Marisella turned out very well considering her parents were vendors
@coco , the vendors in my game are always pudding sims, but I discovered very early that they will marry and reproduce after their vendor job is over, so I started making them over every Monday morning, when a new festival comes to town and a new pair of vendors is generated. I always have fun doing this. I haven't been documenting it since the beginning so Marissella's parents are not among the pictures, but here are some examples:
I think I actually have my own version of a pudding face - there are some changes I always make to the zero slider sims. I always make the face narrower, the eyes smaller, the eyebrows lower, the jaw longer and the upper lip thicker. Other sliders can go in any direction. But these sims gradually add slider values I like to the town gene pool.
@Gamer43251 Look forward to seeing pictures when you can.
@Karritz Thank you. I did some building yesterday and made a few fairy's for the Fairy Realm so hopefully will be able to share pictures of those soon. Should be almost ready to start playing the save again. I keep thinking of new things to add to the Realm. It only had three premade lots on it so I've been adding what I want to the world to make it playable when I send sims there.
I certainly hope your channel does not get banned. I occasionally look at YouTube video's and some of the language makes my ears bleed! I could see those getting banned before yours!
Sorry to hear the Error 12's are still prevalent. Hope you get it sorted out.
@DillynJames She is certainly beautiful.
Nice new sims. I guess they will be living in some of those beautiful homes you created?
@GraceyManor Sorry you are having so much trouble.
I love that song. One of my favorites. She certainly has a beautiful voice and it blends into the music and words perfectly.
Oh...you are starting over from scratch? Mom is still alive! :::wipes previous version out of memory:::
Cute outfit!
@meerkattime You are such a brave lady playing with the Cates family!
Cute pictures of them and I love seeing Morgan dancing with her...Can't remember her name. Dedric had a very brief SP relationship with her until I caught it and ended it! lol, she was not the one I wanted for him.
@Turjan I always find it amusing to see a sim go into labor out and about. I sometimes have one of my sims to them to the hospital to stop all the screaming, if they don't need to do something else. Sometimes they will wait outside the hospital until the sim comes out with the baby.
@PalmArrow Cool family tree!
Great makeovers of the various vendors!
I've been making over the ones in the Fairy Realm to turn them all into fairy's and changing faces and clothing as well. I noticed as I got tired last night, I was doing less slider changes. hehe I do hate that nose they all end up with though! I notice you didn't change it much so guess you don't mind it?
@coco Thanks for checking out the pictures and commenting! I'm almost done with the Realm and should be able to resume the story maybe next play session.
Sneak peek at some of the royal family playing together as I was testing the changes I made in the castle.
@bekkasan , I'm mostly okay with what the default nose looks like in frontal view, so the sliders end up staying relatively close to the center. I do usually make the nose bigger in profile view and rotated a little bit more downwards.
@bekkasan thank you. It sounds like you're having fun with your fairies.
Regarding those YouTube channels that make your ears bleed. Based on what I've been able to find o ut about the situation, those are the channels that are most likely to be all that's left of YouTube after the end of this year. Channels like mine are what's in the firing line. A lot of people are thinking the only chance the have of staying in YouTube is to start cursing heavily in their videos to make sure they can't be accused of making videos suitable for children under 13.
It is with great pleasure and excitement that I present my 2019 Sims Christmas story: The Christmas Card Lost to Time for your reading enjoyment this Holiday season. ❄ With it being finished I honestly couldn't wait another week, like I planned, to debut it! And it kinda makes sense I post it a little early since the story begins around Thanksgiving.
I will admit that this story is not as Christmasy as my last one, but there is for sure enough Christmas in it to call it a Christmas story. This story is filled with mystery, family history, love, joy and sadness. There's so many different messages you can take away from this story and that's why I hold it so near and dear to my heart and number it among one of the best stories I have written in my lifetime.
I wanted to give a special thanks, and credit, to @Pary who came up with the basic story line for this story and told it to me in a PM after I did that poll asking all of you what kind of Christmas story theme you would be interested in reading about. Her idea was epic and brilliant - as I was struggling to find just the right story to tell with the winning poll answer: A 50 year old Christmas Card that shows up in the mail. I wish to give her this credit, of course, for the story idea. Then I went and expounded upon it all, adding in some original ideas I had and letting my imagination go wild , turning it into this beautiful finished product. Pary, I hope you love it.
I'm chuckling at the moment thinking about how I've incorporated a few things from my personal life within this story and those of you who know me pretty well will surely be able to pick up on them. (Feel free to point those out to me. ) But let's face it, I kinda do that sometimes when writing my stories anyway.
Another thanks to a fellow simmer will be given in the chapters to come. And naturally I will be sharing specific songs at the end of some chapters that I feel relate to what happened in the said chapter. Because you know me, I love music, and relate it to everything!
Two to three chapters will be posted each week leading up to Christmas. There are 9 total and a couple of them are pretty long so I will most likely have to divide them up into two posts.
So with that being said, and I'm sure y'all want me to quit gabbing, I present this Christmas story to you my dear friends. I want it to feel like you're watching a Hallmark Christmas movie while reading it. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did writing it and taking the pictures for it. Without you - and your support - I wouldn't be writing like this and finding so much joy in it so I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that.
It was a mid Fall evening, the air becoming colder and colder from the gradually setting sun. Two weakened postal workers stepped back into the Post Office from the rear of the building wiping the cold sweat from their brows. They didn’t even bother waving goodbye to the truck driver as they just had to sit down!
“Whew!” one of them began, promptly closing the back door behind him and his co-worker. “That was the heaviest thing I have ever carried in my life!”
“Same!” the other agreed, while they both plopped themselves down onto folding metal chairs.
“Why the heck did they feel the need to replace a perfectly good mail sorter with a brand new one when there was nothing wrong with it?”
The co-worker shrugged. “Getting with the times I guess. We certainly need one that runs faster.”
“Yeah, but ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right?’ I mean they’re always pushing for ways to cut costs so how is buying a brand new $30,000 sorting machine helping with that hmm?”
“Hey man, don’t ask me. It’s all a bunch of bureaucratic crap that we postal workers in the trenches don’t have any business knowing.” He rolled his eyes.
“Oh well,” the man sighed, glancing over at the now empty spot where the old mail sorter once sat, making the room feel a little bigger. “Guess we better sweep up before the new one--” he stopped, peering at something resting on the floor in its place, surrounded by dust bunnies. He stood up from his chair and went over to get a closer look.
“What?” his co-worker asked.
Crouching down to pick the item up, the man found it to be an old card and gently wiped away the dust to read what was on it. The ink had faded a bit, but it was still mostly legible, except for the date the letter was posted. It was addressed to a woman and at the top left corner the Sender only wrote their initials above a rather odd address. Below that was a circular stamp that read, “Department of the Army.”
“Wow!” the man whispered.
“What?” his co-worker asked again, coming to his side.
The man stood, studying the card intently, front and back, for a few seconds. “Just found a pretty old card. I know because stamps sure aren’t that cheap anymore!”
“Was that underneath the old machine?”
“Yeah…”
Silence ensued between the two as they handed the card back and forth to each other, feeling it, studying it, and thinking about who sent it and when.
“This had to have been from a soldier, possibly in the great world war,” the man who discovered the card deduced. “The penmanship fits the time and it looks like a Christmas card because of the holly stamp on the back.”
“Wow!” the co-worker breathed. “How unfortunate it got lost under that machine all these years. What if that lady was expecting it? And what do you suppose it says?”
