Happy New Year!
This is an update for the last day of twenty-thirteen; but
it is several hours into the New Year as I write this, so it is the New Year;
and you probably don’t care about that at all on whichever day in the distant
future you’re reading my journals anyway.
I’m certainly interested in the fact that I’m in a guest
room at Michael’s house right now, and while our kiss at midnight while ringing
in the New Year was pretty good; our goodnight kiss just a little while ago was
fairly spectacular. Well, the kiss at
the Inn was spectacular; and the kisses here
were not rated to be watched by the general public. This sleepover wasn’t a last-minute thing;
but I was invited earlier today after volunteering to stay and help with the
post-party clean-up at the Inn tonight. Yes, that actually meant I did a fair bit of
work, including at the party tonight; but that seems like a fair trade for
getting to spend the extra time with Michael – and I’ll be here for the bonus
New Year’s Day holiday breakfast too!
My New Year’s Eve day started out with work too – at least
once we’d finished our Tai Chi. That was
only fair too, since I missed out on most of the post-family clean-up yesterday
while playing with my cousins and friends.
Mom’s to-do list included shopping for everything we needed for the New
Year’s Day party at our house, so she went to do that after breakfast while I
watched Ethan and Ehlana; and the three of us took care of the main floor
cleaning while having a bit of Magi-powered play time to get that done. We also un-decorated the tree; packed up the
Christmas decorations; put them away; and repeated that process in my lounge
while cleaning in there before Mom got home again with a van-load of boxes and
bags.
I helped her with that round of work while the twins
supervised; and that pretty much kept us busy until lunchtime. Dad was home from the office for the day by
then, so we had five for that meal, and then I helped him with getting the
Christmas tree outside and into his truck so he could take it out to one of the
Green family farms where they are being recycled. He was picking up a few other trees before
going out there, but had help at those houses for that; so I stayed home and he
took Ethan along for some father-son time.
Mom needed a bit more help in the kitchen while he was gone, but I was
set free early enough to get ready for our night out and go spend some time
with Rowen at the computer store before moving on to the Inn in time to help
out with the New Year’s Eve dinner.
As always, the party was sold-out, and while my family
usually does their own party so that other neighbors and friends can go to one
of the two big parties in town. My first
experience with New Year’s Eve at the Inn two years ago was really only because
Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne already had a gang at their party with his entire
family home for their family Christmas that weekend; but that party felt very
different than this one – mostly because of the work this time; and my change
in social status. While doing our own
party this year was an option; I’m the reason my family made another exception
this year and bought a block of tickets.
Mom and Dad knew that I’d want to be at the Inn
tonight with Michael; and they wanted to be with us for our first New Year’s
Eve together. Having a full house made
for a busy time in the kitchen, but then that was also shorter too because we
only had the one buffet; didn’t have any table turnover to deal with; and once
the tables were cleared after dessert, most of the work was done in the dining
room – at least until the late, light buffet was put out. Miranda had Michael, Rebecca, and I take a
break once the first round of food was on the buffet tables so that we could
have dinner with some of our friends and family. For Rebecca, that didn’t include Jenny this
year because she was at a teen party with Garth and most of the football
players and cheerleaders. We ended up at
a table with Rowen, Tim, and Claire Norton’s kids. I’d expected to be helping with Ethan and
Ehlana; but they were with Naomi, Aiden, and their families during dinner. Rowen and I haven’t gotten many chances to
spend time with Emma Norton lately, so that was fun for us; and Michael, Tim,
and Lucas happily talked football while we ate – covering everything from the
in-progress bowl game to their collective interest in playing High School
football next year. I knew that Lucas
wanted to play football, but hadn’t tried out for the team this year – mostly
because he was still about the same height as Tim is now; and behind most of
the guys his age.
I wonder if Rebecca noticed that both Lucas and Tim have
caught up to her height now. There’s not
doubt that’s something the boys pay attention to – just as Michael is looking
forward to when he catches up to Rebecca again – and passes her. Yes, it’s a teen guy thing, but then a lot of
us girls like having our boys taller than we are; even if the temporary height
advantage we get to have is fun for a year or three.
