Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Winter has, for the most part, been mild so far - or awesome for the month that Cassie and Michael spent in summertime-Australia! They are home now and will be working from home for most of the time until Easter. The hometown work will include getting ready for their next trip, but there will be a lot of fun to get in on and share with their favorite people - including their March Break trip to Florida adventure. All of your favorite Magi Masters will continue to work and play while their future plans unfold; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of their latest stories; and Happy Reading!

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Cassie's Journal - December 31, 2014



Happy last day of 2014!



This is going to be a short update because I don’t have much news yet as of when I’m writing this recap.  It’s shortly after lunchtime, and I’m getting ready for the New Year’s Eve dinner and party right now because I need to get to the Inn to help out with the prep work and decorating for the party.  I’ll be working with Michael, Rebecca, and the rest of their family all evening too; though we’ll take turns with having dinner and getting some party time too in between the cooking and cleaning.



It’s been another cold day outside, but then I’ve been indoors all morning anyway.  Mom ended up staying in too and let Dad take care of the bakery pick-up and grabbing a few last minute additions to her grocery and supply needs for the rest of the week; and we spent three solid hours getting the house cleaned and ready for our New Year’s Day party – including guest bedrooms in case we need them for sleeping kids or worn-out parents.



I’ll add in the New Year’s Eve report tomorrow night, but I can assure you that Michael and I are going to have fun – and we’ll be doing a planned sofa sleepover whenever we do get home after closing the Inn for the night.  That probably won’t happen until three-thirty or four in the morning, so we’re only talking about having a nap together anyway; but we definitely want to have a great start to our first day of the New Year; and going to sleep and waking up in Michael’s arms is my idea of a perfect start to any day! ;^)



Okay, I really need to finish getting dressed up and ready to go; so that’s all for now.  Until next time...



...May the Magi Force be with you!

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Cassie's Journal - December 30, 2014



I guess the first thing I need to mention about today is that winter stopped in for a visit overnight.  We didn’t get snow, and there isn’t any in the forecast, but it was a bit shocking to have the temperature in the low teens this morning with a wind chill hovering around zero most of the day – especially after having the temperature in the fifties for Christmas and Boxing Day!

That’s why we spent most of our play day indoors – though in my case; there was some work involved with morning chores that included helping out before and after the major breakfast effort needed to feed our gang of guests.  Michael and Tim can eat a lot, but add in Patrick, Scott, and Ryan; and it’s scary to see how many pancakes and pounds of bacon they can eat in one sitting.  Mom had to go shopping today to re-stock the fridge and freezer!

We didn’t have all of the kids and tweens staying with us all day, but we did have the entire gang until after lunch; and Naomi, Aiden, Sophia, and Susan stayed with the twins until just before dinnertime.  Rowen and Tim had other plans for dinner and the evening too; which is why Michael and I got to spend the evening with just Ethan and Ehlana to hang out with while Mom and Dad worked in the office again.  I wasn’t the only teen helping out with the work this morning, but Michael, Tim, and Rowen did get to have more play time.  That was mostly video gaming for the guys and playing with toys for Rowen; but they all had fun while helping to keep the younger kids entertained.

Lunch was sandwiches and soup, and an easy clean-up, so we were able to get back to the playing fairly quickly while Mom went out to do some running around.  We lost all of the older kids then too; and Mom even dropped a few of them off at homes or stores on her way to the grocery store.  By the way, I was half-joking about the re-supply thing – Mom was doing her shopping today anyway so that she wouldn’t have to fight the rush tomorrow for anything except our holiday bakery order that won’t be ready until tomorrow.

While she was away, video gaming was at the top of the fun list for the guys again; though football was added into the mix once the first bowl game of the day started.  I expect that’s what Tim and Rowen spent the evening doing too since they were hanging out with his family; but Michael and I found other things to do instead of watching football – particularly after we tucked Ethan and Ehlana in for the night.  The alone time with Michael was my favorite part of the day, but we also didn’t stay up late either because he needed to get home and we both need to get some extra sleep so that we’ll be ready for New Year’s Eve tomorrow night.  Michael went home at the same time that Mom and Dad were packing up their work for the night too.  Dad’s going into the office for an hour or two in the morning; but then he’s done for the week.  Maybe we’ll even manage to spend some time together over the next four and a half days!

Don’t laugh – it could happen!

