A Birth day

Ruby chuckled and nodded " might be best , that way they can get what they want" she said softly noticing him slowly fall asleep where he sat, chukaling softly she soon felt his breathing level out signeling he ahd indeed fallen asleep next to her. Making herself comfortable she closed her eyes and drfted asleep with him.

Aria woke when Marcus got up to shower and dress then head down stairs she dressed and followed him down poring a mug of coffee she made a fresh pot and let it heat while he went to let Fin out. " wow thats a lot of snow" she said watching him return with Finn on a rope " couldn't find the lead?" she asked putting on several peices of bread for toast.

"I think Angus most likely threw it away. Finn's never really needed it. I don't expect him to cause any trouble this time either, not intentionally any way, but if he goes more than just a couple feet away, I won't see him, and he won't be able to find his way back. It's for his safety right now. We don't dare just open the door and let him dash off like we usually do, and by the way the sky looks, I don't think the wind and snow are going to stop any time soon. I see you found the coffee and tea I made. I'm surprised they're done brewing because I just put both pots on before I came out with Finn." He noticed Finn was busy just looking at the snow and how the wind was blowing it around. "Hurry up, Mate. It's cold out here," Marcus told him. "Get a move on, would you?" Finn started to hunt for what he deemed as the perfect spot, but the snow apparently was too high for him. Marcus cast a spell to magically move some snow out of the way for him to have a spot that would accommodate Finn's needs. Satisfied, Finn took care of his business, and Marcus gave just a gently tug on the rope and Finn came back and followed Marcus into the house.

Marcus untied the rope, and the dog dashed over and up onto the bed, with the cold wet snow flying into Angus's face. It was a rude awakening. Angus groaned, not happy at snow being thrown in his face.

"Sorry, Mate," Marcus said. "I didn't think he'd do that."

"No problem," Angus yawned, getting up.

"I'll get you some coffee," Marcus said, happy to pour some coffee as a bit of an apology for the out of control dog.

"Thanks," Angus said. "I think I'll make us some Scottish oats this morning. Seems like a good morning for some hot cereal."

Aria chuckled and nodded " yep they did " she said showing him her hot steaming mug of coffee." and I think he did too, since I have not seen one around here." she added with his question of the lead. She smiled seeing Finn sniff around and Marcus clear the snow away so he could do his business. Turning to head back inside as he walked behind her she watched him remove the rope then handed him a mug of hot coffee.

Ruby woke with a start as something cold hit her face " wow what was that" she asked looking around and seeing Finn sat waging his tail at them. She heard Angus and smiled to him " sounds lovely" she said now stretching as she stood up and folded the blanket so she could place it over the back of the chair they had fallen asleep on. " Im taking it the girls are still sleeping?" she asked as Aria brought over a mug for her too. She thanksed her and sipped it seing her nod .

"Marcus checked on them and yes there still sleeping, enjoy the peace for the moment" she said making Ruby chuckle.

Angus knew Scottish oats took longer than Irish oats or plain old rolled oats, so he put them on to cook and he peeled and cut some apples, then got out a cast iron skillet and melted some butter in the skillet and then added some muscovado sugar and some cinnamon to it. When that was dissolved into a lovely syrup, he added the slices of apples to the skillet to fry the apples in sweet cinnamon sugar mixture. He had just a little bit of granola in a tin, so he decided that would be a nice crunchy topping for the oatmeal, and he made several slices of toast for anyone who wanted toast alongside their oatmeal.

The boys got up and came downstairs sleepily and made their way to the coffee. Sam looked out the window.

"It's still snowing," he sighed.

"Don't complain," Victor said. "We get another snow day."

"I need to work. I need the money," Sam said.

"Well, get over yourself," Victor said. "It's not happening this morning."

Ruby sat and watched Angus cooking happy he was back in the kitchen she also saw the boys walk down talking " well unless you want to go skying I'd rather stay inside today, marcus had to clear the door before he could let Finn out " she said sipping her coffee. Aria walked over to the toastr and took out her toast buttering it she then added jam ontop and took it to the table to eat.

" she's right , not going to let up anytime today, use it as a day off " she said " or you could find jobs to do around the house." she said glancing at Angus wondering if there even was anything to do. " and Im sure you'll be paid ether way becuse of the weather." she added finishing her coffee as she stood up and walked over to the sink to place it in the washer to get clean.

Angus put the oatmeal in a bowl that had a magical warming spell on it, and he put the bowl on the table. He put cereal bowls on the table, and then he added a second serving bowl, this one holding the apples, and then out a platter with the warm toast and set out some French butter and some jam, and put out some bowls with different sorts of topping ideas for the oatmeal.

"Come help yourselves," he told everyone. "I purposely just set out bowls so everyone could make their oatmeal the way they like it." He served himself a bowl, added a generous spoonful of the cinnamon fried apples on top and a large spoonful of granola for some crunch. For his toast, he simply added a nice layer of creamy peanut butter and spread it on his slice of toast, letting the peanut butter melt into the hot toast.