“I dunno,” the man shook his head, “but this is a local address and as postal workers it is our duty to deliver this. Even if it is...quite possibly fifty years overdue. Hopefully this woman is still alive and lives in the same house. If not,” he met with his friend’s gaze, “I guess it’s up to the current resident to decide what they want to do with it.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Christmas season was inching closer and closer and Maureen Young couldn’t wait! The spirit that always came with it made magical things happen that could never be made possible otherwise. Lives and hearts change every year for the better through all the kindness, giving, and love. The problems of the world are forgotten and humanity is reminded of all the good that is still out there. That is why Christmas...is her favorite time of the year.
She’d feel guilty for nearly forgetting about Thanksgiving every year - which was a week away - in her anticipated excitement for the holidays, but thankfully her parents were always right on top with planning the big dinner and she loved that that tradition in her life has never changed. This year it was her job to provide the cranberry sauce and green bean casserole, it’d actually been that way for the past two years since her Grandmother’s passing and the food assignments changed a little. Her Grandmother Maureen, whom she was named after, was a beautiful soul. A woman full of life, wisdom, and grace. Maureen greatly relished all the moments she spent with her Grandma when she moved into her little Victorian cottage, that was once Maureen senior's childhood home, to help care for her as her health began to decline. Oh the stories Grandma Maureen would tell her...what a wonderful day and age she lived in. She felt like she knew everything about her Grandma and it was fantastic! They were alike in so many ways, and the years they spent together created a bond between them that seems so lacking in Grandmothers and Grandchildren today. Maureen felt truly blessed.
It took quite a while for her to get over her Grandmother’s passing, partly because the cottage just didn’t feel the same without her. That’s why when an injured cat - whose leg got nicked by a car wheel as it was crossing the road - was brought into the Veterinary clinic she works at a year ago, Maureen took the poor cat in to have as a companion in her lonely home and also because no one came to claim her. Maureen named her Maya, as her coloring and markings reminded her of the intricate style and color of ancient Mayan statues. Maya was truly a sweet and well behaved cat which always made Maureen wonder why no one claimed her. “Well...their loss, my gain,” she would always say to herself with a smile. And what a gain she was.
For the past few years friends and co-workers would always tease Maureen about when she was going to find a man to fill the lonely void in her life, to which she would reply, “I just spent six years in Veterinary school and am finally getting established as a Veterinarian. I won’t let all those years, and my career, go to waste!” In other words, she was more focused on her career at this point in her life. It’s not that she didn’t want to eventually find a good man and settle down, she just had other priorities at the moment and, in all actuality, the right man just hadn’t presented himself yet. As a pretty brown haired, blue eyed girl, she’d gone on a few dates in her 28 years of life, even had a serious boyfriend from Estonia of all places, but none of them seemed to connect to the puzzle piece that is Maureen Young. Sure it would bring her down at times, but her Grandmother advised her to “just pursue your dreams and everything will fall into place.” It seemed that nothing ever went wrong in Grandma Maureen’s life, probably because she followed that very advice. That gave Maureen the strength to carry on.
It was a sunny and crisp Fall morning in the town of Evansville, perfect for a day off from work which Maureen hadn’t taken since...her very first day of work! She certainly earned it! The beautifully auburn colored trees in the groves just outside of town were about to lose all their leaves for the season and she wanted to head over and bask in them before it was too late.
Before leaving her house though, she wrote down a reminder to pick up the food she was to bring for Thanksgiving on a sticky note and pressed it on the corner of the kitchen counter.
Just as she was about to say goodbye to Maya, a car horn sounded a few times from just outside. She peeked out the window and saw that it was the mailman.
“Since when does he honk for me?” Maureen asked herself as she opened the front door and waved at the mailman in acknowledgement. The man waved back with a smile and then drove away. Maureen stood in confusion. “Okaaaay,” she said, stepping off the deck and heading for the mailbox.
“I guess he delivered something important?” She shuddered to think there was a "Past Due" bill in there or something. At least she didn’t have a mortgage payment to worry about since her Grandma willed her the cottage and it’d been paid off for many years. That was a big plus in her young life.
Maureen found herself carefully opening the door of the mailbox and peeking in.
She was expecting at least 3 pieces of mail in there, but no...there was just one. She reached for the parchment like envelope and the size and weight of it told her it was a card. But this didn’t look like any usual card she’d ever received. There was a hint of an antique smell coming from it and the penmanship thereon was quite fine.
“Miss Maureen Baker,” she read aloud, her brows then furrowing for a moment. “Well they got the Maureen part right, but...wait,” she froze. Why did that last name sound familiar? It didn’t take long for it to register. Her Grandmother’s name for many years was Maureen Cuthburt, naturally since marrying her Grandfather Richard Cuthburt, but her maiden last name was Baker. This had just become intriguing...
Maureen promptly glanced over at the name of the Sender. There was no name, only initials above an address she didn’t recognize. The “Department of the Army,” stamp stuck out like a sore thumb. “What?” she whispered, turning the card over. A faint stamp of holly leaves with berries “sealed” the envelope. “Why would someone from the Army send a card to Grandma?” Her heart and mind began to race in curiosity and question. She studied the card again, even sniffed it. Yup, it definitely smelled like something from an antique shop. “How old is this card?” she asked in wonder. In an instant she raced back inside the house to open it and find out!
Plopping herself down onto her Grandma’s old, fancy sofa, she was just about to rip open the envelope when suddenly, she was stopped by some unknown force. The card now seemed to her a sacred thing, a piece of her family history, and she felt inclined to treat it as such. Carefully she carried it into the kitchen where her letter opener was, and returned with both items to the sofa.
It was the strangest feeling, as she carefully sliced open the top of the envelope. It was a mix of curiosity, thrill, and fear of the unknown. There was no denying the age of the card as she pulled it out of the envelope and awed at the beautiful Christmas scene printed upon it. It was definitely vintage. Suddenly this whole thing started to feel pretty cool!
In a gentle quickness she opened the card and there was a lot of text within written in that same elaborate handwriting that was on the envelope. She was pretty sure it was a gentleman’s handwriting. She wanted to delve right into the message, but the date at the top of the card caught her attention.
She gaped. The card was dated on Christmas Eve, 51 years ago this coming Christmas. “Oh my gosh,” she whispered breathlessly. It was like she’d just been given something from a time capsule. “How did this get lost in the mail? And how was it found?” But she couldn’t worry herself with those questions now. She leaned back into the old sofa to get more comfortable as she began to read.
My dearest, darling Maureen,
How is my dream girl on this cold, Christmas Eve night? Fine, I hope. Granted it’s not as cold here, but it may as well be without the warmth of your presence by my side. I can picture you now, darling, gazing at the lights upon your Christmas tree through a thick strand of your golden hair, submissive to your thoughts with a far-away look in your eye. You are missing me this Christmas just as I am missing you. You are asking yourself questions, particularly at this time, but do not worry, darling, because I am well and in good health.You are with me constantly, my love, because we are inseparable in mind and spirit, even if in reality we are seven thousand miles apart.
This is a perfect night for dreaming. There’s a big silver dollar of a moon and a cool breeze floating on the air. What a night, darling. It reminds me of April 15th when I met the girl of my dreams. No, there isn’t any pine trees or a parked car in front of the high school’s Sock Hop, but just the same it reminds me of a night I’ll never forget. Though awkward it may be, I am trying to say that I love you Maureen. I love you more than seems humanly possible, but why do you have to haunt me all the time?
