#rivervale_lodge

The food coma is real

It must be said, the Thanksgiving was amazing, some new side dishes to try

At least they burned some calories ahead of time with the sparring. But of course, everything had to be tasted, and all those little portions added up.

"Okay, that dish from Crete was delicious" Siv fights a belch

"Thank you!" Kerri says. "I was really fortunate to learn that particular recipe."

Frank leans back in his chair, full.

Jess settles back too. "Amazing, Kerri, thank you."

"Mmm." Brekke makes a contented sound as she savors her coffee.

"When Piper gets back, could you make something for her?"

Dagmar is contentedly scrubbing dishes.

She has help, Gerd dries

Gerd says to Dagmar "You want me to take over? I'm here a lot. you deserve a chance to socialize with fam and friends here"

"I'd be happy to, Siv."

Siv beams "I have fantastic aunts but as of now, you're on the top of the list... at least until Tove's next song about the sea"

Tove looks over at Kerri "Do you feel vaguely manipulated too or is it just me?" Amusement in her eyes

A quiet shake of her head. "Haven't been around. I wanna do this."

"Oh, just a wee bit," Kerri grins.

"That's what a niece's job is, I think."

Gerd nods "Okay, but I'm gonna quick silver the work and cheat for us both" A smile

And glamour flows, allowing Dagmar and Gerd to do 10 minutes of work in five

Kerri savors her second glass of wine, and looks over to the kitchen door. "I should check on things in there."

"I imagine they got it" Olgar says "But if you want , let em know I can swap out with one. Clean up I can do"

She pauses...then leans against him a bit more. "They've got it," she agrees.

Olgar makes sure his wife is comfy "Good. Enjoy the wine?"

Siv winks at her dad and mom, and gathers dirty dishes up and heads to the kitchen to help.

Brekke gives Siv a nod.

Sylvi stifles a burp. "Ooh, 'scuse me." And she gets up to help clear and clean as well.

"Better out than in" Vali observes

And soon, the wilders are in the kitchen

"Hey! You guys are almost done!" Sylvi says, scraping off the dishes she brought in.

"I cheated" Gerd says "Dagmar just worked hard. Good to see you and her again, Sylvi" A smile "Old school is so different being the 'older' teen"

Grunt. ("quicksilver is cheating.")

"No regrets" Gerd says primly

"You keeping everybody else in line around here, Older Teen?"

"HA" Gerd snorts "The childlings run wild and the other wilders tune me out too much for my liking. Seriously, folks complain about problems like they want me to do something to help, so I give advice, they nod and do it what they were doing wrong anyway. Seriously, Sylvi, you don't know what it's like being poked for a plan, only to watch folks go do the opposite then they look all fussy about it when it blows up"

Snerk.

A blink, and an amused look. "Oh, sure. I've got no clue about that. None at all."

Siv looks amused as well "Hear that? We older wilders had it easier"

"SO much easier" Gerd nods firmly "High School's got the DUMBEST Freshmen this year..."

Sylvi stands still suddenly. "Oh, wow. Is this what it's like for Mom, when she hears me complain???"

A quiet grin.

"Huh?" Gerd says

Siv snerks a bit too loudly

"Perspective is a moving target, I guess." She passes the scraped plates to Dagmar.

"Oh fine" gerd catches on "But there's this one guy, nice guy... bit well off , and there's this girl who is all over him or I should say all over his credit card... and then she leaves. He bought two tickets to this play...hoping she'd go out. She got all excited, then said she WISHED she could take her grandma... he felt bad and just let her have both. Guess what? She didn't take her grandma, she went with another guy."

Siv frowns "Whoa. He's being played all right"

"That's a dick move, though."

"She sucks."

"Yeah, I warned him... told him she wasn't nice ... you're not going to believe how he responded"

The older girls probably have a good theory on EXACTLY how he responded.