cousins were very keen on testing it out.

I love how close my girls are with their cousins. Victoria and I always got along well with our cousin Josie but Josie was always kind of mean to Rebecca when she was a toddler.

She can take of herself now though, obviously. Rebecca isn't as big a family person as Victoria and I are, so we don't see her as often but she did come to Christmas lunch.

Her boyfriend Nathan is actually into that stuff more than she is, so she'll have to get used to it eventually, assuming they stay together.

Nathan has visited more than a few times but Dad only just put two and two together and figured out that he went to college with Nathan's father.

So of course, Dad had to be filled in on everything that was going on with Emil. He wants to catch up with Nathan's parents now.

Despite having five more weeks of vacation left, Keira and Daphne are already excited about starting kindergarten next year.

From looking at Finn, I could guess he'd been hearing plenty of that talk from Keira at home too!

We all had a pretty great day, even if some of us barely dragged ourselves away from the PlayStation.

The whole thing wrapped up by mid-afternoon; Finn and Victoria were due at his sister's place and Rebecca and Nathan were going to drop in and see his parents.

After a fairly hectic Christmas, I was looking forward to a quiet New Year at home but it looks like that might not happen. My ex and Jacob's former roommate, Amar, has invited us to his place for a party on New Year's Eve.

We broke up a long, long time ago and I'm past all that now but I still don't particularly want to spend my leisure time with him.

Jacob has promised me it won't be that bad and that if he's wrong, he'll take me right back home again. He just feels like that seeing we were invited, we should put in an appearance.

I believe him but I wish we didn't have to go in the first place. I'm not looking forward to it at all.

Extras:
I've shown these off on Tumblr already but if you missed them, some Sim-less pics of the made over Kirby Market.

The awesome signs are by Danielle at Crystal Creek and you can get them in English and Simlish here.

Since TS3 Pets came out, I've been paying more attention to pets in my TS2 game and I noticed how much of a typical dog Sadie is and what a cat Taffy is. There's too many people around, so Taffy went running off somewhere to hide and Sadie is right there in the midst of it all, just chilling! I love it!

Notes:
  • Daphne looks so much like Jacob in that family portrait! I always knew she favoured him but it didn't strike me how much until I saw them in this picture. And she's so cute with Keira. I think I might be getting used to Keira's weird little face as well!
  • I downloaded all this food clutter by Cassandre (I think?) and I was wishing for a bigger table so I could use it all! There's a reason why Rebecca and Nathan aren't eating in that picture of the table. ;) I moved the deco out of the way once I was done with the picture, so they didn't go hungry, lol.
  • I don't know how many people I'll be able to fit into Amar's house for a party but I'm going to try, lol! I just checked his house this morning and the fridge problem I was having appears to have resolved itself, so yay. I was wondering if ignoring the problem for long enough would make it go away and apparently, that worked! ;)

17 comments:

  1. I love the update. And I really enjoy seeing families get together. It's nice seeing everyone together, interacting. Don't you just love that food clutter from Cassandre? They really are lovely! I can't wait for the New Year's party. Sounds exciting!

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  2. Riverdale, any excuse for a family gathering is good enough for me! I love doing them! And yes, the food clutter is amazing - I can't wait for more opportunities to use it. ;)

    I'm in game right now, about to do the New Year's Eve party. With my last NYE party, Susannah got pregnant, so we'll see what happens this time!

    Thanks for reading!

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  3. Wow, such a large family gathering and I'm excited about Amar's party, should be interesting. The market looks awesome by the way.

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  4. I didn't realize that Keira was already a child! They grow up so fast! The Kirby family is so cute. I love that the kids are so close with their cousins.

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  5. Seeing your Kirby Market in action, makes me think about my Gradonni Market, that still hasen't been open since I've build it :s But their never is enough produce to sell.

    Anyway, another nice Christmas! I always love seeing all those sims together. And it's so nice to see all the cousins are getting along so good, I have the same with my cousins, and it's just great!

    I absolutely LOVE Daphne! She's cute, and I love the fact that she's full of energy all the time, though I can imagine her parents would want to see it otherwise sometime :)

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  6. Apple Valley, heh, it'll be even larger when Rebecca finally pops out some babies.

    Thanks for the compliments on the market. Still doing Amar's party right now. He's managed to fit a surprising number of guests in the house, given how tiny it is.

    Thanks for reading!

    Sarah, yes, Keira aged up this past January and is almost 5 now. They do grow up fast. I'm looking at my list of birthdays for next time and thinking "what? You? Already?" LOL.

