2.23 - The Grump of Winterfest

Caleb and Lettie started this chapter out being quite a bit less than inspired. I was planning to ignore it when I realized...

They likely wouldn't let me anyways.

Also Billie is pregnant, and this chapter marks the start of when I actually stop taking full screenshots to show notifications... hopefully.

I've been keeping kind of hush-hush about this, but I really wasn't joking when I said these two gave me an insane amount of inspiration.
Enough so that I've ported them to my Atalan Chronicles and have factored out an entire story around them (and I've got a solid several-chapter draft started, along with the outline already written).
Hello, yes, that is me signing onto a sixth story for that world. Why the fuck not?

Took me literally eons to get Lettie's face right, but Caleb came pretty naturally.
Also, they're both equal dorks across all universes, it seems.

And one last one for the road.

Lettie's eyes are green, and her hair is dyed (by Atalan's standards). Nymphs are the only ones with naturally-unnatural hair and eye colors, of which, Lettie is not. She dyes it instead, and wears color contacts as part of her persona.

It works out nicely.
That's really all I can spill for now. I truly wanted to wait and drop in a fantastic little snippet of writing, but I'm a little too slammed to do a full-out teaser like I'd want to.
Maybe one day...
Logical Me: *snorts* fat chance...

Back to your regularly scheduled Ghiblis... I decided that, given they have one open spot and 6 kids remaining on the 10 children countdown, that maybe it's time for them to start the biological kids.

They've practiced much for this occasion.

So it really wasn't a surprise that it happened on the first go.

Lettie was so excited, and that got Caleb excited.

Lettie: It happened, we did it!
Caleb: I knew it would! This is fantastic!

I had to break out my crowbar so they could do other things with their lives.

They chased each other around the house to hug and love on each other. Lettie also tried to chase down her sister to tell her the news.

The whole house was abuzz with excitement.

Martha decided she needed to sit down after the news and enjoy a nice, fresh plasma... right in all that paint.
Caleb finally got pulled into the Celebrity life...

And Lettie finally topped off the Violin skill, which is perfect - another skill bites the dust!

It's Winterfest, so I'm being put through the ringer trying to get everyone to a gold holiday.

Everyone gathers round to "light the tree" or something, I dunno, the list recommended it, so I did it.

I turned whims back on for some spice of life, and to help start accumulating more satisfaction points, so here's Caleb wishing to read to his daughter.
Yes, I get great happiness at calling her his daughter. Mhm.

Yuna is definitely Lettie's daughter.

I realized I never really take many pictures up close of my sims, and I would like to. They're pretty babies!

Lettie's back to work writing so she can pull the Ghibli family from destitution. I do have to say one thing I really dislike about TS4 so far is that the careers that aren't writing/painting do fuck all for your money. I had Erick as the last real big money-maker (writer) and he stopped writing avidly by the time Lettie and Martha were teens (except the occasional book here and there for his job requirements) and the family barely maintained 100k until this point.
When the bills came in and knocked out half of that shit (right before EA patched it, the fuckers took TOO DAMN LONG *weeping*) I shoved Caleb and Martha onto painting and Lettie onto books and within 2-3 days they had the funds back up to where they were pre-bill disaster without breaking a sweat.
That kind of imbalance is pretty damn ridiculous, if you ask me.
TS4 careers are SO tedious. They take too damn long to get promotions (even when you've more than met the requirements), it's nearly impossible to get them to even stay at work, and to top it all off, they're getting paid fuck all. If it weren't a requirement for this damn legacy, I would've tossed that shit to the side ages ago in favor of at-home money-making.
/end rant.

Have some cute Ami to make up for it.

Caleb was responsible for getting her up and bathed so she could come down to enjoy the Winterfest with everyone else.

Shira got caught making a mess and Martha came over to scold him for it.

He promptly cleaned it up.
I'm trying to be more hands-off with the kids of this generation, but making messes is one thing I don't tolerate. I don't want the nasty "gross environment" moodlets, and I don't want to have to waste my Sims time cleaning up messes everywhere. Do whatever else you like, kiddos, but making messes is not one of them.
Unless you're not at home.
Then I'll tolerate it.

It was gift time for everyone, so I called them all over... and then spent the next Sim hour figuring out that you had to do it on an individual level because the "call to open presents with..." button does fuck all.

Lettie got... upgrade parts. How classy.

Kao got bubbles from Geekcon... he looks thrilled.
I would be too if all I got was soap water and a plastic ring.

He cheered up when he realized that completed his tradition and that there were more presents to be opened.

Ami got an activity table she can't use until she's a child.

Yuna got... a "hopper." ???
Whatever.