Anyway, I’ve skipped a lot of the details of the play time and action around here today, but I really do want to get the extra sleep tonight because it is going to be a very busy day tomorrow with a lot of work to do here at home and at the Inn for the New Year’s Eve dinner and party there – and for the New Year’s Day party that Mom and Dad are hosting here on Thursday.  I’m going to be helping out a lot at both parties; but I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun even with the extra work.  I’ll let you know how that goes, but that’s all I have for tonight; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journal - December 29, 2014



We’ve officially moved on from Christmas mode today, and while that’s mostly because everyone in town is starting to gear up for New Year’s Eve; it’s also because the decorations are being taken down and packed away for another year too.  I’m including our house for that; and doing that work was a big part of my chores today – along with cleaning guest bedrooms and helping out with a lot of laundry – both of those jobs normal after a weekend with a house full of guests.  Having all of that on the go is why I’m a bit surprised that Mom and Dad were okay with the teen and kid sleepover we’re doing right now as I write this; but it wasn’t a planned event – it just grew into this little adventure one or two kids and teens at a time.  I’ll get to that soon; but it’s time to back up and cover the weekend news that I’ve skipped writing about for the past two days.

Oh, wait – there is something I want to mention before I get side-tracked.  Martin left a few things behind when he headed home yesterday that we found while cleaning his room.  Mom’s already sent his stuff to him, and we even did his laundry first, but I really didn’t need to know what kind of underwear my cousin prefers; and I suspect that’s going to be weird for him to get that package from Mom when it gets to Woodvale.  Violet thinks it’ll be hilarious, though; so I’m glad she’ll have some entertainment with that when she and Dillon head for Woodvale for another visit before heading back to school – though they aren’t sure when that’ll be quite yet.  They’re going to do some more work at the lab while they’re here.  Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on that little side-story if there’s anything more interesting to add; and I’m mostly just including it here for the weird factor – and as a reminder that Magi Masters deal with these normal issues too.

Okay, I might have used telekinesis to pick up Martin’s dirty underwear instead of doing it the normal way; but I was doing most of the chores this morning with some Magi-powered assistance anyway!

Let’s get to the weekend recap, though; and move along.

I started the day with Tai Chi, and Michael joined us for that before going home again to get ready to help out at the Inn.  He split his time there so that he could be with me for our family Christmas dinner in the afternoon.  That was pretty much the only calm moments we had all day through until the fun started to wind down later in the evening.  For me, that meant helping out in the kitchen both before and after breakfast; eventually getting a change to grab a shower and get ready for the day; and then spending the rest of the morning on kid control.  We went outside for a while; played at the park; and then played in the lounge and my room after that.  Snacks were put out for anyone needing munchies while waiting for the mid-afternoon meal; we started the family gift exchange shortly before one o’clock; and then the kids had time to play with new toys while Michael and I were on the work crew in the kitchen and dining room after that until we sat down to eat.

Even the work was fun for us, though maybe not so much for Michael; since he’d already been doing a lot of dishwashing and prep-work at the Inn already – and had a lot more to do after going back there again.  We did get to sit with the other teens for the meal, so that was good, and while Michael did have to get back to helping out at the Inn after we ate; he also got to miss out on the hour or so of post-dinner clean-up.  That sounds like a lot more work than play up to that point, and maybe it was; but I pretty much had the evening off to play after that.  We were in the lounge for most of that time while the adults either stayed and hung out in the living room with football on the tube or went visiting to other homes.  The lunge was basically girl-central for the teens and kids while most of the boys were hanging out in the game room at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house in the early evening; but everyone was pretty much back in their own homes in time for the younger kids to go to bed.

There’s a lot of action that I’ve skipped with that because there were two family dinners and gift exchanges going on this afternoon – the one at our house; and the one that Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne were hosting for his family.  That made for a lot of traffic between houses; and I’m still hearing new stories today about what was going on there on the weekend.  I do know that the Carrington-Johnson-McEwan clan had a fun weekend too, though; so that’s all that really matters.

Moving this along, though, we played all evening; watched a chick flick; and then I helped with the bedtime routine when it was time to get the youngest kids off to sleep for the night.  Our only extra guest for the night was Jayden; mostly because Jaimie and Kaitlyn picked spending the time with Aunt Grace and Caleb instead of with Dawn, Ehlana, and me.  If they’d been here for a third sleepover, they would have spent one night with us; but that wasn’t an option this time.  We’ll probably spend a little less time with them for holiday weekends now – at least for a few years; but that’s happening anyway now that I’m busy with Michael and his family a lot too.