Perhaps it is because of something I should have done that day at the Train Station when we were bidding each other an excruciating farewell. You were wearing that cheap promise ring I gave to you, and that would have been enough. Maureen Joan Baker, I want to spend the rest of my life with you when this war is over. And so my Christmas gift to you is a voice from seven thousand miles away asking for your hand in marriage. I will await your answer with great anticipation, even though I have a pretty good idea of what it will be. With all that I am able to control I promise to return to you my dearest and we will wed and spend the rest of our days together in bliss.
Right now, as I close my eyes, I picture kissing your sweet, tender lips, underneath the mistletoe in the light of the Christmas tree; the snow gently falling outside the window. Oh how my heart aches for your touch Maureen. Your love makes me strong and keeps me going.
I must leave you for tonight, dearest, but I will write tomorrow. Please assure my parents that I am well. Merry Christmas and goodnight, sweetheart, and sweet dreams. Dream of me? For I will sure be dreaming of you.
With all my love,
Stanley
While reading the end of the letter there Maureen had her hand held to her heart with tears forming in her eyes and smiling. It was the most romantic thing she’d read in a long time and it pained her to think that her dear Grandmother never received it.
But when she read the signed name at the bottom her eyes widened in curiosity. “Stanley? Who is he?” she asked, looking back at the envelope. She sighed as there was only the initial E for his last name. She froze for a moment, staring at the wall in deep thought as Maya jumped onto her lap.
“Grandma never told me about a Stanley in her life,” she frowned. And here she thought she knew everything about her Grandma’s life. “From what I understood she had no other lovers besides Grandpa. Grandpa…”
In a panic, Maureen jumped up from the sofa, dropping poor Maya, and raced up the stairs to a wall where a collage of old pictures hung.
She found the picture of her Grandma and Grandpa on their wedding day and began pulling it out of the frame, hoping to find a date written on the back. There was. It was dated January 8th, two weeks following the time Stanley wrote the proposal Christmas card. Maureen’s brow furrowed again. “Why would Grandma marry Grandpa if she was clearly in love with this Stanley guy? And he her?” she asked Maya, who just caught up with her at the top of the stairs.
Her immediate thought was that Stanley had been killed shortly after writing the card, but with how deeply she sensed the two were in love there’s no way her Grandma would’ve gotten over him that quickly. Never receiving the card aside, that was just too short of an amount of time to meet, fall in love with, and marry her Grandpa! Had she been dating both men at the same time? Was some kind of an affair going on? She gasped at the thought. That certainly wasn’t something her refined Grandmother would do!
“Something’s not right here,” she said, her eyes darting this way and that and lowering as her imagination began running wild with even more speculative scenarios.
“No!” she cried out, stopping them. She then drew in a deep breath to calm her nerves. “There’s no point in speculating, I need to find out the facts! I’ve gotta call my mom. She’s bound to know something!” Maya simply looked up at her and meowed.
Maureen frantically dialed her mom’s phone number, praying she had some answers. A great mystery had just landed in her lap, involving a woman she loved and admired her entire life, and maybe the situation was not what she feared. Either way she HAD to find out everything she could about this Stanley guy, starting with his last name!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Author's Note: I can't take all the credit for most of the words in Stanley's card as I used an online WWII letter as an example, but of course I changed things around a bit to sound more Christmasy. So thanks goes to the random soldier who wrote those words so many years ago to his love.
I haven't been playing recently as I haven't been in the mood to play. My illness have gone, but I am now feeling tired. But I hope to play sometime this week
Been feeling kinda sick so havent rlly been playing have been checking the forum tho and i am loving all the stories ive read so far! but i just noticed i got promoted to Member and thought id post a img of my sims all on the sofa!
This series has been a follow up from the previous but with different situations.
The main story line has been two rivalries between two groups of supporters. One side seems to be winning in the argument while some trouble makers have been exposed. The outcome of the series will be decided on the 13th of next month and that might influence how Series 3 might go.
Couples
Simon and Tammy
Jamie and Megan
Dorley and Stacy
Potential:
Ben and Courtney
Brett and Shelly
Darwin and Hana
Nick and Michelle
Next series
I am not sure how long this series will go on for but it might be shorter than the previous. I will be building into Series 3 which will have mostly new Sims and some of them have been worked on already.
Here is Ellie:
She is a cross between Jennifer, Courtney, Jasmine and Tammy
Em, em, em you have gone and done it again!!!
This was a beautiful start to your Christmas story, I love all the poses you used for your screenshots which all were perfect too.
I never know how to place a sim on a sofa or a bed it always looks terrible even with the mod for it so great job there.
Maureen is a wonderful character it seems, no worries she will find her love eventually most all Sims
does.
@emorrill
Adorable little cottage! Its so pretty, right out of a hallmark movie.
I lol'd at the two postmen passing the card back and fourth, I could picture my local
mailman doing that.Grandmother Maureen sounds like she was a lovely person.
She is a beautiful sim and her adorable cat made me smile.
This is a gorgeous video! Evansville? Is that an actual sims 3 world or are you using a default world?
"Past due bill" Maureen, my thoughts exactly LOL
This was a beautiful chapter.I joined Maureen in crying, while reading that letter.Well done! It does make for a good hallmark movie
and can't wait to see the rest.How did you get her to cry?
I wish I had your knack for writing stories.You do such an amazing job.
@emorrill Loved reading your story. I wonder if @Pary knows the same story I do. But - when I was a teen my mother would pick me up from the school bus in the afternoons and on the way home would stop over at an elderly friend's house and they'd talk for an hour or so. The conversations were all about when they were young and things they did and people they knew back then. One day the old lady talked about a mysterious letter that had turned up at her friend's house. It had been posted during WWII and had been delivered about 25 years late.
Then move forward about 30 more years to when I used to go to dinners with a group of people. It was a sort of dining club. One night one of the recently retired elderly accountants got to talking about when he first started work at the Post Office when he was 15. On his first day he was asked to pull the mail bags out from where they collected mail people posted during the day. When he did this he noticed they were on a wooden floor and there were gaps between the floor boards. He peeked down through those gaps and noticed a small pile of letters down there. So he went outside and crawled under the floor and picked them all up. He didn't know what to do with them so he just popped them into the bag of mail that had been posted that day. He said some of the letters looked as if they'd been down there under the floor in the dirt for many years.
When I heard his version of events I wondered if that was the explanation for the late delivery of the old lady's friend's letter.
Your beautifully written story reminded me of this.
Em, em, em you have gone and done it again!!!
This was a beautiful start to your Christmas story, I love all the poses you used for your screenshots which all were perfect too.
I never know how to place a sim on a sofa or a bed it always looks terrible even with the mod for it so great job there.
Maureen is a wonderful character it seems, no worries she will find her love eventually most all Sims
does.
^Aww, you just made my day by saying that.
Thank you.
Thankfully those poses were already set so that the sim sits properly on the couch, I didn't have to use OMSP.
Yes, every great woman does eventually find her man.
@GraceyManor Thank you for the sweet comments.
Oh my goodness, that video was good! I should show that to my sister in law!
I actually color enhanced that photo in the woods. No, Evansville is the name I gave the world. It's actually a custom world based off of Moonlight Falls. A simmer friend shared it with me. She named it Moonlight Valley. I've been testing it for her.
Aww, you got teary eyed. :'-)
I have CC blush that looks like tears. Can't remember where I got it though...probably TSR.
@Karrtiz Oh wow! That's so cool! (Both accounts!) Thank you for sharing. I guess it happens (happened?) more often than we think. I love it!
In situations like that I always wonder what was the reason for those letters getting lost and delivered late?
