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Dr Ronchas had rented a nice community center at the edge of Barton closest to Durem. The building itself is rather small, by Ronchas' standards, but his secretary had recommended something that wouldn't use too many of the company's resources and Ronchas would never do anything to upset Selma.



The party room was large enough for tables and chairs for all who would be attending, but Ronchas decided to leave out the tables so it would be easier to make a circle for the white elephant gift exchange. Instead, there were a few chairs strewn about in an almost haphazard fashion and many more against the walls. The buffet table only had a few things on it, since the rest of the guests would be bringing a potluck.

Ronchas' assistant, Nurse Violet was making a few last arrangements on her tray of sugar cookies of several different holiday shapes. She was to be attending the daycare room for most of the night, though Dr Ronchas had planned on paying the little rascals a visit at some point. He was pleased that Violet had handled most of the decorations in reds, greens, blues and whites. Even the table was covered with a snowflake table cloth. The tree was lovely too. Too bad there was no fireplace. It would have perfected the intended mood.



Even still, Ronchas was pleased.

"Doctor," Violet called to him from the kitchen as she bustled about. "Did you want me to put out the eggnog now or later?"

"I'll take care of it later," he mumbled a little too quietly for her to hear, so he repeated himself. "No, no. I'll take care of it later," a little bit louder this time. It would really be the first thing he'd done to prepare for tonight. Violet had even picked out and wrapped the white elephant gift for him, since she would be unable to participate, she had insisted. He even promised, to her delight, that he would give her whatever he ended up with. What would he want with such a silly thing as a white elephant gift?

Ronchas walked into the gameroom which was only separated from the party room by some nonfunctional little protrusions of wall. There was air hockey and a foosball table. Everything was ready for their guests.


((OOC: Participating in this Metaplot gives you a freebie to replace any one requirement for your current stage of child. This freebie cannot be used for any stage but your current one!))

Ronchas looked toward the door as he heard voices outside. When it opened he saw the couple who'd most recently joined the ranks of Double Trouble patrons. "Welcome, welcome, welcome," he exclaimed as they came through the door. "Make yourselves at home."

Violet came out from the kitchen as Ronchas made his greeting. She saw the woman holding quit a large tray and realized she was one of the expecting mothers. She dashed over and offered to take the dish from her. "You shouldn't be holding heavy things," she said, more out of worry than scolding. Though she did throw the man a look that questioned why he'd let her carry the tray.

Ronchas nearly laughed at Violet. The tray couldn't have been that heavy, and yet she still fretted over a thing like that. "Violet can take care of the food," he motioned to the buffet table with very little on it. "You can put the white elephant gifts under the tree."

Felicity was sulking, despite being all prettied up for this party thing. "I'm not going to smile..." Because she was still under the impression that she looked ridiculous with one fang and it just wasn't going to happen. She wasn't going to be laughed at for looking dorky because of her dumb brother.

"Fine you don't have to smile. But you do have to be nice. I'm not going to have you two poking at each other during this thing. It's not the time nor the place to be doing such things." Those two still weren't back in good with one another all the way but there were plans to fix that. Personally he wasn't sure how he was feeling about going to this party thing but yet here he was, dressed more than casual and with his trench coat keeping the cold out, guiding twins and wife into the little center.

"Means we get first dibs on leaving if need be." What with cranky children. "At least it's an evening thing." Exchanging the tray with his daughter's own brought gift to her hands, he headed over to the table, his son trailing him the entire way and also sulking. Setting the tray down he plopped a hand on his son's head and ruffled his hair. "Well there's nobody around your age here yet. But that won't be horrible, I'm sure there's something here to entertain yourself with and if not, I'll convince your mother to let us escape. Now go on, gift, tree and please try to get along with your sister."

Taking her gift over to the tree, she was quick to scamper back to her mother and cling to her arm for the time being. They didn't go to big social functions after all and she was feeling insecure about missing one fang still. "Are our friends going to be here mama?" Oh she hoped so. As much as she loved spending time with Toby, they just weren't getting along right now. They needed inbetween people.

When the next couple came in, along with their children it took quite a bit to keep Kara from squealing in joy. She took Donovan's arm and more or less dragged him over to the other couple. What handsome children they have she couldn't help but think to herself.

All the while she missed her husband rolling his eyes. He was all for understanding this little community they had gotten themselves into, and he could even put up with being at a party in a pinch.

Who was he kidding? He wanted to be home, with people he knew and not complete strangers.

Gently tugging Felicity while she pocketed the device, she positioned the girl in front of her and gave a smile to the couple who were obviously one of the newer members of the clinic. Sending the younger woman a reassuring smile, Sam glanced at her distended tummy. "Congratulations. How far along?"

She recognized the fascination of parenthood from when she'd been in the same position. Her eyes had constantly been traveling to parents with twins on the street and everywhere else while she pictured herself in their shoes. "We're the Calders. I'm Samantha and this is my husband, Xearus. And these are our twins, Felicity and Thobias."

He was thrilled and his fist pumped the air in celebration before he settled into the slightly curious expression he usually wore. Mama and Lici were the social ones, though, he'd rather stay back and watch.

"This was a stupid idea."

"Oh, stuff it." Pep rolled her eyes at her badly tempered husband. The babies were bundled up well, chubby little buggers all filled with fat. Jean-Paul looked about, eyes wide. Oh, yay! Things were different!

"Mikey doesn't like it." Indeed, Mikey was clinging quite tightly to his father. Enk!

"Well, how are we going to socialize them if we don't take them out." Pep smiled sweetly, talking through her teeth.

Great. "Let's not fight." Not in public, at least.

Jean happily ignored his parents and squealed at everyone he saw. OMG YAY!

"Pleasure to meet you. The first couple of months are either your best or your worst. For me, they were the best. I suppose when you try for as long as we did though, you tend to hold the fact that you finally made it in much higher esteem than those who it just sort of happens." Mothers were able to leap past all those pleasantries and silly conversation and dive right into the meat of it. And Sam was a OBGYN so she had even more common ground with these women. Noting silently that they didn't have the last name, she gave a nod to the husband. "You can beg them to be social but they never really comply." Rolling her eyes towards her own man and then chuckling softly. "You should get something to eat. You're eating for three after all."