That’s why I didn’t spend much time with my family on Sunday.  I should just move on to that part of the weekend report now anyway.  I already mentioned the teen time in the lounge in the micro-update from Saturday, and there isn’t really any news to report from that – other than we stayed up too late with the chat time and only had naps before needing to be awake and on the go again on Sunday morning.

Michael came over for Tai Chi; I got ready for church; and then went to have breakfast with him and his family while Mom and Dad hosted an easy-breakfast at our house.  I didn’t pick which meal to be at just for the food, but it was a bonus!  I was mostly glad to spend the time with Michael and his family after not seeing them much in a couple of days.  I made up for that all day on Sunday.  Michael and I needed to eat and run so that we could get to the church early for teen praise team warm-ups; and the service was a blast of fun for us too before we both moved on to the Inn to get to work again.  We helped out with the prep work and set up for the first buffet; had that meal with my family before our collective guests headed home again; and then spent the rest of the day helping out in the kitchen.  We had some breaks here and there when we could get them, but it was a very long, busy day; and that’s the only reason that I fell asleep while cuddling with Michael at his house after we were sent home for the night.  I was okay with that for obvious reasons, and Miranda apparently was too; since she didn’t wake us up and send me home after they got back from the Inn with Jake and Stephanie.  She did take a picture and send it to my Mom, and made sure that my parents knew not to worry about me; though that was all for show and fun since Mom already knew that through our link.

That makes the report for Sunday easy for my own news, but I did miss out on most of the family action.  They had the usual holiday weekend crazy-busy all morning on Sunday as they added in packing and loading cars and SUV’s for the trips home along with having breakfast and getting everyone ready for church.  I missed all of that; was busy before, during, and after the church service; and Michael and I were on kid control during the first buffet sitting while most of the other teens in our group were busy with their own families.  I also missed the afternoon, dinner, and evening action after our family guests had left; though that was really just work at my house anyway while mom and Dad both caught up on their work in the office while the twins were lent out to Naomi and Aiden for the afternoon and early evening.

While that still leaves out lots of family and friends news from the weekend; I’m going to keep this moving along and wrap this up with the rest of the action for today.  Waking up cuddled with Michael certainly got the day off to an awesome start; I’ve already mentioned that Tai Chi was great too; and then Michael and I split up to have breakfast with our own families ahead of our respective chores around the houses morning.  Since I’ve also mentioned that we did some of that work with a little Magi-powered assistance, you can guess that the work was mostly fun too; and then Ethan, Ehlana, and I were set free after lunch for the rest of the day while Mom got back to work – including spending a couple of hours at the lab – where Uncle Adam, Dillon, and Violet had already spent a lot of the day.  I didn’t mention having Violet and Dillon with us for breakfast because they were back to spending the nights at his house last night.  With a house full of kids and teens here tonight, though; they’re probably happy about being there instead of here with us.

It wasn’t very warm out today, and there wasn’t any snow on the ground; but we were still ready to get outside for a while by the time we started meeting up with our friends after lunch.  Ethan, Ehlana, and I met up with Michael first; we added his three younger Bassett cousins along the way to picking up Naomi and Aiden; and then had Rowen and Tim catch up with us before we all went over to the park to play and hang out with the other kids and teens that were there too.  I don’t really have any specific news from that play time – we mostly just goofed off and traded Christmas stories with our collective friends before heading to my house when we were ready to warm up and have a snack break.

Ethan and Ehlana started the sleepover talk during that break; and the snowball pretty much just started rolling downhill and gaining momentum after that.  The details aren’t all that exciting, so let’s just mention the results.  Ethan and Ehlana have Naomi, Aiden, Sophia, and Susan Connor with them tonight.  Susan is one of Sophia’s usual playmates, and was added to the guest list so that Sophia wouldn’t feel like a fifth wheel with the rest of her friends.  Once Michael, Rowen, and Tim were included, we couldn’t resist the puppy-dog looks from Jessica and Ryan, and while Ryan had to settle for hanging out with the rest of the guys; Jessica was able to invite Lindsay Faulkner to join in on the fun after finding out that Patrick and Scott were invited too.  Rebecca and Lucas were invited too, but he couldn’t get away from the farm after the holiday weekend that they mostly took off; so Rebecca opted to go out there for her night off from the Inn.

