Your Princess is in Another Castle

6-1

Arnold had been helping in the shop again today but with it being New Year's Eve they didn't get many customers and his father decided to close at 4 as it was pointless to keep it open for no one. Arnold expected that everyone was getting ready to celebrate the coming of a new year rather than concern themselves with shopping and that's why they were quiet. He didn't want to complain but it had been very boring at first and then his father had let him come and help make the custom orders and other pieces of furniture and that kept him occupied. With the shop being closed they went back upstairs and joined the rest of the family as they watched a movie on TV.

Arnold liked how on these holidays they could watch more TV even if it wasn't always something he enjoyed like this movie it was nice to be a part of what was going on and when he saw his friends again he could tell them about what he had watched. The only person who wasn't watching the TV with them was mama as she was occupied with making the food for tonight, instead of their usual meal they always had a buffet type deal with a bunch of party food and treats that they didn't get throughout the year as treat for all of them. His parents saved money up all year to pay for the food that they ate over these holidays as they got more treats than any other time of year from rich puddings and good meat to chocolate and chips. He was glad that they did as it gave them all something to look forward to and he got to enjoy something that regular kids had most of the time.

The movie ended and with that mama called them into the kitchen/dining room and they saw that she had laid out the buffet table with all the food she had been preparing. They all smiled and thanked her before grabbing a paper plate and loading up on food from cheese sandwiches to chocolate cake. They could eat as much as they liked until they were full and so they all got several plates of food each. Arnold always went for the sandwiches and such first and then he would grab the sweeter things later, but he had to be fast about it as the others would devour these quickly, his favourite things were the cheesecake and the sausage rolls and he made sure he got them before they disappeared. They spent a good amount of time enjoying this buffet and talking amongst themselves, recalling what had been going on this year and what they were looking forward to next year. For Arnold that was changing schools to the high school and all that would entail. For Jacob he suspected it would mean looking forward to his final year of school and starting the application process to colleges. For the others it was other things from seeing their children growing up to learning new things at school and new toys coming out for them to stare at in the hopes they would get them.

After they had eaten their fill of the food, his mom wrapped the leftovers up for them to enjoy another day and put them away in the fridge and did the small amount of washing up they had but because they had used paper plates this wasn't a lot. They then went to the living room and got out charades and started to play that. It was always good fun, but the younger kids had a hard time figuring out what they were meant to do or what the others were trying to show them and they usually gave up after half an hour or so and played with their toys whilst the adults and those old enough to know what's what carried on the game. It was always funny seeing mama or a grandparent try and act out a film or something to them and Arnold and the others were often full of laughter as they played the game. After several rounds of it they got a little bored and used most of the cards anyway and they packed it away.

There were still 3 hours until midnight and the younger children were already flagging as this was the usual time they went to bed, but they wanted to try and stay up to see the new year in. They decided to stick some music on and have a bit of a dance party, of course, they stuck on what his parents liked which was Elton John and other music from the late '60s and early '70s which they enjoyed. Still it was alright to dance to and though not as good as the disco and pop that he liked to listen to it was ok and he had to put up with it. It got everyone on their feet though and revived the younger children for a bit. His parents even allowed the older ones to drink a little bit of alcohol and he felt a nice buzz from the beer he drunk. They did this dance party for over an hour as well as having small talk between each other. By then it was obvious that Matilda and Ruddy weren't going to make it until midnight and so mama put both of them to bed and then they had to turn the music off to let them two sleep. To fill the remainder of the time until midnight they turned on the TV to watch the special program that was one which was a concert from New York City and featured a lot of popular artists from that year.

Arnold enjoyed watching the program as it allowed him to see artists, he occasionally listens to during the year perform live and see other parts of the country as well. The two hours passed rapidly as they watched this program and soon, they were doing the countdown. When it was time, he saw that both his parents and grandparents kissed each other and then watched the amazing fireworks that they were setting off in New York and he always enjoyed seeing these things. One day when he was old enough, he hoped to be one of the people in the crowd in Times Square to see it for real rather than just on TV. After the fireworks finished, they all went to bed.