By the time that Thistle returns to the Manor, a celebration is in full swing. It's not a fancy affair, organized and catered and planned in advance, but a more unstructured party atmosphere.
Marigold is taking it a little easy - which is to say, she actually is letting others help her out instead of insisting on doing everything. If that means that Gwen had gloved up and kneading pizza dough, and Madern followed her instructions for the the layer cake, then so be it. The point is, that everything got done, and if it's not perfect, it's still good. Homemade pizzas by Marigold are delicious, and allow people to customize their own toppings. The cake is decorated with icing in the shape of... well, Marigold may have originally planned bookwyrms, constellations, and dragons, but if just a scattering of icing in white dots appears, hey, that's STARS and that's very nearly as good.
The guests from outside the hold, sadly, have not all returned, but that doesn't mean that their present is not felt, in the heap of gifts on a table. Granted, most of them are for Thistle, but there are some for Art as well.