That seemed to give Sam and Victor some ideas. Sam spooned out a bowl of oatmeal, added some peanut butter into it and then opened up a chocolate frog and melted it into his oatmeal and stirred it up.

"Poor frog," Victor laughed. "Drowned and melted in a bowl of oats."

"Yeah, but its amazing," Sam grinned as Victor spooned up oatmeal, added some jam and some granola to his oatmeal, preferring to eat his apples in a separate bowl on the side, while Marcus preferred to stir some of the apples into his bowl of oats.

Ruby chuckled and walked over to the table taking a bowl she scooped the oats in and added just a spoon of jam mixing it around then siting down to eat it. " yum nice and warming , plus filling too in this weather" she said as she ate the first spoon. Aria chuckled as she ate her toast and watched them as thy seasoned and ate their oatmeal with apple and granola.

" you know in england this is called porrage, still good though" Ruby said as she ate hers then went back for a second bowl this time adding apples to it loving the warmth and sweet of them. Finishing her coffee she stood up leaving her half empty bowl and pored another cup of coffee fr herself " any one else want a top up?" she asked smiling a she held up the half full pot.

"Hang around enough chefs," Angus said, "and you learn all kinds of names for the same thing. I guess I don't really care what its called as long as its edible."

"Its good," Sam said. "Better than what the house elves made at Hogwarts."

"Really?" Angus frowned. "When we were there, the food was always really good."

"Yeah, well, it was good once we got past breakfast," Victor said. "One of the house elves had a real fondness for firewhiskey, and so breakfast was nothing to get excited about."

"Hm. Too bad the headmaster didn't do something about it."

"The headmaster didn't like porridge, so it didn't apparently much matter," Victor said. "At any rate, its good to get some that's worth eating."

"Ginger and Anise's studies start this morning," Sam said. "Suppose they'll do alright?"

"I think they're going to do very well," Angus said. "Italy didn't get the storm that we did, so their classes should be right on schedule."

"But they won't be coming home tonight," Victor said.

"No, I dont' think they will. I know they were counting on coming home at the end of the day, but I dont' think our weather will let me go get them. They'll have to be in Italy until the weather clears, however long that is. Sometimes a blizzard can last a couple of days. This one hasn't been going even 24 hours. We could be into this quite awhile longer, I'm afraid," Angus said. He finished his breakfast. and he got up and fed Finn. Then he worked on clearing the table and doing the washing up.

"Oh, by the way, I deliberately didn't bring this up over breakfast," Marcus said, "but one of the babies, or maybe even both of them, had some sort of ungodly blowout. I did not wake them because they were sleeping really soundly, but even my twins never made a stench like I smelled in that nursery this morning."

"I'll get it when I'm done with the kitchen," Angus sighed. "i'll be glad when they're potty trained."

Ruby heard Angus and chuckled smiling at him " oh so true " she said " and I agree so edible" she added as she ate her second bowl then placed her bowl in the washer " I agree with Angus, when I went it was the best meal of the day" she said smiling at the memories. Aria chuckled and shook her head and chuckled.

Hearing the boys talk of Anise and Gingr Ruby smiled listening as Angus said they would not be home that day due to the weather. "Yeah, we don't want them to be spliced becuse of the storm" she said then heard Marcus talk about the babies and she chuckled " I'll help too" she said then heard his coment about when they will be potty trained " that will be great, no more diper blow outs" she said with a chuckle as she headed up the stairs.

Finding Caprice she quickly bathed and changed her into a romper that was warm but comfortable enough for her to roam around in. " okay it was Caprice that had the blow out" she told Angus " you can take her while I change Dimond if you want or you can sort her while I get their breakfast ready" she said as she held Caprice.

"Okay," he told her. He took a clean Caprice downstairs and temporarily set her on the floor so he could make some sort of breakfast for the babies. He decided that since he had some oatmeal left, he would use that. He chopped some of the soft sweet fried apples to be easier to go through the spoon feeder bottles and made two of them, giving one to Caprice and setting the other one on the counter for Ruby to give to Diamond. Caprice was very able to use a spoon feeder bottle by herself, and she was very determined to do it herself. With the morning chores done, Angus warmed up his coffee and went over and sat in his chair, thinking of working on a sketch

"Can I ask you something?" Sam asked Angus.

"Always," Angus replied.

"What do you think of this for Anise for Christmas?" Sam asked handing a box to him. Angus opened the box and looked inside and then he looked up at sam.

"Are you sure?"

"More sure of anything else in my entire life," Sam said.

"Does she have any idea?"

"Well, sort of. Someday, we said." he replied. "Not til later, really."

"Then, yes. I think it's very nice," Angus said, handing the box back to him. "I think she'll like it."

"I hope so," Sam said, a little nervous. "Victor has one too, but his is really different. I know he wants you to see his too. I think he's more nervous than I am about whether Ginger will like it."

"Well, it isn't like I'm going anywhere today," Angus smiled.