Happy 2018! Holiday Catch-Up and What's Next

Hey Guys!

   Sorry for the late post, but Happy New Year! I hope you guys had fun over the holidays, mine was definitely a busy one! Also more happy news: my blog editor Katie graduated art school with her game design degree! I dunno what that means for the blog's posting schedule, but that's great right? I'm happy for her!

   Anyways back to the blog. Christmas was really fun this year! On Isle Delfino, I managed a Winter/Christmas Festival on the 21st that spanned the entire island! Of course, the island is in a more tropical part of the world, so we had to compensate a couple of things. We obviously didn't have snow or ice, but we had sand sleds instead! Our smoothies and shakes had holiday flavors in them like cinnamon, mint and cranberry that were super refreshing! And to top it off, our "Christmas tree" was the Shine Gate at Delfino Plaza fully decked out in lights and garland! Combine that with the light show from the Shine Sprites, and it really felt like Christmas Eve! After all of that fun, my staff was given time off for Christmas to be with their families, which gave PomPom and I a chance to head back to the Mushroom Kingdom to have another party!

   When we got to the Bros.' house, they welcomed us warmly like always and got us inside, 'cuz it was fa-reezing out! I had forgotten about the snow from playing the sand earlier that week. Once we were all settled in, Mario caught us up with the weekend plans: We had a guest visiting on the 23rd, Peach's giant party at the castle and spend the night on Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas morning it would be me, the Bros., Peach and PomPom for a sort of "family" setting. So we helped in getting the house together in expecting the guest when it hit me: I didn't know who was coming! When I tried to ask them, they just beat around it and told me it was a surprise, which only confused me more. Finally the next day in the morning we get a knock on the door, it was my SISTER!! Yeah, this is going to sound very confusing right now, but I super duper promise you guys I'll make a post soon that explains this in detail okay? Cool? Sweet. Anyway, my older sister! I haven't gotten a chance to see her in a while because she was on a journey with Rosalina in space, which also meant that Rose was in town too! For the entire day I took her to see Toad Town all decked out in Christmas decorations. We then watched people ice skating on a frozen lake, drank cocoa at the cafe, and went to the library and found books with Christmas stories and read them. She's a bit more refined and mature than I am, but I was more than happy to do what she wanted. We were so exhausted by the time we got back, but it was so fun! When we were getting ready for bed that night, I was willing to let her sleep in my room while I took the couch, but she insisted that she'd stay in the living room with me to be fair. So yeah, PomPom and I had the couch and she took the recliner, sister sleepover!

   The following morning was Christmas Eve, so the five of us went out for a fun breakfast at our favorite cafe. PomPom and I split some pancakes and she managed to get syrup ALL over her fluff! My sister and I had to take her to the restroom to try and wash the stickiness off. Probably took us 10 minutes to get it off! After breakfast, we all hung out at the house waiting for the party at the castle. Later that evening, we made our way to Peach's Christmas Party! There was a lot of people already there by the time we arrived, ranging from townsfolk to out-of-country visitors. Peach never likes to leave out certain groups of people from her parties, so she extends her invitations to all classes of citizens. When we all got inside, the usual suspects came to greet us at the door: Peach, Daisy, Yoshi, Rosalina, Toad... You name 'em, they were there. Peach even tried to send an invite to Bowser and Junior too, but they never came. Probably doing their own thing with the minions, nothing wrong with that. The party itself was awesome though! Pauline was there with her band from New Donk City playing jazzy Christmas music for most of the night, they were amazing! There was tons to do at the castle: there were treat stands, light shows, snow activities for younger guests, and there were even some guests who brought gifts for Peach and placed them under her tree! For the first half of it everyone was in high spirits talking and laughing with each other, but eventually the night started to slow down. At around this point I remembered something... Where was Dominic? As soon as I think that, he appeared at the door, and I my heart just about skipped a beat.

   This was where my Christmas Eve turned into one of those Hallmark movies. Like, not even trying to be cheesy here. Dominic first went over to us and said hello, and I had to introduce him to the friends that hadn't met him at that point. It was hilarious watching everyone's different reactions to the news that I had a boyfriend, crazy Daisy's was my personal favorite. After all of that, I noticed that Dominic had a small present in his hand. I then remembered my present I made for him and took it out. Remember the one that I was having trouble with last post? I figured it out. We both saw each other's presents and decided to go off to the side to give them out. As we walked away though I could hear everyone giggling and chattering behind us like schoolgirls; I just rolled my eyes at them. Soon the two of us made our way over to a satin bench under a window and gave our gifts. I opened his first, and my jaw hit the floor. It was a small, golden rose statuette sitting in a glass vase! Dominic told me that it's been a tradition in his family to give a golden rose to their significant other while they dated as a symbol of the growing relationship. It was so touching guys, to think that the first present he ever gave me is something so precious, I nearly teared up! Then it was his turn to open my gift, I was so nervous! When he unwrapped the ribbon and opened the box, an equally surprised expression appeared on his face. Then he removed it from the box to see it better, a new Shine Sprite charm, made just for him. He then says he was so surprised because he thought there was supposed to be only 3 charms, the ones that Mario, Luigi, and I wear. I then explained to Dominic that I took a small portion of my powers, crystallized it, and turned it into a new fourth charm for him as a gift. The charm functions just like Mario and Luigi's. It will flash when Dominic is in trouble, and my spell Shining Shield will trigger if he's ever attacked to protect him. You could almost say that he now has a small piece of me to take back to Ellantia. After my explanation, he just smiled and immediately put the charm on. It looked nice on him, looks like I picked a long enough pendant chain.

   After such a romantic moment, seeing my sister again, and enjoying the party, my Christmas Eve truly felt complete. Slowly but surely the guests left the castle as the party ended, sending Christmas wishes as they went. Before long the Toads instantly got to work in cleaning up, and the rest of my friends who stuck around pitched in to help too. When everyone was through with the cleanup, Pauline packed up her band and was ready to head back to New Donk City, when she invited us to celebrate New Years there! So that was something to look forward to! Finally all of our friends left one by one, while I walked Dominic back to the Warp Zone he used to get to the castle. Finally after a long night it was just me with Mario, Luigi, Peach, and PomPom. We then went to our own bedrooms and spent the night, PomPom and I stayed with Peach while the Bros. were in another guest room. After a night's rest we woke up to a peaceful Christmas Morning with Peach baking cinnamon rolls. While we had breakfast we opened our presents between each other and then from our friends that dropped them off the night before. I got a lot of cool stuff! We then enjoyed the rest of our Christmas as a pseudo-family. Flash forward a few days and we took up on Pauline's offer and traveled to New Donk City for New Years! It was just like a New Years celebration in New York's Times Square! They even had their own form of a ball drop with a Multi-Moon instead! With Pauline singing away with her classic "Jump up, Super Star!', the celebration was the greatest one I had ever experienced in my life! I don't anything will ever top it!

   Well, I'm rambling again, but those were my holiday plans! Going forward into 2018, I will only keep trying to do my absolute best for everyone of you, my friends, and my family. Katie and I have a lot in store for us this coming year, so here's to going through it again with each other! We'll have been together for 10 years come Summer time, and I hope for many more. And to all of you, fans of me and this blog, thank you. Thank you for being a part of my life and continuing to support me and Katie. Maybe, just maybe, if we all grow big enough, we just might be noticed by more people! Well, time to go. Happy New Year to you all, blog ya soon!

   - Dana ;)

The moment when I gave Dominic the charm.
Also, first picture of 2018! Woot!