I won't say more.
I'm glad you enjoyed reading it and that it brought back some cool memories for you.
@Silverofdreams30 She looks happy chatting with him inviting him over for the visit.
@emorrill Finally!!
Love the title of the story! I love the interaction between the postmen. That was a great way for the card to be found. The dust bunnies are just too cute! I'm glad they decided it had to be delivered.
Beautiful moon shot over the mountains around the town.
I can understand being excited over Christmas coming and neglecting Thanksgiving. I do miss our big family Thanksgivings that we had for years though.
Such a beautiful cottage. It looks like it was lovingly cared for by her Grandmother and now Maureen.
Love Maureen's hair! Love Maya. Such pretty soft colors. I want a kitty!!
Gosh those leaves are gorgeous. I do miss Seasons!
Wow...what an amazing letter. Yes, I did let a tear or two slip reading it. Such an awesome love he had for his Maureen.
Now, how to figure out the puzzle!
Maya knew she needed some comfort and jumped into her lap.
Omg...she married two weeks after not getting that letter. hmmm, what an interesting twist!
What a fantastic opening chapter.
Totally ready for the next chapter!!
It's been a very long time since I last played Sims 3, so to recap: Kameron and Ryu just recently had twins, Jacob and Michael and already thinking about having another kid. Oi...
Winter makes Moonlight Falls looks so magical.
Starting off with Jacob scratching the heck out of the end table in his parents' room.
Kameron: "Alright, Jake, that's enough. Don't want Dad to catch you."
Due to the heavy snow, the kids didn't went to school on Snow Day.
Derek went outside to play basketball...
...and Annette's Imaginary Friend came to life before her eyes!
They went upstairs to play pillow fight.
The twins really love their new dolls.
Jacob's doll is named Berry, and Michael's doll is named Minty.
Ryu teaching Jacob how to walk while Michael is singing to Minty.
Teaching Michael how to walk.
Soon after that, Kameron and Michael went out on a winter stroll.
I hardly use the stroller, and the toddler was being so adorable.
I usually run with the hair and outfit they get on aging up until I decide if I can live with it or not. In Oscar's case I was prepared to keep the hair but the outfit had to go. So before he grabbed his piece of cake he had an emergency visit to Stylist. He got 2 everyday outfits and the rest of his outfits were chosen while keeping in mind his future is to become a Rock Star even though he still doesn't have a lifetime wish.
On emerging from Stylist I managed to save successfully. Shut down and reloaded so as to avoid Error 12 next time I save.
Oscar grabbed his piece of cake and went off to eat it. Everyone else stood around the cake and I left them to decide who will get cake and who will have to settle for the buffet.
It was taking quite a while for them to work it out. Then I was stunned to see Gaylord solve the problem. He picked up the whole cake and put it away in the fridge. I've never seen that happen before. It's all going to be in the video when I put it together.
Of course this means Oscar and Eric and Susanne are about to leave the boarding school and start their adventures. There won't be any more Oscar's Childhood videos as Oscar is no longer a child. The next set of videos will probably be Oscar's Teens. Or something similar.
"Mystery, family history, love, joy and sadness" - sounds good .
^Glad you like the sound of that.
Her Grandmother's story gets real deep and I think I revealed this earlier, but I was crying quite a bit while writing a certain chapter.
I'm close to my Grandma as well and she hasn't passed yet. I think she's really enjoying all this time to herself now as she lost her husband 10 years ago and kept on caring for their special needs son until he passed away at 50 something years old. To me she deserves a break to enjoy life the way she's always wanted to, as she so selflessly gave of herself during most of her lifetime.
It is sad that Maureen senior never got the card.
I'm puzzled
^Hee hee! I succeeded! It really is quite the mystery.
Thank you for the sweet comments. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I'm glad you thought the dust bunnies were cute as I was hoping my "painting" skills there didn't look too tacky.
Yes, that cottage was very well taken care of all throughout the generations. 👍I want one!
Goodness, if I can find the link to Maureen's hair I will send it your way. It's one from Sketchbook Pixels I believe...but I downloaded it from some other place and not their site and now...I can't remember where. My bad it was from LeahLillith - Emma, I think it's a retexture. Here. (I really need to keep track of my CC better...)
I did photo enhance those leaves a little bit because they looked more brown than orange.
Aww, you got teary-eyed too. :'-) I wish I could say that won't happen again in this story, but...
Maya knew she needed some comfort and jumped into her lap.
^Yup. Pets can sense their owners emotions like that and I love it. You very much need a kitty in your life.
I'm ready to post the next chapter! But ugh, I gotta wait!
It's nice that I have so much free time now, it seems like, to get things done around the house and decorate for Christmas soon.
I'm anxious to see what happens next in your story too. I keep wondering if the fairy King will be hot stuff as most of your men are.
@DarkAngel1994 Not sure if you will get this tag, but I love that first picture you shared. Winter does indeed look very beautiful there!
Cute update.
@meerkattime I mentioned the lighting mod because the picture of the house didn't seem dark at all, so my guess is that it's working @Silverofdreams30 Why did you restart the save? I hope you didn't lose anything @PalmArrow I've played with Seasons for a long time and I never noticed that the vendors marry and reproduce until I read your posts haha. I assumed that you edited Marissella's parents. I started editing my vendors this year too and it's been fun. Like you I also like to lower the eyebrows and lengthen the jaw a little bit. @bekkasan I had a wonderful time at the concert. The only nerve wracking part was getting to high five the members afterwards and say a few words
It's nice to see that the Fairy Realm keeps up to date with technology. I wonder if they have their own fairy sports teams hmm. I like the barefoot fairy @emorrill Ahhh *rubs hands together* it's finally starting! If it's got the word 'Christmas' in the title I'm sure it will be Christmas-sy enough for me I'm really interested to see what kind of details you have pulled from your personal life into the story. Yay let's begin!
I'm loving the humorous dialogue between the postal workers. I'm curious about the Army seal. Maybe someone was waiting to hear from a soldier at war and they never got the card. I'm smiling because I can already see the importance of young Maureen (or should I say Maureen Young hehe) being named after her grandmother. Her cottage is just adorable, I really like how you did the roof! Aw she's so pretty and at least she has Maya for company. I wonder if her ex boyfriend from Estonia will be a plot point at all. Oh that's a gorgeous picture of the Autumn leaves. Maureen seems confused about the Army stamp and I'm only assuming that the Sender was in love with the Grandmother, so perhaps from not getting the card she married someone else which is why Maureen doesn't recognise the address from the letter. It would be so cool to find an old unopened letter! Those are some really nice and natural reading poses. 51 years must be some kind of record for lost mail haha. Aww that card was so beautiful it's making me emotional, he must have truly loved her. So I was right that it was also a love letter. It really reads as coming from a different time. I love that line about the big silver dollar of a moon. Omg it's a marriage proposal also. Maureen looks so emotional reading the letter too. This is going to be sad isn't it because Maureen married someone else... Huh what she married only two weeks after the letter was dated. Omg you can't end it there! So now I'm wondering if Maureen really loved Stanley at all because something doesn't add up. It would be pretty much impossible to find out who he was without a last name either. Hmmm. That was so beautiful Em! I loved every single thing about it and I can't wait to read more, you have got me hooked @sleepstar I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better, hopefully you find some time to play @Gamer43251 Sorry that you're unwell. Congrats on getting Member status. To post an image you need to have a link that ends in .jpg or .png for example. Paste the link in the picture icon at this top of the text box and it will wrap the link in [IMG][/IMG] tags. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy. I see you sims @king_of_simcity7 Thanks for the reminder of the couples. I find it a lot easier to remember the names of your female sims lol. Ellie is really cute sim. What is her tattoo of? I looks like tangled vines. @Karritz That's a great story and it makes me wonder how many letters are buried or hidden out there that never got to be delivered.