Mom had the full gang for dinner, and went with an easy meal that required a run to the grocery store for stacks of frozen pizza and boxes of wings – along with a re-stocking of snacks after my cousins pretty much wiped out the supply in the lounge.  Rowen and I helped out with the work because the boys were into college bowl games by then – along with some video gaming.  The younger kids split their time between the lounge, my room, Ehlana’s and Ethan’s rooms, and the kitchen; but they kept themselves entertained while we were busy.  Dinner was in the dining room for the kids and teens, but Mom and Dad opted to set us free and do their own thing in the kitchen while keeping an eye on the ongoing pizza cooking once the first couple of pizzas were served with the platter of wings.  The boys demolished the food pretty much as soon as each pizza hit the table; though they did let the girls grab a slice here and there so that we didn’t starve while waiting for them to fill up.  The good news for Mom and Dad’s budget, though, is that the football game was still on and Tim wanted to get back to it as soon as possible – and the video gaming too.

Michael needed to go along with the other guys, and that was okay with me; but Rowen, Jessica, Lindsay, and I had some fun joking about that while doing the easy clean-up after we finished our meal without the boys.  We sent Mom and Dad off to the office so they could get going on their homework then too, and once we had the clean-up done; we dropped off plates of dessert for them along with fresh cups of coffee, and then headed up to the lounge and my room for the rest of the night.  While the television and my school computer were tied up with the football and gaming for the guys; the rest of the girls and I weren’t totally bored.  We used my good computer for a movie; we played games in my room; and Rowen and I did mini-makeovers for all of the younger girls.  We also took care of getting Ethan, Ehlana, and their friends into bed when it was time to do that; though I’m also sure that they didn’t go straight to sleep – especially when chatting via iPads was an option for them between their rooms.

The fun level kicked up a couple of notches after that when it was just the teens and older kids left standing, and other than one goodnight visit from Mom and Dad; we were pretty much parent-free for the rest of the night too.  Football and gaming were still the top activities in the lounge, but at least Tim and Michael were willing to spend some time cuddling with Rowen and me by then – while continuing to watch the bowl game and take turns playing the video games with Ryan, Patrick, and Scott.

There weren’t any other kids in the room doing any cuddling, but I’ll have to start making some adjustments for the way I think about Rowen’s brother, Michael’s cousins, and their friends.  Patrick and Scott are going on twelve now; and Jessica and Lindsay are only a year younger.  The funny thing is that the age difference should have them hitting their growth spurts at nearly the same time, and I have a suspicion that the girls might even ‘cross over’ before the boys do – if only because Patrick and Scott are both fairly self-conscious about being shorter than most of the girls in their grade right now.  Ryan still has a few years to go before that’ll be an issue for him, but then he does have a crush of his own right now.  He hides it pretty well, which has me wondering if that’s a glimpse of what Uncle Adam was like around Aunt Leanne; but Michael and I both sense Ryan’s emotions very strongly – and won’t say a word about it to him or anyone else.

I should wrap this up, since it’s late and we’re going to have another busy play day starting in a few hours.  We did the video gaming thing until nearly one when Jessica and Lindsay decided to call it a night, and politely suggested to the three younger boys that they should turn in too and let Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I have some time without them around to ‘do whatever’ before we went to bed too.  We opted for a movie once it was just the four of us; and then we wrapped up our night by splitting up to take care of the clean-up in the lounge and kitchen – and to have a bit of minor make-out time before the boys went to their rooms on the second floor and Rowen and I got changed and hopped into bed with Mandy.  We’ve had a nice little girl chat while I’ve been doing my nightly computer checks and this update; but Rowen’s dozed off now and I’ll join her in nap mode as soon as I’m finished with this.

Okay, I’m done; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, December 29, 2014

Cassie's Journal - December 28, 2014



I’m writing this micro-update between Tai Chi and breakfast while getting ready for a busy play day because Michael and I fell asleep on the sofa in the living room at his house last night.

No, that wasn’t intentional, but I don’t have time this morning to go into the details of my weekend; so I guess I’ll have to do a three-day update next – or concede defeat that there isn’t time to do everything.  A sofa sleepover with Michael is a pretty good trade-off for my usual bedtime computing, though; so I wouldn’t change a thing! ;^)

So was the pre-exercise goofiness with my family while they teased Michael and me about that un-planned overnight cuddle adventure; but that’s part of the next update too; so that’s it for now.  Until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!