For starters, we got a quite nicely spiced bell pepper soup, following the mantra that you can’t go wrong with orange soups, at least not for me.

A bit later, that starter was finally followed by the main dish of the evening. A game ragout with winter veggies and potato croquettes. It smelled delicious. The chef and Em’s dad definitely knew what they were doing.

But with the entry of our main dish, that also meant the exit for the chef as he came to say goodbye to us for the evening.

Just like for Helen, Em’s mom made a christmas present appear from underneath the table. If it had been there this entire time, or if Em’s mom is actually a witch and she just made it poof into existence, I will never know.

“Have a nice christmas eve and a happy new year. I hope you will be back with us next year.” Em’s mom handed the present over to the chef.

“Of course I’ll be back.” The chef laughed loudly and proudly. “I’d be crazy not to return.” He then looked at the rest of the room as he accepted his gift. “Have a merry christmas everyone!”

“You too!” Karin, Em, Ria and myself all replied while Em’s dad just waved with a smile.

Ilse walked the chef out and returned shortly after. She looked at me, already having anticipated my question. “A set of finely hand-crafted Japanese kitchen knives.” She giggled.

“Also from someone you know?”

“No, this time I got the introduction through an old high-school friend of mine.”

“Oh.” I nodded. -So another alumni of St. Katherine’s…-

Em’s dad sat down with us for the last time as for the rest of the evening nothing more had to be cooked or baked, at least that’s what I presumed.

“I hope you all enjoy this, this is the dish me and Pietro worked the hardest on.” Em’s dad said with a big smile.

“I’m sure it will be great! It looks and smells delicious!” Ria replied, the usual ball of enthusiasm she is.

“Thank you, Corelia.”

“I’d say don’t let the food get cold. Have a nice meal, everyone.” Em’s mom took up her knife and fork and waited for us to do the same.

“Have a nice meal.” We replied.

The effort Em’s dad and the chef put in hadn’t been in vain. The taste of the game ragout combined with the homemade potato croquettes was so good, that even though I don’t know any hunger anymore since quite a while, I still asked for seconds. Luckily for me, and also Ria, there was plenty to go around for a second or even a third time. It was an outright fantastic dinner.

Ria huffed out a relieved sigh. “That was so good.”

“I liked it as well, dad. You did very well.” Em added to Ria’s comment.

“There was a little bit of fat in mine…” Em’s mom said, immediately luring a distressed look from her husband. That is, just until she started giggling. “Don’t worry, dear. I was joking. It was sublime.”

Em’s dad rolled his eyes, but with a relieved smile. “I’m happy to hear that.”

“I propose we wait a bit for the dessert.” Ilse continued. “The cake we ordered is sitting safe and sound in the fridge.”

“That might be a good idea, or Ria might quite probably explode.” I nodded.

Ria raised her finger to object, but quickly lowered it with an affirmative nod.

Em laughed and got up from her chair. So did her sister and both of her parents. “Come, let’s go to the living room then. That’s a bit more convivial.”

“Alrighty, let’s go.” I got up too and then helped Ria got up as well by shoving her chair back beneath the table when she had left.

We entered the living room, where the fire of the fireplace was already burning cozily. But I got to admit, when Em’s mom told me earlier that the living room was going to be something else entirely when it came to christmas decorations, I was not expecting to see this scene in front of me. There were lights everywhere, yet still not so over the top that it became busy. Just the right amount and spread out perfectly throughout the room, with the big christmas tree in the corner of the room as the light’s centerpiece. There were little snowman, elf and reindeer decoration dotted all around the room with a couple of independent christmas scenes that added a certain comedic effect. My favourite one that I could see was on the cabinet nearest to the fireplace where an elf was stuck upside down in a pile of snow while the reindeer, snowmen and other elves were laughing at them.

“You made this all yourself?” I gawked at the room. Ria was just as enamored by it all as well.

“Mom did outsource a couple of the designs for the scenes, but we made the scenes all ourselves with the designs to base ourselves on.” Em explained, staring at the same scene I was staring at. “That’s not my favourite scene though.” She said. “Mine’s over there.” She pointed at the cabinet closest to the tree. “You should go look at it too, Ria.”

Ria looked at me with wonder written in her eyes.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

I saw Em’s mom and her dad stand by the side, looking at us, probably wanting to see the reaction to what we were going to see.

As Ria walked in front of me, it was her who saw the scene in question first.

“Awh, Em, that’s so incredibly cute.” Ria even put her hands in front of her mouth. “Wow.” I looked at her face as I caught up to her, she was even a bit teary-eyed.

When I turned my head towards the cabinet, I could tell why. There were three little snowmen, or better said snowwomen, standing hand-in-hand next to a small christmas tree, decorated with tiny hearts everywhere. It was as if you were staring at a christmas and Valentine's Day fusion. The snowwomen had hair in the colour of our hair, as if it wasn’t obvious enough that this was meant to depict us.

Nearby were another three snowmen who were looking at the scene. Those clearly represented Ilse, Em’s dad and Karin. It was an incredibly adorable scene.

“I can see why you prefer this scene, Em.” I nodded with a big smile on my face. “I really do.”

“Do you like it as well?”

“You bet. I think this is my favourite now as well.”

“And you, Ria?” Em asked.

“Do you even need to ask…” Ria covered her face with her hands and just started crying. “It’s so beautiful.”

“Awh.” Em immediately took Ria in for a hug.

I decided to just embrace them both.

“It’s so so beautiful.” Ria sniffed. “I don’t need any presents anymore. I’m fulfilled.”

“Are you sure about that, Ria.” I teased. “That means we’ll need to toss away your presents, you know.”

Ria sniffed once more. “No… I want those too…”

Em and I both chuckled, to which Em spoke. “I’m so happy you like it. But please stop crying, otherwise I’ll start crying too.” The crack in her voice definitely showed that Em was telling no lies. “And I don’t want my make-up to start running out.”

That joke broke Ria a little as she started laughing. With a last sniff, she replied. “Okay. I’ll try.”

Em’s mom had followed us and stood a bit at a distance, now brandishing a box of tissues. “Here, Ria, sweetie.”

“Thank you.” Ria took a tissue and dried off the tears that had rolled down her cheeks.

In the meantime, Em’s dad was standing with Karin a bit further behind. Karin was looking at a box he was holding.

“What’s that, dad?” Em asked as she turned around. I had expected her to know what it was but apparently it’s the first time she’d seen it too.

Em’s dad looked up. “It’s something I picked up on my business trip.” He replied. “I stopped at a board-game store to look for a puzzle. The store clerk recommended this too.”

The four of us, Ilse included, walked closer to see what it was. Even his wife had no idea what he had brought home.

“It’s a game called Steel Manchester. I thought it looked interesting.”

“Supreme collector’s edition?” Em’s mom squinted.

“It was the box he recommended to me.”

“Dad, did you get swindled?” Karin asked.

“It wasn’t so expensive.” His cheeks puffed up a little as he looked down at his box. “But I was thinking, maybe we could play this together?”

I got to say, it was actually pretty cute to see Em’s dad like that. He’s generally pretty reserved but it seemed like he really wanted to try playing it.

“I don’t see why not.” I was the first one to reply. “Playing games together is fun, right. And maybe I’m better at this than at puzzles.”

Em’s dad looked at me with a smile.

“Of course we can play!” Ilse’s squint had turned into an enthusiastic grin. “I don’t think anyone would object to that.”

-I’m pretty sure Ilse was happy too that her husband had taken the initiative to do something together. And Em and Karin seemed plenty pleased about it too.-