How exciting! It's been a long time coming. Oscar's hair is longer than I expected but it suits him. His t-shirt looks like a character from a cartoon but I can't think which one. So if Gaylord put the cake away that means that no one got a slice except Oscar @DarkAngel1994 Toddler werewolves are the cutest! It must be hard to shoot hoops in such heavy snow. Looks like Annette and her IF are very close. Love the names for Jacob and Michael's dolls.
I've discovered that it happens between the time that they leave for school and when they get out of their "Field Trip" to the Police Office. And, I think I've discovered what's causing it, but I'm going to test it again tomorrow afternoon/evening since I'm done with simming for the day.
Comments
@coco , the vendors in my game are always pudding sims, but I discovered very early that they will marry and reproduce after their vendor job is over, so I started making them over every Monday morning, when a new festival comes to town and a new pair of vendors is generated. I always have fun doing this. I haven't been documenting it since the beginning so Marissella's parents are not among the pictures, but here are some examples:
I think I actually have my own version of a pudding face - there are some changes I always make to the zero slider sims. I always make the face narrower, the eyes smaller, the eyebrows lower, the jaw longer and the upper lip thicker. Other sliders can go in any direction. But these sims gradually add slider values I like to the town gene pool.
@Gamer43251 Look forward to seeing pictures when you can.
@Karritz Thank you. I did some building yesterday and made a few fairy's for the Fairy Realm so hopefully will be able to share pictures of those soon. Should be almost ready to start playing the save again. I keep thinking of new things to add to the Realm. It only had three premade lots on it so I've been adding what I want to the world to make it playable when I send sims there.
I certainly hope your channel does not get banned. I occasionally look at YouTube video's and some of the language makes my ears bleed! I could see those getting banned before yours!
Sorry to hear the Error 12's are still prevalent. Hope you get it sorted out.
@DillynJames She is certainly beautiful.
Nice new sims. I guess they will be living in some of those beautiful homes you created?
@GraceyManor Sorry you are having so much trouble.
I love that song. One of my favorites. She certainly has a beautiful voice and it blends into the music and words perfectly.
Oh...you are starting over from scratch? Mom is still alive! :::wipes previous version out of memory:::
Cute outfit!
@meerkattime You are such a brave lady playing with the Cates family!
Cute pictures of them and I love seeing Morgan dancing with her...Can't remember her name. Dedric had a very brief SP relationship with her until I caught it and ended it! lol, she was not the one I wanted for him.
@Turjan I always find it amusing to see a sim go into labor out and about. I sometimes have one of my sims to them to the hospital to stop all the screaming, if they don't need to do something else. Sometimes they will wait outside the hospital until the sim comes out with the baby.
@PalmArrow Cool family tree!
Great makeovers of the various vendors!
I've been making over the ones in the Fairy Realm to turn them all into fairy's and changing faces and clothing as well. I noticed as I got tired last night, I was doing less slider changes. hehe I do hate that nose they all end up with though! I notice you didn't change it much so guess you don't mind it?
@jonny522 Congrats on the family growing!
@PalmArrow Congrats on the birthday! She's a cutie!
Poor George was having a bad picture day. The last picture kinda looks like the cake was bad!
@coco Welcome back! Nice you had a great trip and hope the concert was awesome.
@emorrill I'm glad you are going to start posting the story! Look forward to reading it after work today!
@carlystur03 Glad you figured out the issue.
@coco Thanks for checking out the pictures and commenting! I'm almost done with the Realm and should be able to resume the story maybe next play session.
Sneak peek at some of the royal family playing together as I was testing the changes I made in the castle.
The Cowboy and the Mermaid
https://graceymanorsims3.tumblr.com/
Regarding those YouTube channels that make your ears bleed. Based on what I've been able to find o ut about the situation, those are the channels that are most likely to be all that's left of YouTube after the end of this year. Channels like mine are what's in the firing line. A lot of people are thinking the only chance the have of staying in YouTube is to start cursing heavily in their videos to make sure they can't be accused of making videos suitable for children under 13.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
Thanks! Someone on this thread built the house.
https://graceymanorsims3.tumblr.com/
[img][/img]
Pamela arrived back home.
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And invited Stephen for a visit ( so I can add him again).
A short update for now
It is with great pleasure and excitement that I present my 2019 Sims Christmas story: The Christmas Card Lost to Time for your reading enjoyment this Holiday season. ❄ With it being finished I honestly couldn't wait another week, like I planned, to debut it!
I will admit that this story is not as Christmasy as my last one, but there is for sure enough Christmas in it to call it a Christmas story.
I wanted to give a special thanks, and credit, to @Pary who came up with the basic story line for this story and told it to me in a PM after I did that poll asking all of you what kind of Christmas story theme you would be interested in reading about. Her idea was epic and brilliant - as I was struggling to find just the right story to tell with the winning poll answer: A 50 year old Christmas Card that shows up in the mail.
I'm chuckling at the moment thinking about how I've incorporated a few things from my personal life within this story and those of you who know me pretty well will surely be able to pick up on them.
Another thanks to a fellow simmer will be given in the chapters to come.
Two to three chapters will be posted each week leading up to Christmas.
So with that being said, and I'm sure y'all want me to quit gabbing, I present this Christmas story to you my dear friends. I want it to feel like you're watching a Hallmark Christmas movie while reading it.
Enjoy!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
❄Chapter 1❄
It was a mid Fall evening, the air becoming colder and colder from the gradually setting sun. Two weakened postal workers stepped back into the Post Office from the rear of the building wiping the cold sweat from their brows. They didn’t even bother waving goodbye to the truck driver as they just had to sit down!
“Whew!” one of them began, promptly closing the back door behind him and his co-worker. “That was the heaviest thing I have ever carried in my life!”
“Same!” the other agreed, while they both plopped themselves down onto folding metal chairs.
“Why the heck did they feel the need to replace a perfectly good mail sorter with a brand new one when there was nothing wrong with it?”
The co-worker shrugged. “Getting with the times I guess. We certainly need one that runs faster.”
“Yeah, but ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right?’ I mean they’re always pushing for ways to cut costs so how is buying a brand new $30,000 sorting machine helping with that hmm?”
“Hey man, don’t ask me. It’s all a bunch of bureaucratic crap that we postal workers in the trenches don’t have any business knowing.” He rolled his eyes.
“Oh well,” the man sighed, glancing over at the now empty spot where the old mail sorter once sat, making the room feel a little bigger. “Guess we better sweep up before the new one--” he stopped, peering at something resting on the floor in its place, surrounded by dust bunnies. He stood up from his chair and went over to get a closer look.
“What?” his co-worker asked.
Crouching down to pick the item up, the man found it to be an old card and gently wiped away the dust to read what was on it. The ink had faded a bit, but it was still mostly legible, except for the date the letter was posted. It was addressed to a woman and at the top left corner the Sender only wrote their initials above a rather odd address. Below that was a circular stamp that read, “Department of the Army.”
“Wow!” the man whispered.
“What?” his co-worker asked again, coming to his side.
The man stood, studying the card intently, front and back, for a few seconds. “Just found a pretty old card. I know because stamps sure aren’t that cheap anymore!”
“Was that underneath the old machine?”
