"Likewise." Cody stopped, realizing that he'd basically just told Ayla "Nice to meet you" twice. Blushing and hoping he didn't notice, he glanced at her book and commented, "That must be a good book, to bring it to a party. What's it about?"

---

Meanwhile, Faye pondered over what Maeve said. "Sayana...." The planet's name didn't immediately come to mind, neither did Maeve's mention of "the Coalition". Faye did her best to keep up on current events, but she didn't exactly get a newsletter on intergalactic politics. Still, a thought came to mind. "I do know someone who always has odd merchandise," she admitted, "and he's my main source of Reglian icefruit, so he must have a space ship or galactic contacts. I'll drop him a line after the party. If you'd like, stop by my shop sometime after the holidays and we can discuss it more."

As she spoke, she pulled out her sketchbook, and flipped it to the back. The front pages of her sketchbook was used for sketches - the back inevitably turned into a series of To Do lists. She tried to ignore the fact that far more of the back was filled up than the front. She quickly jotted down a note to send Orad a message first thing in the morning. She paused, then commented, "I don't suppose you have a phone number in case I hear from him?"

About then, she noticed Mel, as well as a shadowy man she didn't recognize. She waved happily to Mel, gave the stranger a polite smile, but wanted to wrap up her business with Maeve before visiting anyone else.

Dan Baxter dashed into his house, where his wife and daughters eagerly met him. "Sorry I'm late," he began. "Last minute emergency at work."

"Better late than never," Angie replied.

"Sure. Give me a couple minutes to get ready, and then we'll be off."

Their daughters once again wore matching dresses, this time red and green in honor of the season. One thing was certain, the girls' grandparents took their job of spoiling them very seriously.

Moments later they were on their way. "I hope Kaelin is there," ten-year-old Grace said. "I've missed her."

"I wanna see Mel!" little Emma squealed.

"We're about to find out," Dan said as he opened the door to the Mansion and followed his family into the festive gathering.

Ayla smiled a little at him asking twice but chose not to comment on it, she looked down at her book. "Its about Knights and Dragons, its part of a series I am reading; I am on book four." She looked at the cover then spoke again with a little less shyness, "I spend most of my time in libraries so it is nice to be at a party."

Hannah quietly grabbed some refreshment and decided to leave the book worm to her new friend.

“I would greatly appreciate that,” Maeve said, scribbling her contact information in Faye’s sketchbook. She stole a glance at the man in the doorway; while she knew him, she did not know him well. She mainly knew him from the stories her sister told.

Kaelin felt torn. On one hand, she wanted to hug Gawain as tightly as she could, because he had been gone so long and looked so sad. On the other, she wanted to turn away and pretend she hadn’t seen him. He had left suddenly before, on what her sister had loosely termed as “business”, but that could either be Very Important Adult Stuff, or nothing of much importance at all. This time, it was longer, and had seemed to be permanent.

The hug won out.

Cody's eyes widened. "Book four? You must really like them, then." Of course, Cody wasn't much of a reader himself, so the idea of making it past the first book was impressive to him. He shrugged, then cracked what he hoped was a winning smile as he joked, "Well, I mean... I'm pretty sure there's a library in this place somewhere, so you could be at both at the same time...."

--

As soon as Maeve finished writing her information, the Baxters arrived at the front door. Oh, goodness, so many guests she wanted to talk to! She quickly explained to Maeve, "Oh, excuse me, but I'd like to say hello to the Baxters.", and hurried over to them with a wave. "Dan! Angie! I'm glad you and the girls made it!" She glanced at the girls and gushed, "Oh, those dresses are adorable!"

Emma and Grace Baxter stopped for a second to take in the crowd, and then dashed off toward the guests they were most interested in seeing. This was complicated only slightly by the fact that each girl had a parent in tow.

"Mel!" Emma squealed again as she wrapped her arms around the big dog's neck in a hug. She had to reach up slightly and her arms were barely long enough to reach all the way around Mel's neck, but no one could fault her enthusiasm.

"Hi, Mel," Dan said, smiling at the pair. "So nice to see you. Be sure to let me know if Emma's bothering you."