There’s a bit more to write about for Rebecca and Lucas, but
let’s leave that for a minute and keep the story in order. Dinner was a fun break for us, but Michael,
Rebecca, and I ate quickly; skipped dessert; and got back to work in the kitchen
to help as much as we could so that we could all join the party in the dining
room. I should have mentioned that there
were televisions set up at opposite ends of the dining room for the evening;
with the football games on two screens at the front of the room and a big
screen by the back windows that was tuned in to a music video channel that was
covering New Year’s Eve celebrations from around the world. All sets had the volume turned down most of
the way during dinner; but the guys in the kitchen had been watching the games
while they worked all afternoon; so we had that added background noise while
cleaning up and washing what felt like thousands of dishes and cutlery.
That part of our night might not sound like much fun, but it
was; and we didn’t really spend all that much more time working than I would
have if we’d been doing a big dinner party at home instead. Most of us were able to go and play by
eight-thirty or so; and the party part of the night was barely getting going by
then anyway. The only change that had
been made in the time we’d been in the kitchen was that tables had been moved
around to make room for a dance floor next to the back windows and the
television that was playing the music video channel. Some games had been set up on tables in the
middle of the room; and the volume for both the music and football games had
been turned up – as was the conversation noise level to compensate.
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I joined in for the football,
games, and dancing; though we spent most of our time on the dance floor. Ethan and Ehlana cut in on Michael and me
twice tonight; and I’m sure that a certain Aunt of ours nudged them into the
first one – not that they weren’t very willing to help her out with the
joke. We played with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi,
and Aiden too; Michael and I had fun doing my football play-calling trick with
some of the guys watching the game; and we had some kid, teen, and adult chat
cameos as we took breaks from the rest of the fun.
Another thing that was different from my first New Year’s
Eve party at the Inn was that I didn’t really
spend much time with Mom and Dad or Grandma and Grandpa. They were all as busy as I was, and having
fun too; but I definitely have mixed feelings about this part of growing up and
‘getting my own life’, as some of my friends would say. I’m not suggesting that I’d trade one kind of
fun for the other; but it would be nice if there was enough time for both.
One thing that was very much the same for every New Year’s
Eve I’ve been here in Witch Falls for was watching Dick Clark’s New Year’s
Rockin Eve; though we didn’t switch to that channel on all televisions in the
room until around eleven o’clock. I have
no idea whether that will continue to be such a strong tradition here in the
future, but it still is now; and only the younger kids were more interested in
playing than dancing to the music and watching the entertainment as we counted
down the last hour of the year.
The next major news item for me is definitely my first New
Year kiss with Michael. I know that it
was fairly spectacular for several reasons.
First is because there were fireworks going on that were definitely not
just on the television. We also lost
track of time; were among the last to end our kiss; and earned two whistles of
approval from Miranda and Aunt Leanne.
This is probably the best place to make a little confession. I really did get lost in that moment too, but
helping to make that kiss spectacular was in my plans because I wanted to make
sure that Michael remembers it more than his first New Year’s Eve kiss with a
girlfriend – the one he shared with Lisa last year.
Feel free not to mention that to Lisa whenever you read this
in the future, and don’t worry, Michael; I did mean ‘more than’, and don’t
expect you to forget that other, hopefully lesser, kiss. :^)
Rowen probably won’t be able to say that for her first New
Year kiss with Tim compared to his with Nora last year; but that’s entirely
because she’ll never, ever be like Nora when it comes to kissing her boyfriend
in public. She wasn’t disappointed with
the kiss they did share, but I was busy at the time; and have no idea how long
their moment lasted compared to ours.
I didn’t see Rebecca share a little midnight kiss with Lucas
Norton either, for the same reason; but I did hear about it shortly after. That news is sure to make the town grapevine
news network, but I’m going to cut them some slack; since I think they were
more surprised than anyone. Before you
start thinking that it’s time for me to turn in my matchmaker badge, they
weren’t surprised that they both chose to kiss while pretty much everyone else
around them was doing that too – they were surprised by their reactions. Let’s just say that their ‘friendly’ kiss
felt more than a little friendly to them; and move along.
While Aunt Leanne had whistles for me, she was even more
proud of her younger niece and nephew.