“Yeah…”
Silence ensued between the two as they handed the card back and forth to each other, feeling it, studying it, and thinking about who sent it and when.
“This had to have been from a soldier, possibly in the great world war,” the man who discovered the card deduced. “The penmanship fits the time and it looks like a Christmas card because of the holly stamp on the back.”
“Wow!” the co-worker breathed. “How unfortunate it got lost under that machine all these years. What if that lady was expecting it? And what do you suppose it says?”
“I dunno,” the man shook his head, “but this is a local address and as postal workers it is our duty to deliver this. Even if it is...quite possibly fifty years overdue. Hopefully this woman is still alive and lives in the same house. If not,” he met with his friend’s gaze, “I guess it’s up to the current resident to decide what they want to do with it.”
The Christmas season was inching closer and closer and Maureen Young couldn’t wait! The spirit that always came with it made magical things happen that could never be made possible otherwise. Lives and hearts change every year for the better through all the kindness, giving, and love. The problems of the world are forgotten and humanity is reminded of all the good that is still out there. That is why Christmas...is her favorite time of the year.
She’d feel guilty for nearly forgetting about Thanksgiving every year - which was a week away - in her anticipated excitement for the holidays, but thankfully her parents were always right on top with planning the big dinner and she loved that that tradition in her life has never changed. This year it was her job to provide the cranberry sauce and green bean casserole, it’d actually been that way for the past two years since her Grandmother’s passing and the food assignments changed a little. Her Grandmother Maureen, whom she was named after, was a beautiful soul. A woman full of life, wisdom, and grace. Maureen greatly relished all the moments she spent with her Grandma when she moved into her little Victorian cottage, that was once Maureen senior's childhood home, to help care for her as her health began to decline. Oh the stories Grandma Maureen would tell her...what a wonderful day and age she lived in. She felt like she knew everything about her Grandma and it was fantastic! They were alike in so many ways, and the years they spent together created a bond between them that seems so lacking in Grandmothers and Grandchildren today. Maureen felt truly blessed.
It took quite a while for her to get over her Grandmother’s passing, partly because the cottage just didn’t feel the same without her. That’s why when an injured cat - whose leg got nicked by a car wheel as it was crossing the road - was brought into the Veterinary clinic she works at a year ago, Maureen took the poor cat in to have as a companion in her lonely home and also because no one came to claim her. Maureen named her Maya, as her coloring and markings reminded her of the intricate style and color of ancient Mayan statues. Maya was truly a sweet and well behaved cat which always made Maureen wonder why no one claimed her. “Well...their loss, my gain,” she would always say to herself with a smile. And what a gain she was.
For the past few years friends and co-workers would always tease Maureen about when she was going to find a man to fill the lonely void in her life, to which she would reply, “I just spent six years in Veterinary school and am finally getting established as a Veterinarian. I won’t let all those years, and my career, go to waste!” In other words, she was more focused on her career at this point in her life. It’s not that she didn’t want to eventually find a good man and settle down, she just had other priorities at the moment and, in all actuality, the right man just hadn’t presented himself yet. As a pretty brown haired, blue eyed girl, she’d gone on a few dates in her 28 years of life, even had a serious boyfriend from Estonia of all places, but none of them seemed to connect to the puzzle piece that is Maureen Young. Sure it would bring her down at times, but her Grandmother advised her to “just pursue your dreams and everything will fall into place.” It seemed that nothing ever went wrong in Grandma Maureen’s life, probably because she followed that very advice. That gave Maureen the strength to carry on.
It was a sunny and crisp Fall morning in the town of Evansville, perfect for a day off from work which Maureen hadn’t taken since...her very first day of work! She certainly earned it! The beautifully auburn colored trees in the groves just outside of town were about to lose all their leaves for the season and she wanted to head over and bask in them before it was too late.
Before leaving her house though, she wrote down a reminder to pick up the food she was to bring for Thanksgiving on a sticky note and pressed it on the corner of the kitchen counter.
Just as she was about to say goodbye to Maya, a car horn sounded a few times from just outside. She peeked out the window and saw that it was the mailman.
“Since when does he honk for me?” Maureen asked herself as she opened the front door and waved at the mailman in acknowledgement. The man waved back with a smile and then drove away. Maureen stood in confusion. “Okaaaay,” she said, stepping off the deck and heading for the mailbox.
“I guess he delivered something important?” She shuddered to think there was a "Past Due" bill in there or something. At least she didn’t have a mortgage payment to worry about since her Grandma willed her the cottage and it’d been paid off for many years. That was a big plus in her young life.
Maureen found herself carefully opening the door of the mailbox and peeking in.
She was expecting at least 3 pieces of mail in there, but no...there was just one. She reached for the parchment like envelope and the size and weight of it told her it was a card. But this didn’t look like any usual card she’d ever received. There was a hint of an antique smell coming from it and the penmanship thereon was quite fine.
“Miss Maureen Baker,” she read aloud, her brows then furrowing for a moment. “Well they got the Maureen part right, but...wait,” she froze. Why did that last name sound familiar? It didn’t take long for it to register. Her Grandmother’s name for many years was Maureen Cuthburt, naturally since marrying her Grandfather Richard Cuthburt, but her maiden last name was Baker. This had just become intriguing...
Maureen promptly glanced over at the name of the Sender. There was no name, only initials above an address she didn’t recognize. The “Department of the Army,” stamp stuck out like a sore thumb. “What?” she whispered, turning the card over. A faint stamp of holly leaves with berries “sealed” the envelope. “Why would someone from the Army send a card to Grandma?” Her heart and mind began to race in curiosity and question. She studied the card again, even sniffed it. Yup, it definitely smelled like something from an antique shop. “How old is this card?” she asked in wonder. In an instant she raced back inside the house to open it and find out!
Plopping herself down onto her Grandma’s old, fancy sofa, she was just about to rip open the envelope when suddenly, she was stopped by some unknown force. The card now seemed to her a sacred thing, a piece of her family history, and she felt inclined to treat it as such. Carefully she carried it into the kitchen where her letter opener was, and returned with both items to the sofa.
It was the strangest feeling, as she carefully sliced open the top of the envelope. It was a mix of curiosity, thrill, and fear of the unknown. There was no denying the age of the card as she pulled it out of the envelope and awed at the beautiful Christmas scene printed upon it. It was definitely vintage. Suddenly this whole thing started to feel pretty cool!
In a gentle quickness she opened the card and there was a lot of text within written in that same elaborate handwriting that was on the envelope. She was pretty sure it was a gentleman’s handwriting. She wanted to delve right into the message, but the date at the top of the card caught her attention.
She gaped. The card was dated on Christmas Eve, 51 years ago this coming Christmas. “Oh my gosh,” she whispered breathlessly. It was like she’d just been given something from a time capsule. “How did this get lost in the mail? And how was it found?” But she couldn’t worry herself with those questions now. She leaned back into the old sofa to get more comfortable as she began to read.
My dearest, darling Maureen,
How is my dream girl on this cold, Christmas Eve night? Fine, I hope. Granted it’s not as cold here, but it may as well be without the warmth of your presence by my side. I can picture you now, darling, gazing at the lights upon your Christmas tree through a thick strand of your golden hair, submissive to your thoughts with a far-away look in your eye. You are missing me this Christmas just as I am missing you. You are asking yourself questions, particularly at this time, but do not worry, darling, because I am well and in good health.You are with me constantly, my love, because we are inseparable in mind and spirit, even if in reality we are seven thousand miles apart.
