"I think Noah and I are fine," Mel told Ian. "We'll let you use both hands to fill your plate." 

She leaned into the petting, nodding seriously at Noah. "You're doing a great job there--any chance you could get a little higher on my shoulder?"

Back up on the (other) side of the entryway, Delia paused for a moment, watching Lauren wander away from the group. 

"Ahem," Delia cleared her throat, stepping forward. "Hi."

She looked down at the blanket in her arms, then held it out to Lauren.

"I thought a warm blanket might help. It doesn't fix anything, to be sure, but...it's soft. If you need a little quiet space, the third door on the right," Delia paused, pointing down the hall on the opposing side of the entryway, "is a nice room, with a great chair, and a bay window that overlooks the garden. You're welcome to any of the amenities in the bathroom, too."

"I can't wait to see everyone," Kaelin gushed with a little skip and twirl. The girl's blue velvet coat and hat were trimmed with a broad band of white fur, and the blue velvet pants sticking out beneath them seemed to indicate this was a fully matching ensemble. The bounce in her curls and the twinkle in her eyes betrayed that this year was a good mood year. Maeve, on the other hand, while chuckling to herself at the girl's antics, would not quicken her pace to match Kaelin's mood.

"Come ON already!" Kaelin called, jumping about, then suddenly stooping to gather up some snow and toss an ill-formed ball into her sister's face.

Maeve stopped as it hit its mark, and pulled one ungloved hand out of a pocket to brush the snow out of her eyes. It was at that moment Kaelin realized she had miscalculated, and, as Maeve conducted a flurry of snow around her finger and sent it after her, Kaelin ran screaming for the Mansion doors, barely sliding inside and slamming the door before an additional flurry struck it. 

She looked around, wondering if Maeve would continue chasing her with snow, or if propriety would win out. 

"Ms. Ainsley! You look gorgeous today!" Kaelin babbled, squirming out of her coat and hat and running over to the young woman and giving her a hug. 

Ainsley was not unaware of Delia's obvious attempt at a stare-down, she merely chose to ignore it. Years of corporate jousting with hubristic men had granted her nerves of steel, many had attempted to intimidate her, most had failed. Besides, she had the upper hand on Delia, no reason to grant the woman any hint of her devious goings-on. Still, she kept a careful eye on the Ghost Hunter as she sauntered away, obviously in search of... something. Then, just before Ainsley set off in search of her aforementioned cider, her waist was accosted by a tiny elemental. 

"Miss Kaelin!" She exclaimed happily, crouching down to return the hug. She quickly assessed the young girls outfit, then with a gasp she replied.

"Thank you so much! But look at you, all prettied up, you look absolutely fabulous! You must tell me the name of your designer!" 

Kaelin giggled.

"Aw, I don't have a designer," she said, slightly swishing back and forth. "Maeve made it."

Ainsley bopped Kaelin gently on the nose.

"Of course you have a designer! Maeve is your stylist, you silly goose, where's she at anyhow? You didn't bury her in a snowbank, did you?" 

For a moment, Ian debated whether it was really the mark of a responsible adult to leave his honorary nephew in the hands of others, however willing and reliable, just for the sake of a snack -- then he looked in the direction of the table, and decided he could live with being seen as slightly irresponsible. He was certain no one here was going to hurt Noah, after all, and even with all of the tragic changes in the little boy's life, he remained easily pleased and (usually) obedient. 

"I'll be right back, Noah, be good, okay?" Ian waited for a response, but the toddler was preoccupied with petting Mel. Confident the situation was in hand, he headed for the table.

---

Lauren did not like thinking of herself as an emotional person. There was absolutely no question that she was, but she still didn't like it. She especially did not like it when other people saw her being emotional. It tended to make her even more upset, which other people noticed, which then -- well, it was unpleasant for everybody.

In other circumstances, Delia's offer would have grated, but for some reason in this circumstance, it soothed her tumultuous emotions a little. Maybe it was her tone of voice. Or maybe it was that Lauren's emotions had been acting oddly ever since the accident. After all, she was awfully upset about something that wasn't affecting her that much, really. Ian was the one looking after Noah most of the time. And it wasn't like she and Melissa were close, or that there hadn't been tragedy in the family before --

Lauren took the blanket with more force than necessary, and with a barely mumbled "thanks" headed immediately in the direction Delia had indicated. If she was going to cry, she was going to do it where no one could see her.

"Nooooooo," Kaelin said with a little giggle. "...but she was chasing me with snow, so she might be in in a minute or two."

Delia smiled softly as Lauren slipped off to the room, then looked across the entryway and tsked. She went over and picked up Kaelin's hat and coat, so recently abandoned by their owner, dusted the now-melting snow off of them, and put them up, muttering under her breath about kids these days.

"She was chasing you with snow? What a bully." Ainsley tisked, standing up to her full height and placing her hands on her hips.

"We'll have to get her back." 

Toddler attention spans are unreliable things, so after a nice session of patting Mel on the shoulder, Noah's eyes went to shiny objects, and it wasn't long before boy and dog had an ornament off the tree and were playing 'Bounce the Ornament'. 

Noah would throw, the sphere would drop near his feet, Mel would look around before nosing it back toward his hand, and Noah would laugh and repeat the process.

The ornament would never be the same, but what was a party without repurposing a decoration or two?

Kaelin grinned back at Ainsley, nodding her head vigorously and neglecting to mention that she had, in fact, started it all by throwing a snowball in her sister's face. 

Unaware of all such scheming, Maeve reached the door, pulled it, and walked into the hall where Delia was busy putting Kaelin's things up. 

"Sorry about that, Delia--I guess we need to work on manners a bit more," Maeve said, shrugging out of her own coat and putting it away next to Kaelin's. "Thanks for taking care of that."

Ainsley reached into her clutch, it was surprisingly deep, in fact her arm disappeared into it all the way to her shoulder. After a bit of rummaging she produced a small vial of red and green glitter. The twinkle in her eye nearly as bright as the glint from the glass bottle. 

"You didn't get this from me, now, you can use it on your big sister... Or you could use it on Miss Death if you wanted to be really devilish." 

"Nooooo, Miss Death is scary when she's mad."

Still Kaelin giggled, took the glitter vial and slipped it into her pocket. 

"Thanks, I'm sure I can put it to good use," she said, smiling at Ainsley and then looking around. "Mel-y!" You're here, too!"

Delia smiled and nodded at Maeve. 

"Kids will be kids," she said, "and sometimes they have to make up for lost time. Come on in: it's a small party this year, but most everyone is in by the food, I believe."