Angie saw that Grace was heading for Kaelin, so she let go of her child's hand and stopped to talk to Faye and Maeve. She smiled at Faye's compliment. "Thanks. Our grandparents just can't resist buying cute clothes for them. She teases me that they're much more willing to dress up than I was at that age." She turned to Maeve and greeted her as well.

Grace was eager to see her friend again but stopped to give Mel a quick pet along the way. Then she stood off to the side, not wanting to interrupt Kaelin's discussion with Sir Gawain - though she didn't know his name - and waited quietly. She was often shy around strangers and this time was no exception.

Gawain stiffened for a second, surprised by the hug. But he relaxed and wrapped his own arms around Kaelin.

“You look well. Clearly your sister feeds you better than I did.”

Ayla smiled and almost giggled at the joke made, "well it is my first time being at this mansion so I did not see the library yet; as for the series I do enjoy it alot." She said this with no shyness behind her voice now as she felt more relaxed, am I making a friend? She wondered hopefully.

Hannah sat down and watched the others for once she was not feeling like the social one.

Mel greeted the Baxter family with a very enthusiastic wave of her tail and an enormous doggy grin. "Don't worry--Emma and I agree on greetings! It's so nice to see y'all again!"

It didn't feel like a party without an exuberant selection of familiar faces from Ditto Town and some mysterious newcomers. Now, at last, it seemed there was going to be some chatter and munching on treats--and games, too. Mel had fond memories of hide-and-seek from a previous holiday.

Mel knew some folks were afraid of dogs, so she was hesitant to go straight up to strangers, but she could gaze longingly over at the girl sitting by herself and thump her tail hopefully--the universal signal that a canine was hoping for even more attention.

“Well, she isn’t working like you do,” Kaelin said. “I mean, she’s working, she’s not not working, but she’s not working elsewhere. Just at home. And she makes me take vitamins.”

Kaelin wrinkled her nose. Vitamins always left a bad taste in her mouth.

She looked around and spied Grace. She sprung over and wrapped an arm around her, smiling at the younger girl in greeting.

“This is Grace,” she announced to Gawain. “She’s my—” one human connection without a past laden with trauma, until she went on a cruise with me and my sister? No, that wouldn’t do... “—friend.”

~~

“Hello, Angie,” Maeve said, inclining her head, “it is so very good to see you, however I’m afraid you must excuse me for the time being; I hope it won’t be more than a moment.”

Maeve moved over toward Gawain, resting her hand on Mel’s head for a moment on her way.

Faintly, then more prominently, bells were heard outside the mansion. -Sleighbells, to be exact. All at once, a strange and festive scent, like a forest of pine trees, entered the room. Then, came both a knock at the door and a ringing of the doorbell, before the visitor opened the door himself and came inside. The large, energetic soul was carrying several wrapped boxes and had a bright red bag slung over his shoulder. The coat he wore might have been mistaken for that of the Ghost of Christmas Present... if it had been green. It might have been mistaken for Father Christmas... if it had been red. As it was, the coat was made of white fur, lined with scarlet. "Ho, ho, ho," came a deep, loud, and jolly voice from behind the packages. "Merry Christmas! The party has arrived! There is a present here for everybody!" At this, he kicked the door shut and dropped the cloth bag behind him, and with small steps, the newcomer awkwardly made his way in, past the foyer and to a medium-sized side table, where he set down the pile of packages that was obscuring both his face and his vision. In so doing, he also leaned a black cane with silver ornamentations against the table. As he turned back around, he flung open his fur coat to hang it on the coat rack, revealing a fine white suit that nicely complimented a figure that had evidently seen five days in seven at the gym. The man's mouth was open in a smile, and it was hard to determine which was whiter, his suit, his teeth, or the snow that still topped the toes of his black leather shoes.

"I know, I know. You were probably expecting someone else. Daddy sure could have worn the coat better! But, instead, you get me," at this, he had finished hanging up his coat and was free to use both hands to refer to himself, "Junior Gladstone, at your service."

