A Birth day

Aria and Ruby both laughed at the mention of the jars of sickles each of the men had " wow okay" she said " well I'm still a newbie at poker "Aria said as Ruby chuckled. Hearing Angus say the fruit salad was a good idea she smiled then listened to him talk of what else she could add to it and nodded.

"I can do that" she said smiling at his suggestion. Should be a good breakfast" she said as she helped clear up the cards and matchsticks from the table and chuckled at how few she and Marcus had. " seems I need more practice " she said showing the few she had in her hand left.

"Poker requires a bit of practice to fully get the basics in your head, and once you have that, then there's a lot of strategy to learn," Angus said. "But you're both smart. You can certainly get it. We need to teach you Mancala too. Mancala is sort of like a leapfrog game, but it does require a bit of thinking too. And maybe this winter if we get snow up to the roof, we can teach you backgammon. It's not that hard. You're basically moving one direction around the board, your opponent is moving around the board from the other direction, and you're trying to get all your men around the board before he does, without having him send your men back to the beginning to start all over. You can definitely learn that too."

"One of these winters, we need to trust that the kids won't kill each other, and we need to go to the continent and go skiing for a few days," Marcus said.

"That would be in the Alps," Angus said. "It certainly is a possibility. Edward has some connections to some of the ski resort owners in the Italian alps because they buy our wines. If we get serious, then I would think we might be able to find some accommodations. Its' been a long time since we went skiiing."

"Do either of you ski at all?" Marcus asked Ruby and Aria.

Ruby listened to Marcus and Angus and nodded to Angus " oh that would be fun" she said when Marcus asked them if they skied Ruby nodded but Aria shook her head .

"not much call for asking where I came from" she said smiling " water asking is as close as I got " she added and chuckled " but I would like to see if I can do it on snow" she said as she heard Angus mention backgammon and draughts. " yeah took a lot of concentrate not to show my hand this time." she said and chuckled.

Ruby nodded as she finished wiping down the table " that mountain air does sound good " she said throwing the last of the crumbs into the compost bin to recycle. Now done she moved to sit on the couch and relaxed again.

"I would think you would enjoy starting with cross country skiing at first, rather than downhill," Marcus said. "That would give you a chance to learn balancing and movement without having to start doing it at 20 miles an hour. And, honestly, I like either one."

"There is also some good shopping at small artisan shops in some of the villages," Angus said. "some good small restaurants, some sleigh rides, snowshoeing, skating, spas built around natural hot springs, small breweries where you can do what's called a flight--meaning each person can get five or six small glasses of different beers so they can sample them and compare them and decide what they like. There's also some excellent cocoa served around the fireplace in a lot of them. I'm sure our teens would like it too, but sometimes the grownups really do deserve a couple days away."

"And we'd be mere minutes from Milan or Venice," Marcus said. "We could apparate or we could rent a muggle car, either one."

Ruby looked at Angus as he spoke more of the resort and its benefits " those words I agree, adults need some down time too" she said " and your making it hard to refuse with all that." she added and chuckled as Aria nodded to Marcus a he said she'd be better starting with cross country rather than down hill.

"i'll take that advice since I don't want to end up with a broken appendage from skiing" she said smiling to Marcus as he said they would not be far from Venice or Millan " we could pop over to them for some shopping , if needed " Aria said with Ruby nodding in the back behind her.

"If needed," Angus laughed. "Be real. You'd both love to shop in Milan. Marcus and I can go ice swimming."

"I haven't done that in ages," Marcus said, excited about it.

"That's swimming in water that's 5 degrees C. or less," Angus said. "We both first did it in one of Robert's winter survival things. We didn't think we'd like the swimming, but it was great, actually."

"I know it might not be the thing for either of you two," Marcus told Aria and Ruby, "so if you opt out, that's fine. We'll go swim in the ice while you go shopping. Just don't spend all the money in Milan. Fair enough?"

Aria looked at Marcus and Angus when ice swimming was mentioned " oh, bet that will cool the lower regions." she said as Ruby laughed. But she smiled " oh we'll join you in that defiantly" she said smirking to both men " and there's no chance we could spend all your money" she said as Ruby shook her head as she walked over and lent on the back of the couch.

"I rather like the sound of that ice swimming" she said " its something I've never done and really want to try it." she said smiling to both men. " so we pack swim suits too." she said aria looked at her and chuckled.

"and hot chocolate, hot water bottles and thermal long johns " she teased them all.

"Oh, don't pack hot chocolate," Angus said. "They have great hot chocolate there. The only person who makes better is Kate. Her hot chocolate is off the charts. It's rich and super thick, almost like the very best dark chocolate custard you've ever had, but hot and right from the pot on the stove."

"My favorite is when you take Kate's cocoa and add a healthy dose of Irish cream to it," Marcus said. "That's the best. Speaking of winter, thought, do we have any ideas for Christmas gifts?"

"I've already asked Michael to help us fine some rare first edition books to add to Elwood's collection," Angus said.

"That's a great idea. He truly treasures books. I considered getting him a bunch of puzzle books. He's extremely intellectual, and I think he'd like to challenge his brain on his own terms."

"I think that's a great idea. Maybe someone could get him a nice handmade pen and pencil set to go with those puzzle books," Angus said.

"What are you getting for Kate and Robert?" Marcus asked.

"Well, I think I'm going to add another pen, connected to the sheepfold, and I'm going to put a pair of alpacas and a pair of llamas in it. They both have great wool, and she likes to use it in her art pieces."

"She'll love you forever," Marcus laughed. "Robert will hate your guts."

"Nah. Kate'll be over the moon, so Robert will be happy. I've got Edward scouring his sources for the most difficult puzzle box he can find for Robert. Hopefully, it will keep him busy for months before he figures out how to open it."

Aria looked at Marcus and Angus and smiled hearing how good the hot chocolate was at the resort and both women smiled to each other. " that sounds even better" Aria said then heard Angus mention Christmas gifts and they chuckled softly. "we've not even thought about what to get any of you guys" Aria said as Ruby nodded.

Ruby could not help the yawn that left her as she stood listening as the men spoke about gifts. Aria nodded at the mention of a puzzle box for Robert " that would be perfect for him" she said smiling " I just need to get mister over there something but what do you get the man who has everything?" she asked with a smirk.

"Now, now," Marcus said, "he doesn't have everything. He has very precious little, actually. He has the money to buy whatever he wants, but he doesn't shop for himself unless he absolutely has to. I can give you some suggestions, and I know Edward can give you some. I presume you'd rather me not do that right in front of him, though."

"And you two need to give suggestions to us," Angus said. "Shall we leave the kids to you two? You know we have a ton of people to buy for. If we were smart, we'd put our heads together to make sure that we havent' forgotten anyone, and then get started."

"If we were smarter, the four of us would go together for most of our gifts and give them a bigger gift from the four of us," Marcus said.

"I rather like that. That would make it worlds easier," Angus said. "I'll start the list of people to buy for, if you lot all pitch in ideas for the bezillions of people we have on the list."

"Sounds fair enough to me," Marcus said.