Shira got a model plane he can't play with as it's just decoration.

And Caleb got a Coral Garden for decoration to sit next to the model plane.

Finally, Martha got a dead fish. Wow EA, you're doing great at gift giving.
#thoroughly unimpressed
Also took me way too long to realize there's a cooldown on gifts? So they had to wait 3 more hours before they can have another go at the present pile.
Ridiculous.

Caleb works on the grand meal of poison for all the vampires who so desperately want to eat it as part of their Winterfest traditions (dumb oversight if you ask me, EA).

The kids start working avidly on their scout badges.

and Ami is happy to be entertained by them while they dance.

I don't quite understand why Caleb is going all-out for this feast... no one is going to eat more than one bite of it before throwing up.

Two more scout badges to add to the pile.

Make that three!

Caleb had a wish to sneak a present, and thankfully that didn't need a cooldown, so I had him sneak in to snatch one up.
He got a kids poster... are you sure you snatched one for you Caleb and not for the kids?

(everyone takes a bite and gets instantly nauseated)
Caleb: .....
Lettie: .....
Martha: .....
Caleb: So now what?

Martha: Ooh that one bite was too much. I feel so full and dazed...

Howl called Lettie for a chat.

I can only imagine it went something like this:
Howl: Lettie you'll never guess what-
Lettie: What's up?
Howl: Dad... he's buried in the backyard.
Lettie: *gasps* really?
Howl: I know right, how juicy is that?

Shira and Kao had wishes to play darts and win at dart respectively, so they went off to do that and both got their wishes.

Yuna locks herself in the focus room to work on her homework for her aspiration.

The presents timer was up, so everyone returned to snatch up another gift.

Finally a half-decent gift. JFC. Also Spirit is a child now! Maybe ONE of these days I'll have her at a convenient enough time to give her a makeover.

And a kids toy! There we go! It took you long enough to get with the program, game!

Ami was happy to have opened her gift all by herself. 

Ok EA.. don't make me take back what I said.

Ok phew... kids toys for kids.

Annnnnnnnnd I'm not about to complain about this one since it's a collectible and we didn't already have it. To the basement with this one!

Caleb had a wish to snowball fight, so I had him take the kids outside to play with him... and it wasn't until they started the fight that I realized that none of them would autonomously change into their outerwear.
JFC EA!
Jeesus. Fucking. CHRIST.
Even TS3 had sense to have Sims change into the appropriate attire before going outside!

Either way, I stop the game, have them all change into sensible clothing like any normal sim fucking WOULD if they had a half-decent AI... and then they can finally resume when they're decently clothed.
*grumbles*

Sophie stopped by the house thanks to Caleb's newfound fame as she tries to eek her way into stardom. She did this once with Lettie, too.
Lettie viewed it as a positive thing and announced her pregnancy.

Hmm...
*everyone takes a step to the left on the home lot* Look, Erick, we're already here!
Unless you mean the underworld, of which case... we'll pass.

Kao gives away 5 of his toys to get himself a "giving back" badge.

Then the kids all gather around dinner (hey look, someone can eat Caleb's ham without vomiting! Too bad they don't have the grand feast tradition) and chat... in their outerwear... because they have no AI to tell them to dress appropriately inside or outside.
*grumbling increases*

That's right folks. That's a masterpiece.
That fish right there... is a masterpiece.

Caleb reached level 10 in painting with the non-masterpiece he's painting there... next to the masterpiece fish painting that's worth...
(goes to check price)

HOLY FUCK
Whatever you say game! That's the most BEAUTIFUL masterpiece of them all. Yes it is indeed. Sign me up onto the masterpiece campaign I believe it yes mhm yessir. 
(coughs)
Yeah so that got sold immediately.

Hey look, the fat-fuck finally showed up...
ER uh um I mean...
Father Winter!

The kids drag his ass in to greet him, but have no option to ask for presents. He meanders his fat-fuck ass back outside where everyone chases him and tries to snake into his pockets for that goddamn gift so we can all go the fuck to sleep.

Lettie, in the middle of all this chase, gets a second star for publishing another book.

He gives Kao a Turquoise.

... and nothing else memorable to anyone else. Caleb and Lettie made sure their kids weren't going to get kidnapped by this creepy fat-fuck.

Then Ami - fucking cute ass Ami over here comes out and sweetly asks for her gift... and what does she get?

She gets a big, fat pile of fuck-all from fat-fuck.

She tried talking to him, but the option never came up. Ami got completely fucked over this Winterfest, poor baby.
And that, is the Grouch who told Winterfest to fuck off (aka: me).
Happy Holidays, everyone!

Chapter 2.24 >