Memories

"To love and let go, love and let go, love and let go...it's the single most important thing we can learn in this lifetime.” ― Rachel Brathen

Looking out at the snow, Haruo realized just how fleeting life was, the face that gazed back at him out of the mirror in the morning was weathered and lined with the experiences that he had gone through over the years. As he gazed at the picture of his daughter and her husband, he thought about the many times that he had held her as a child; it seemed like yesterday.

He looked over at the marriage portraits of River and his own wedding, his oldest son and Bella and now Alanna and Yasahiro. And he thought to himself that life went by so fast.

River noting the brooding expression on her husband's face enticed him to go visit his father's grave and River's mother's and then there in that little memorial alcove they built a snowman.

By morning, the snow that had fallen at night had stopped and the morning dawned crisp, cold and clear.

The day was mostly relaxing with River starting a new painting and that evening, they played a game of hoops in the snow, of course, not for very long as it was too easy to get cold.

The next morning, it started to snow heavily again.

And the clouds that covered the sky that afternoon made for a beautiful sunset.

Snowy Vows

The snowfall brought a plethora of things to do and Central Park was one of the more interesting places with a blanket of white fluffy cold stuff. The snowboard half-pipe was a popular place.

As was the skating rink...

Brayden did his homework at the park and enjoyed what little free time he had. He was determined to graduate at the top of his class.

There were very few days in which it didn't snow...and that night after Brayden got home, it really started to come down.

The mistletoe wasn't just for Haruo and River. Evidently Alanna and Yasahiro took advantage of it too. The house just seemed much more empty now that Bella and Aidann had moved into Villa Alto.

Alanna and Yasahiro decided that winter would be the perfect time for a wedding. And considering that both of them had non-biological children (Alanna evidently adopted a young boy...who didn't have a family while they were trying to figure out how to make Alanna an adoptive mother of Zlarb)

Because of the exhorbitant costs of a wedding on the wife's end, the two decided just to get married without the lavish ceremony. And since it was freezing cold, they opted to do the ceremony without the dress...of course though, she had one for the wedding portrait.

As it was, it was a great decisions as the snow started falling during the ceremony...and didn't stop.

Yasahiro ran into Aidann a few days later who apologized for not being able to be there as Bella and he were still having to deal with their two offspring and that Bella wasn't getting much sleep, so he had to be there to take care of the two of them.

And Central Park was gearing up for the biggest Snowflake Day party that they could ever have.

Winter Wonderland

Things started to freeze up almost immediately as Fall transitioned into Winter and it wasn't very long before the frost gave way to snow.

And as it got closer to Snowflake Day, of course, the mistletoe went up. Hey, with such a beautiful wife like River, of course, Haruo couldn't resist a smooch under the mistletoe.

The park across the street turned into a veritable Winter Wonderland and all the inland lakes had frozen over.

Snowflake Day was one of Haruo's most favorite holidays and he loved decorating the house and spending time with his wife at the kitchen table.

The town was something out of a Snowflake Day carol and the scenic views would be great for a Snowflake Day Card.

Their fishing pond had frozen over so Haruo and River took the opportunity to go skating on it without the fear of falling through the ice.

Of course, the heir nearly had a close-call when he had the "brilliant" idea that he was going to go out and sleep in a sleeping bag outside in the falling snow. Luckily something kept his father up, whether it was some sort of foreboding feeling, that prevented him from sleeping, but it was enough to keep Brayden from falling into a sleep from where he would never wake up. After which Haruo scolded him and told him to get his hind-end into a hot shower and stay the heck inside.

Hopefully, he won't get the bright idea to try that again.

What To Expect When You're Expecting...An Alien Baby.

Spooky Day spawned with the Chikamoris heading to Central Park to see the Spooky Day festivities. Yeah...poor River's stomach didn't do to well in the Haunted House. And considering that Yasahiro was in the family way...he was also queasy too.

Haruo met his cousin, Elias Cantina-Chikamori (Satoshi's son) who was doing a great imitation of a ghost, up to and including floating. Wish ghost costumes in RL were that cool. In RL you drape a bedsheet over your head, make a few OOOOOOO sounds and you're supposed to be a ghost. In Sims 3 you ARE a ghost until you go poof at the end of the trick or treat session. Must be fun to be incorporeal as a costume. But it must be really confusing for the real ghosts around this time of year. "You a ghost?" "Nope" "...but you look like one? How the heck do you float?" "Antigrav shoes..." "You mean they got those now...COOOOOOL"

Satoshi, having to feed a ravenous alien baby, went and got himself some food...then Satoshi, Haruo, Yasahiro and River had a wonderful apple-bobbing contest. Bobbing for apples was fun and Yasahiro won the thing

Being filthy stinkin' rich has to mean for something. So Haruo went and got himself a large skating rink for the backyard.

And unlike in real life, roller skating skills helps increase actual ice-skating skills so both River and Haruo got on the ice and skated. Yep typical Canadins. We live on the ice, eh.

And if you have your own skating rink in your own back yard, well, no one can tell you what to wear or no or where to go...or...say you're only dreaming (oh sorry, got side-tracked there).

After freezing her cute buns on the ice, River came in to check out the new Sizzle Baby Pro Deep Fryer that the Creator had so graciously placed in their home so that they could attack their virtual arteries with FAT and CHOLESTEROL!!! Of which there won't be any consequenced for because there's no such things as myocardial infarctions in the Sims 3. YAY!!! But they still don't have poutine...and that makes this Canadian really annoyed...EH?

Well, Yasahiro had to head in to work on Tuesday and found out that lo and behold, labour happened while at work. And thus he ended up coming home...with a little green alien infant. When given the choice between sending his cute little behind back to his homeworld or keeping him to raise at home. it was a no-contest. Evidently pregnancy had stirred some maternal nurturing instincts in Yasahiro and he opted to raise the child to adulthood. Evidently Alien lifeforms especially change-aliens such as Zlarb (yes, he named the child Zlarb, poor kid) would age much faster than humans would (plus the Creator's antipathy at taking care of infants after his own experiences in RL (being woken up at 1AM in the morning on a regular basis to feed clothe, water and divest the child of poop laden diapers) had soured him on the whole deal and thus has caused him to rapidly age up any Sim infants via birthday cake to toddler. There ya go kid. Welcome to toilet training. Have at it..

And the cute little stinker aged up into an equally cute little alien child form.

And happily ate birthday cake with the rest of his human family. Being a change-alien he opted to change his skin-color to match his human parent (he can go back to green whenever he wants, just that he doesn't want to draw attention to his family. The only things that set him apart are his pupil-less black eyes and his green hair. But he may opt to go back to his green shade of skin when he reaches adult hood. And besides having someone in the family who can call down meteors to drop on Sims that annoy his family is a great thing to have. Yay.