Ehlana went with a kiss on the cheek for Aiden, but it should probably
be Liz who should be proud of her little girl; since it was Naomi who had no
problem planting her New Year’s kiss on Ethan’s lips – though he didn’t even
try to dodge the kiss either. Hearing
about yet two more moments that I missed while busy with Michael was fun, but
those kisses had me wondering what it might have been like for me if I’d been
born here in Witch
Falls too. I’ll have to ask Miranda about what Michael
was like when he was Ethan’s age – whether he was like Ethan; or if girls were
icky when he was two or three. Aunt
Leanne teased Naomi and Ethan about the ‘younger man’ thing, but for that to be
closer to the same as Aunt Leanne for Naomi; she’d have needed to be trying for
kisses with Zack.
Okay, that even has me wanting to move this along.
The party started winding down after midnight; starting with
my own family taking their kids home to bed.
Michael and I stayed in the dining room until my parents, Ethan, and
Ehlana left; and then we went to work in the kitchen. We needed to clean up from the late buffet;
wash more piles of dishes; and get clean dishes out to the dining room so that
the tables could be set up again for business on Thursday. Miranda and Jacob had volunteers to help with
getting the tables back to normal; the decorations taken down; and the
televisions packed up and returned to two different homes while Jake and
Stephanie supervised the kitchen crew.
It was after two by the time we got back to Michael’s house,
and Stephanie is staying overnight too; though she and Jake went straight up to
bed when Miranda, Jacob, and Rebecca did shortly after we got here. Michael and I opted for some cuddle time in
the living room that we happily turned into a minor make-out session complete
with more New Year fireworks.
That was a lot of fun, and staying cuddled together on the
sofa all night would have been very nice; but we do have that football bowl
game party at my house and another late night ahead of us; so we came up to our
rooms about twenty minutes ago. I didn’t
take long to get ready for bed; though Michael and I crossed paths again while
taking turns in the bathroom. After seeing
me in my nightdress and sharing another goodnight kiss, there’s a chance that
Michael isn’t feeling sleepy right now; but I can live with having that effect
on my boyfriend.
I’ve kept my nightly computer checks to a minimum for
everything except doing a Hathorne Industries check. They had another party at their estate, and
though I don’t really think about it at all; this is Gawain and Kellie’s third
anniversary today. They probably don’t
miss the gift and card that I don’t send them any more than I miss birthday
gifts from them; but I do hope they’re happy.
Though we do collect the Hathorne information into an archive for them,
I haven’t done an update for them in a while here; so let’s do that now – since
Michael might not be the only person needing a while longer before being able
to sleep.
Hathorne Industries and ‘The Center’ are doing very well
under Kellie and Gawain. That’s good for
them, but not so much for practically everyone affected by their businesses and
extra-curricular activities. It’s a bit
surprising that they’re also still together as a couple; but everything we get
on them suggests that they are not just together, but exclusive too. There haven’t been any indications that
either of them ever wine and dine other partners, and while Gawain still has
his penthouse, if he’s there overnight; she’s usually there with him. That certainly suggests that whatever deal
they made after Corwyn’s death is working for them.
There isn’t quite as much news about Gwyneth. We can track her when she leaves the estate,
and get information on her personal staff and tutors; but the only other
details we know about her revolve around her education. That looks impressive, and gets some notice;
but we’re also sure that her ‘real’ education is likely tracking closer to
Ethan and Ehlana’s than what’s publicly disclosed. For that, she’s approximately tracking the
education path of some well-known academic prodigies; and it wouldn’t surprise
me if she mapped that out based on the records from one or more of those
kids. If that’s true, she’ll likely be
going off to college by the time she’s six or seven – or around the same time I
will be.
While all of those details are either interesting or
maddening – when they’re doing bad things that we can’t do anything about; I’m
mostly just glad to see that none of them are trying to do anything to disrupt
our lives here in Witch Falls right now.
Gawain and Gwyneth are still keeping track of us and collecting every
scrap of information they can get about us; but Gawain hasn’t tried to come
here again; and there’s nothing to suggest that they’ve sent anyone here to
personally try to check up on us.
That isn’t always going to be the case, so I’ll just be
grateful for every year we get without the Hathornes trying to mess up our
lives – or end them.
Going to sleep on that note isn’t a very pleasant
thought. Maybe I should sneak into
Michael’s room and see about making a more happy memory to take into dreamland
with me! Okay, maybe not; but that does
give me something much more entertaining to dream about; so I’m going to wrap
this up and let my unconscious mind have fun with that.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