This is a perfect night for dreaming. There’s a big silver dollar of a moon and a cool breeze floating on the air. What a night, darling. It reminds me of April 15th when I met the girl of my dreams. No, there isn’t any pine trees or a parked car in front of the high school’s Sock Hop, but just the same it reminds me of a night I’ll never forget. Though awkward it may be, I am trying to say that I love you Maureen. I love you more than seems humanly possible, but why do you have to haunt me all the time?
Perhaps it is because of something I should have done that day at the Train Station when we were bidding each other an excruciating farewell. You were wearing that cheap promise ring I gave to you, and that would have been enough. Maureen Joan Baker, I want to spend the rest of my life with you when this war is over. And so my Christmas gift to you is a voice from seven thousand miles away asking for your hand in marriage. I will await your answer with great anticipation, even though I have a pretty good idea of what it will be. With all that I am able to control I promise to return to you my dearest and we will wed and spend the rest of our days together in bliss.
Right now, as I close my eyes, I picture kissing your sweet, tender lips, underneath the mistletoe in the light of the Christmas tree; the snow gently falling outside the window. Oh how my heart aches for your touch Maureen. Your love makes me strong and keeps me going.
I must leave you for tonight, dearest, but I will write tomorrow. Please assure my parents that I am well. Merry Christmas and goodnight, sweetheart, and sweet dreams. Dream of me? For I will sure be dreaming of you.
With all my love,
Stanley
While reading the end of the letter there Maureen had her hand held to her heart with tears forming in her eyes and smiling. It was the most romantic thing she’d read in a long time and it pained her to think that her dear Grandmother never received it.
But when she read the signed name at the bottom her eyes widened in curiosity. “Stanley? Who is he?” she asked, looking back at the envelope. She sighed as there was only the initial E for his last name. She froze for a moment, staring at the wall in deep thought as Maya jumped onto her lap.
“Grandma never told me about a Stanley in her life,” she frowned. And here she thought she knew everything about her Grandma’s life. “From what I understood she had no other lovers besides Grandpa. Grandpa…”
In a panic, Maureen jumped up from the sofa, dropping poor Maya, and raced up the stairs to a wall where a collage of old pictures hung.
She found the picture of her Grandma and Grandpa on their wedding day and began pulling it out of the frame, hoping to find a date written on the back. There was. It was dated January 8th, two weeks following the time Stanley wrote the proposal Christmas card. Maureen’s brow furrowed again. “Why would Grandma marry Grandpa if she was clearly in love with this Stanley guy? And he her?” she asked Maya, who just caught up with her at the top of the stairs.
Her immediate thought was that Stanley had been killed shortly after writing the card, but with how deeply she sensed the two were in love there’s no way her Grandma would’ve gotten over him that quickly. Never receiving the card aside, that was just too short of an amount of time to meet, fall in love with, and marry her Grandpa! Had she been dating both men at the same time? Was some kind of an affair going on? She gasped at the thought. That certainly wasn’t something her refined Grandmother would do!
“Something’s not right here,” she said, her eyes darting this way and that and lowering as her imagination began running wild with even more speculative scenarios.
“No!” she cried out, stopping them. She then drew in a deep breath to calm her nerves. “There’s no point in speculating, I need to find out the facts! I’ve gotta call my mom. She’s bound to know something!” Maya simply looked up at her and meowed.
Maureen frantically dialed her mom’s phone number, praying she had some answers. A great mystery had just landed in her lap, involving a woman she loved and admired her entire life, and maybe the situation was not what she feared. Either way she HAD to find out everything she could about this Stanley guy, starting with his last name!
Author's Note: I can't take all the credit for most of the words in Stanley's card as I used an online WWII letter as an example, but of course I changed things around a bit to sound more Christmasy.
Edit: Cant figure it out will figure it out later
This series has been a follow up from the previous but with different situations.
The main story line has been two rivalries between two groups of supporters. One side seems to be winning in the argument while some trouble makers have been exposed. The outcome of the series will be decided on the 13th of next month and that might influence how Series 3 might go.
Couples
Simon and Tammy
Jamie and Megan
Dorley and Stacy
Potential:
Ben and Courtney
Brett and Shelly
Darwin and Hana
Nick and Michelle
Next series
I am not sure how long this series will go on for but it might be shorter than the previous. I will be building into Series 3 which will have mostly new Sims and some of them have been worked on already.
Here is Ellie:
She is a cross between Jennifer, Courtney, Jasmine and Tammy
Check out the cute tattoo!
Em, em, em you have gone and done it again!!!
This was a beautiful start to your Christmas story, I love all the poses you used for your screenshots which all were perfect too.
I never know how to place a sim on a sofa or a bed it always looks terrible even with the mod for it so great job there.
Maureen is a wonderful character it seems, no worries she will find her love eventually most all Sims
does.
Adorable little cottage! Its so pretty, right out of a hallmark movie.
I lol'd at the two postmen passing the card back and fourth, I could picture my local
mailman doing that.Grandmother Maureen sounds like she was a lovely person.
She is a beautiful sim and her adorable cat made me smile.
And I picture Maureen doing this:
This is a gorgeous video! Evansville? Is that an actual sims 3 world or are you using a default world?
"Past due bill" Maureen, my thoughts exactly LOL
This was a beautiful chapter.I joined Maureen in crying, while reading that letter.Well done! It does make for a good hallmark movie
and can't wait to see the rest.How did you get her to cry?
I wish I had your knack for writing stories.You do such an amazing job.
https://graceymanorsims3.tumblr.com/
Then move forward about 30 more years to when I used to go to dinners with a group of people. It was a sort of dining club. One night one of the recently retired elderly accountants got to talking about when he first started work at the Post Office when he was 15. On his first day he was asked to pull the mail bags out from where they collected mail people posted during the day. When he did this he noticed they were on a wooden floor and there were gaps between the floor boards. He peeked down through those gaps and noticed a small pile of letters down there. So he went outside and crawled under the floor and picked them all up. He didn't know what to do with them so he just popped them into the bag of mail that had been posted that day. He said some of the letters looked as if they'd been down there under the floor in the dirt for many years.
When I heard his version of events I wondered if that was the explanation for the late delivery of the old lady's friend's letter.
Your beautifully written story reminded me of this.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
@Sleepstar I'm glad you're feeling better and hope you feel up to playing again soon.
@king_of_simcity7 Brett and Shelly need to happen!
Nice to meet Ellie.
@Silverofdreams30 ^Aww, you just made my day by saying that.
Thank you.
Thankfully those poses were already set so that the sim sits properly on the couch, I didn't have to use OMSP.
Yes, every great woman does eventually find her man.
@Gamer43251 I see your picture! Yay!
@GraceyManor Thank you for the sweet comments.
Oh my goodness, that video was good!
I actually color enhanced that photo in the woods.
Aww, you got teary eyed. :'-)
I have CC blush that looks like tears.
@Karrtiz Oh wow! That's so cool!
In situations like that I always wonder what was the reason for those letters getting lost and delivered late?
I won't say more.
I'm glad you enjoyed reading it and that it brought back some cool memories for you.
@Silverofdreams30 She looks happy chatting with him inviting him over for the visit.
@emorrill Finally!!
Love the title of the story! I love the interaction between the postmen. That was a great way for the card to be found. The dust bunnies are just too cute! I'm glad they decided it had to be delivered.
Beautiful moon shot over the mountains around the town.
I can understand being excited over Christmas coming and neglecting Thanksgiving. I do miss our big family Thanksgivings that we had for years though.