    Thanks for reading!

    Tanja, I don't think I'd opened Kirby Market in a couple of rounds! It's at level 10, so sometimes it seems a bit pointless. ;) But I like opening my other Sims' inventories and seeing they've bought fresh produce, so I do it.

    Yes, I'm close with my cousins too. I have three who are like brothers to me (I don't have any actual brothers). I like having cousin relationships like that in the game.

    Daphne is much more energetic than Claudia, so she finds it hard to keep up with her! Good thing she has her daddy to go burn off some energy with.

    Thanks for reading!

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  7. Watching Daphne made me tired. I hope her parents can handle her as she gets older. I wonder if Iris will have the same bouncy energy?

    I tend to forget how large this family is but it was great to see them all together.

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  8. Choco, Daphne is an active little girl! Iris looks like she'll be a little more low-key but still more energetic than her mother. ;)

    This bunch is one of my favourite extended families. It's a lot of fun to get them all together!

    Thanks for reading!

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  9. What a nice Christmas they had. I love your big family gatherings. Iris and Daphne are such cuties! LOL Megan is too funny. I liked the pic of her shooing Jacob out of the kitchen. She reminds me of a friend of mine when we go over her house for dinner. She’s always shooing people out of her way, especially her husband.

    The Christmas lunch looked delicious! Cassandre really has some great food clutter. I recognize her corn on the cob *yum*. We really do need bigger tables sometimes.

    That New Year’s party should be… interesting. I’m sure Amar is the last person Claudia would like to bring the new year in with.

    Glad you’re putting my grocery signs to good use! :) The market looks great and reminds me that I haven’t played the Hu’s in what seems like forever.

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  10. What a lovely Christmas holiday (despite Megan's fussiness, lol). It's nice to see the families all together. I'm sure Amar's party is sure to be exciting. :)

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  11. Danielle, I love them too. I still can't believe Jacob and Claudia had such cute kids! I seriously didn't think they would. And my own mother is definitely nothing like Megan, except with the shooing. She hates people hanging around in the kitchen while she's cooking!

    Claudia is not especially excited about New Year's! She's not the party type anyway and adding Amar to the mix is not making the prospect any more attractive to her.

    Heh, thanks again for the signs! I actually put them up quite a while ago (probably when you first put those up for download) but I hadn't opened Kirby Market in a long, long time! I was surprised what it looked like when the lot loaded. I was like "oh, yeah, I made it look nice", lol!

    Thanks for reading!

    Rachel, in this case, Megan's fussiness works out quite well for everyone because no one else wanted to help out anyway! Family gatherings are really fun for me in general, so it's nice to have a good excuse to do a big one every year, now that I use months and can do Christmas. :D

    Thanks for reading!

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  12. I really forgot that the Kirby family was so big, and when you mentioned Josie, I thought that while it would be nice to see Tate and Zelda, that would have been too many unless like my family, you eat whereever, including sitting on the floor. The girls are so cute, and I'm glad they get along with their cousins.

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  13. Fini, yes, I want to get Tate and Trent together again but this gathering was not the time! If I invited him, I'd have to invite Josie and her family and then Charlie and his family and Jack and Audrey. So I stick to one set of grandparents, all their kids and all the kids of those kids, lol.

    It's a good little group, the Kirby family. :) Favourites of mine for sure.

    Thanks for reading!

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  14. These girls are super cute! Declan is so out numbered! I love the picture oftue girls going off to the park to play, Iris is just too cute. Looking forward to catching up here! It was great seeing all of tue family together. lol on Josie reading Rebecca. They are all grown up now, aww.

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  15. Maisie, I never thought about Declan being outnumbered but he really is! Trent and Megan don't have any other grandsons. Maybe Rebecca will have a boy, when she has kids!

    LOL, Josie was a nasty little thing growing up and poor Rebecca got the brunt of it at family get-togethers. It was very realistic though - I remember certain family members picking on others when I was growing up!

    Thanks for reading!

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  16. Aww, how I love this family. Daphne is a pure cutie-pie. Your family reunions are also one of my favorite moments (I had forgotten to add them on my previous list!). It's too funny to see them all. Still have a big weak spot for Caitlin!

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    Replies
    1. It's nice to see everyone together, isn't it? And I've been really lucky with Claudia and Victoria's kids so far - I never thought they'd make such cute ones.

      Caitlin is still a favourite of mine too. She's just as much fun as a teen as she was as a little girl. :)

      Thanks for reading!

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