The Week we needed a bigger table ❤️

What an exciting week we’ve had! Welcome to another weekly family update!

Ever since we moved the arts and crafts table into the library, it’s become one of our favourite places in the house. Both girls absolutely love drawing and crafting, and quite often, whatever they’re creating looks so adorable and special that everyone somehow ends up gathering around, simply enjoying the lovely atmosphere. Since I enabled AI chat for both of our bot children, they occasionally pick up on something being said in local chat and start having the cutest little conversations with each other. More often than not, Mewriel joins in as well. She’s found a lovely little spot in the library with Henry, and before you know it, we have the most entertaining conversations going on. Sometimes we parents simply sit down or crouch beside the girls and watch the wonderful things our daughters are making. (And make sure they don’t attack each other with the craft scissors or glue sticks, but that’s another story. One that will probably disappear quietly into the family archives, never to be mentioned again.)

Because, really, those two are as thick as thieves.

I’m currently setting up a new family sofa in the living room, complete with some lovely family poses, and naturally, the girls immediately had to try everything out, with great enthusiasm. They lie together on a blanket, surrounded by their favourite stuffed animals. Even Henry’s raccoon has graciously been granted admission to their little secret society, presumably because he’s very good at keeping secrets.
And there they are, making up their own little world, preferably in the evening just before bedtime, already in their pyjamas and ever so slightly tired. Not that either of them would ever admit to such a thing.

Especially after one of those evenings when dinner turns into a full-blown family gathering.

Sometimes Papa does the cooking (it happens, although Mewriel is usually the one at the stove), and little by little, the entire family, including Uncle Arthur and Aunt Lottie, somehow ends up hanging around in the kitchen. Lottie pours tea and chats with Mewriel. Arthur sneaks little bites of food and attempts to explain to his niece Villie why he’s allowed to do that and she isn’t. Usually with very limited success. Meanwhile, I’m helping Mike at the stove and trying to keep an eye on Liv, who is currently behaving like a little bag of fleas, bouncing around everywhere and nowhere all at once.

So, really, just another perfectly ordinary evening in our household.

But this week also brought something we’d all been eagerly looking forward to for more than a week: the family birthday dinner for our Liv, who turned two last week. I wrote about her birthday in my previous post. This dinner, however, was going to be something truly special. As you probably know by now, our family is scattered all across the globe, complete with time zones that couldn’t possibly be more inconvenient. Getting everyone together at the same time is usually quite a challenge. But then something happened that still makes me swallow hard and brings a few tears to my eyes whenever I think about it.

Every single one of them was there.

All my sisters, some with their partners, Mike’s brother and sister, and my sister-in-law. Everyone had come. In fact, we eventually had to make the dining table bigger to squeeze in one more guest: Aviannie’s husband Skai, who was visiting us in SL for the very first time. It was an incredible afternoon for those of us in Europe. Some of us celebrated with us even though it was well past midnight where they were. For some of us it was early morning. And yet, every single person made it happen. Our entire big, loud, happy family came together to celebrate Liv and her birthday. But in truth, we were celebrating something else as well.

We were celebrating the family we’ve become over the years.

Just a group of people pretending to be a family in an online game, some might say. And yet, for us, it is so, so much more than that. I am endlessly grateful for this family, for this wonderful time together, and for all the love and togetherness we share as the Family of Cats Hollow. Thank you, each and every one of you, from the bottom of my heart. I love you all so very much.

Naturally, an enormous number of pictures were taken that day. And because there were so many of us, we decided to skip the obligatory group photo for once and simply let our snapshots tell the story.

And with that, I’ll see you next week!

Much love,

Annie