Love in Ireland

/27/

-Sunday December 24th-

Today was Christmas Eve. And the castle has been buzzing with excitement about tomorrow. I stayed in my studio for most of the day finishing presents and working on outfits for the New Year's Eve Ball.

"We have arrived!" Zach and Alannah yelled, walking into my studio.

For the past two years, Zach and I have stayed at the castle on Christmas Eve and Christmas and we've made a tradition of sorts where on Christmas Eve we have a sleepover of sorts. Madam Bowden would let us clear a space in the studio as long as we didn't break or touch anything she was working on. Now that it's my studio, we don't have to ask for permission and I already have the large sitting area that has been used for plenty of sleepovers already. 

In the morning before the ball, everyone gathers in the sitting room and has breakfast while gifts are exchanged. Usually, after breakfast, I would go home and spend some time with my family before coming back to get ready for the ball with Alannah. Then after Christmas I would go and spend time at home before coming back for New Year's Eve. But this year Mr. and Mrs. Finnegan said I was welcome to invite my family to stay at the castle till New Year's and so I did. They're even coming to the Christmas and New Year's Eve Balls. I told my mom I would make her new dresses and the boys tux's, but she insisted that the boys could wear their old tuxedos and I could just make them bow-ties. I tried to argue, but I think she realized how much I've been working since the start of December and didn't want to add much more to my workload.

Since Hudson and Isaac were staying at the castle, we asked them if they would want to join in our sleepover festivities and they agreed.

"Great, come in. Let me just put my sewing stuff away and grab the pillows and blankets." I said, getting up.

"I'll help." Declan said, grabbing some of my stuff and putting it on the large table near the fabrics.

"Thanks. Can you go get the blankets and extra pillows? They should be at the bottom of the linen closet in my room." I asked as I continued to clean up my stuff.

"On it." Declan left to go get the blankets.

Alannah was setting up the trays of snacks and drinks on the coffee table. She moved the table from beside the couch where I usually kept to in front of the seating area, which we were going to cover in blankets and pillows. Owen, Hudson, and Isaac had started to set up the blankets and pillows that everyone brought and would add the ones Declan was bringing in. Bridget was setting up Alannah's laptop, so we would watch Christmas movies. The studio didn't have a TV and with the way it's laid out, it would be too weird to put one in. So we just set up someone's laptop so we can all see. Sometimes we'll have the sleepovers in mine or Alannah's bedroom when my studio is an absolute mess and then we can use a TV. Zach was bringing in all the other stuff they brought, such as speakers, board games, and his guitar. I kept a few board games in my room but I didn't have a ton. I just had a deck of cards, uno cards, Monopoly, and Clue.

We stay up pretty late doing stuff. Mr. and Mrs. Finnegan last year set the rule that we had to go to bed at 1 AM, no exceptions. Two years ago, when we first did this, we all stayed up till five AM. Then we got woken up at nine for breakfast and were running on four hours of sleep the whole day. Owen nearly passed out on the dance floor during the ball. One of the main reasons we used the studio instead of one of the bedrooms is because the studio is farther away from the guest bedrooms, Mr. and Mrs. Finnegan's bedroom, and the other staff's bedrooms. My bedroom is the only occupied one on this floor. There are about 5 more bedrooms on this floor from a time when there was more than one seamstress and their families all lived here. But since it's just me, I of course, occupy the one bedroom that connects to the studio and all the others are empty. I'm sure they'll be used as guest or staff bedrooms eventually, but for now they're empty. And when Madam Bowden was working here, she would go traveling from December 23rd to December 26th, so she wasn't living in the castle.