Assuming that everyone was giving him their full attention, he stepped closer and beckoned the youngest members of the group to come get a gift. "Come on now everybody. Don't be shy. There's enough for all. This year, Daddy made a few acquisitions, one of which was the Joke-A-Minute toy company. I have no idea what's in these boxes, but they are guaranteed to give everyone a Christmas they'll never forget! One of my men told me there are no names on the boxes, but each one is unique. So come on up and grab something. Oh, hello there, furry!" This last remark was made to Mel. "Here, let me get you something and open it for you since neither you nor the table has hands."

Junior picked a package out of the pile at random and with wide strides walked over to the St. Bernard and kindly kneeled in front of her. He tore open the wrapping, which was easily accomplished, and then opened the taped box, which despite the man's strength was oddly difficult for him. He reached into the box and pulled out a styrofoam casing, which chipped as he did so. He opened the casing, and as he did so, unbeknownst to him, triggered a spring-loaded contraption that both shot the toy out of the case and activated the battery. It was a toy frog. -Rather rubbery and lifelike, but robotic, so that it just kept hopping in random directions before you could get a good look at it.

Just as Cody was about to reply to Ayla, Junior Gladstone arrived with his pile of presents. Cody didn't immediately recognize the face or the name, but nonetheless perked up at the offer of presents. He stepped forward to grab one, but was curious enough to wait until Junior had opened the gift for Mel.

The toy frog sprang out of the box and in Cody's direction. He only had a few seconds to think about it, and in those few seconds, he thought, 'Wouldn't everyone be impressed if I caught it?' Even Kaelin might be impressed. So, half-forgetting about the plate of food he had in one hand, he called, "I got it!", and reached for the frog with the other. He caught it, but leaned too far forward in the attempt - he stumbled into the refreshment table, and knocked a tray of gingerbread cookies off the table and all over the floor, along with his own plate of food.

To further add to his humiliation, Cody didn't even manage to hold on to the frog - it slipped out of his hand the moment he crashed into the table.

Faye could only watch the scene unfolding with disbelief. How was it that every single one of these parties seemed to end with tiny animals running amock?! She also simply could. Not. Process. That Junior thought that presents from a company called "Joke-A-Minute" wouldn't end like this. But she also couldn't believe that he did this on purpose - he wasn't that oblivious, was he?

Faye knew she misjudged him badly last time they met, so she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. She turned, and despite her best attempts to sound polite, the best she could manage was a deadpan, "Well, it's good to see you again, Junior."

That was unexpected. Junior was shell shocked as he watched the situation unfold. He barely heard Faye as he got up to see what he could do about the mess. “Hey there, Faye. Um... here. Have a present.” He absentmindedly handed a box to her as he stepped forward to pick up the food off the floor. “Hey there, son. Don’t worry about all this. You, just pick yourself out a nice gift. Looks like I’ve got some frog wrangling to do...”

Grace eagerly returned her friend's greeting and then smiled shyly at Gawain. "Hi, nice to meet you."

--

"No worries, Maeve," Angie replied, watching her friend walk toward Gawain, passing Mel and Emma along the way.

Her attention was grabbed by the arrival of Junior. He sure knows how to make an entrance, she thought, not for the first time. She watched as he opened the gift for Mel and the frog popped out.

Emma, who was still standing next to Mel, cried out in surprise as the frog hopped by, and fell backwards onto the floor. This just got her a little closer to the bag of toys, and her surprise soon turned to delight as she grabbed one of the colorful packages and tore it open.

"Oooh," she said as she pulled out what looked like a cardboard tube glued onto a flat square piece of wood. It was bright blue except for the big red button with the words PRESS ME inscribed just above it.

Emma was too young to read much more than her name but the button needed no explanation. With a whooshing sound the air around her was full of colorful bits of paper. She dropped the confetti cannon (as Dan had already dubbed it in his mind) and danced amid the sparkly ammunition. Before long, her long hair and pretty dress were covered with the stuff, and her parents had to admit that, if anything, she was even more adorable than ever.

"Again!" she called out, clapping her hands.

*Delia pops out the kitchen doors, and observes the havoc being wrecked*

None of this is my fault.

Oh, yes: a quick announcement for all you folks. The holiday season is almost over, with the Feast of Epiphany being tomorrow. This also means...once the Feast is over, the 2019 Holiday Mansion will shudder--shutter--its doors for another eleven and a half months.

You have been warned!

*disappears back into the kitchen*