Such a beautiful cottage. It looks like it was lovingly cared for by her Grandmother and now Maureen.
Love Maureen's hair! Love Maya. Such pretty soft colors. I want a kitty!!
Gosh those leaves are gorgeous. I do miss Seasons!
Wow...what an amazing letter. Yes, I did let a tear or two slip reading it. Such an awesome love he had for his Maureen.
Now, how to figure out the puzzle!
Maya knew she needed some comfort and jumped into her lap.
Omg...she married two weeks after not getting that letter. hmmm, what an interesting twist!
What a fantastic opening chapter.
Totally ready for the next chapter!!
@Sleepstar Hope you feel like playing soon.
@Gamer43251 Great shot of the family. Hope you feel better.
@meerkattime That was it...Seema! I had plans in mind for him that did not involve her! lol
I do love that huge tv!
The Cowboy and the Mermaid
It's been a very long time since I last played Sims 3, so to recap: Kameron and Ryu just recently had twins, Jacob and Michael and already thinking about having another kid. Oi...
Winter makes Moonlight Falls looks so magical.
Starting off with Jacob scratching the heck out of the end table in his parents' room.
Kameron: "Alright, Jake, that's enough. Don't want Dad to catch you."
Due to the heavy snow, the kids didn't went to school on Snow Day.
Derek went outside to play basketball...
...and Annette's Imaginary Friend came to life before her eyes!
They went upstairs to play pillow fight.
The twins really love their new dolls.
Jacob's doll is named Berry, and Michael's doll is named Minty.
Ryu teaching Jacob how to walk while Michael is singing to Minty.
Teaching Michael how to walk.
Soon after that, Kameron and Michael went out on a winter stroll.
I hardly use the stroller, and the toddler was being so adorable.
I usually run with the hair and outfit they get on aging up until I decide if I can live with it or not. In Oscar's case I was prepared to keep the hair but the outfit had to go. So before he grabbed his piece of cake he had an emergency visit to Stylist. He got 2 everyday outfits and the rest of his outfits were chosen while keeping in mind his future is to become a Rock Star even though he still doesn't have a lifetime wish.
On emerging from Stylist I managed to save successfully. Shut down and reloaded so as to avoid Error 12 next time I save.
Oscar grabbed his piece of cake and went off to eat it. Everyone else stood around the cake and I left them to decide who will get cake and who will have to settle for the buffet.
It was taking quite a while for them to work it out. Then I was stunned to see Gaylord solve the problem. He picked up the whole cake and put it away in the fridge. I've never seen that happen before. It's all going to be in the video when I put it together.
Of course this means Oscar and Eric and Susanne are about to leave the boarding school and start their adventures. There won't be any more Oscar's Childhood videos as Oscar is no longer a child. The next set of videos will probably be Oscar's Teens. Or something similar.
Happy Simming all.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
Her Grandmother's story gets real deep and I think I revealed this earlier, but I was crying quite a bit while writing a certain chapter.
I'm close to my Grandma as well and she hasn't passed yet. I think she's really enjoying all this time to herself now as she lost her husband 10 years ago and kept on caring for their special needs son until he passed away at 50 something years old. To me she deserves a break to enjoy life the way she's always wanted to, as she so selflessly gave of herself during most of her lifetime.
It is sad that Maureen senior never got the card.
Thank you for the sweet comments.
@bekkasan
I'm glad you thought the dust bunnies were cute as I was hoping my "painting" skills there didn't look too tacky.
Yes, that cottage was very well taken care of all throughout the generations. 👍I want one!
Goodness, if I can find the link to Maureen's hair I will send it your way. It's one from Sketchbook Pixels I believe...but I downloaded it from some other place and not their site and now...I can't remember where.
I did photo enhance those leaves a little bit because they looked more brown than orange.
Aww, you got teary-eyed too. :'-) I wish I could say that won't happen again in this story, but... ^Yup. Pets can sense their owners emotions like that and I love it.
I'm ready to post the next chapter!
It's nice that I have so much free time now, it seems like, to get things done around the house and decorate for Christmas soon.
I'm anxious to see what happens next in your story too.
@DarkAngel1994 Not sure if you will get this tag, but I love that first picture you shared.
Cute update.
@Silverofdreams30 Why did you restart the save? I hope you didn't lose anything
@PalmArrow I've played with Seasons for a long time and I never noticed that the vendors marry and reproduce until I read your posts haha. I assumed that you edited Marissella's parents. I started editing my vendors this year too and it's been fun. Like you I also like to lower the eyebrows and lengthen the jaw a little bit.
@bekkasan I had a wonderful time at the concert. The only nerve wracking part was getting to high five the members afterwards and say a few words
It's nice to see that the Fairy Realm keeps up to date with technology. I wonder if they have their own fairy sports teams hmm. I like the barefoot fairy
@emorrill Ahhh *rubs hands together* it's finally starting! If it's got the word 'Christmas' in the title I'm sure it will be Christmas-sy enough for me
I'm loving the humorous dialogue between the postal workers. I'm curious about the Army seal. Maybe someone was waiting to hear from a soldier at war and they never got the card. I'm smiling because I can already see the importance of young Maureen (or should I say Maureen Young hehe) being named after her grandmother. Her cottage is just adorable, I really like how you did the roof! Aw she's so pretty and at least she has Maya for company. I wonder if her ex boyfriend from Estonia will be a plot point at all. Oh that's a gorgeous picture of the Autumn leaves. Maureen seems confused about the Army stamp and I'm only assuming that the Sender was in love with the Grandmother, so perhaps from not getting the card she married someone else which is why Maureen doesn't recognise the address from the letter. It would be so cool to find an old unopened letter! Those are some really nice and natural reading poses. 51 years must be some kind of record for lost mail haha. Aww that card was so beautiful it's making me emotional, he must have truly loved her. So I was right that it was also a love letter. It really reads as coming from a different time. I love that line about the big silver dollar of a moon. Omg it's a marriage proposal also. Maureen looks so emotional reading the letter too. This is going to be sad isn't it because Maureen married someone else... Huh what she married only two weeks after the letter was dated. Omg you can't end it there! So now I'm wondering if Maureen really loved Stanley at all because something doesn't add up. It would be pretty much impossible to find out who he was without a last name either. Hmmm. That was so beautiful Em! I loved every single thing about it and I can't wait to read more, you have got me hooked
@sleepstar I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better, hopefully you find some time to play
@Gamer43251 Sorry that you're unwell. Congrats on getting Member status. To post an image you need to have a link that ends in .jpg or .png for example. Paste the link in the picture icon at this top of the text box and it will wrap the link in [IMG][/IMG] tags. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy. I see you sims
@king_of_simcity7 Thanks for the reminder of the couples. I find it a lot easier to remember the names of your female sims lol. Ellie is really cute sim. What is her tattoo of? I looks like tangled vines.
@Karritz That's a great story and it makes me wonder how many letters are buried or hidden out there that never got to be delivered.
How exciting! It's been a long time coming. Oscar's hair is longer than I expected but it suits him. His t-shirt looks like a character from a cartoon but I can't think which one. So if Gaylord put the cake away that means that no one got a slice except Oscar
@DarkAngel1994 Toddler werewolves are the cutest! It must be hard to shoot hoops in such heavy snow. Looks like Annette and her IF are very close. Love the names for Jacob and Michael's dolls.
I've discovered that it happens between the time that they leave for school and when they get out of their "Field Trip" to the Police Office. And, I think I've discovered what's causing it, but I'm going to test it again tomorrow afternoon/evening since I'm done with simming for the day.