“We got this for you!” Amelia smiled, passing the keyring to Laura.

“That’s very pretty!” Laura smiled, studying sculpted mini mask. “Thank you! What about the toy shop?” she asked, eyeing the bags with the logo on.

“Oh we had to go and check out if they had anything cool in their post-Christmas sale!” Amelia grinned. “Look,” she lifted all three of the standard Sidney play-sets out of the first bag, “we got these for Willow. I know Sam was everyone’s Christmas present but she’s going to expect birthday presents too. We thought Erin, Ryan and I could give her one of these each.”

“Good call!” Laura smiled. “What should we give her?” she turned to Josh, slightly concerned that she had not thought of that before and wondering when she might have a chance to go shop for a suitable gift.

“Oh we’ve got that covered too!” Amelia grinned proudly. “It might be a bit advanced for her, it does say fourteen plus on the box…” She pulled out a fairly large, flat box, mostly black but with a picture of Sidney’s pink hat and boots on the front. It took Laura a second or two to realise that it was actually a LEGO set and that the picture on the front was the model. It was one of the art sets intended for adults. “But we thought she’d like it anyway and I’m sure her dads won’t mind helping her build it!” Laura couldn’t help chuckling, knowing that this would be just as much a gift for her brother and his husband as for their daughter!

“Oh, and they had these character bears!” Amelia grinned, opening up the last bag. “They had so many different ones it was really hard to choose but we hope you like them! Here,” she pulled a fuzzy, vintage-looking bean-bag bear, the kind meant to sit on a desk or shelf rather than for cuddling, dressed as a Jedi and holding a translucent plastic lightsaber, “this one’s for you!” she passed it to Ryan who took it happily, grinning behind the white half-mask. “This one’s yours!” She took out the one they had chosen for Erin which was dressed as Sidney. She giggled as she took it. “And this one,” Amelia produced the final bear with a flourish, “is mine!” The bear she had chosen for herself was dressed as the Phantom of the Opera, complete with black silk cape and stitched-on mask.

“Seems the show made quite an impression on you?” Laura chuckled. “Guess I made a good choice!”

“The best!” Amelia assured her. “Here,” she passed her the souvenir brochure, “you can see lots of pictures from it in here!” Laura took the glossy publication that was half way between a book and a magazine and looked through it.

“Looks awesome!” she smiled, handing it back. “But I’d better see if I’ve got all the photos that I need for making the invitations.” She popped the SD card out of her camera then went to her computer, closely followed by Erin who was eager to see the pictures.

“What are you playing?” Amelia asked Ryan, noticing the paused game on the TV. “Does it have two-player mode?” Soon the two of them were sat beside each other on the sofa, controllers in their hands, Ryan still wearing the Phantom mask, while Erin sat on Laura’s lap to watch her do her editing magic and cleared away the bags and set the table. Since she was busy with the invitations and wanted to get them to the printer as soon as possible, Laura told Josh what she had planned for dinner and left him to start preparing it, promising to come help when she was done with the editing.

The effort she had taken in setting up the shots, the angles and the lighting paid off and Laura was able to convincingly transplant the hat and boots from Erin to the sisters without requiring too much adjustment. She knew that nobody was going to be judging her work too closely and that the glossy finish of the cards would help the hybrid image to blend convincingly but she still needed to be happy with what she was putting out. Once she was done, she asked Erin if she would like her to delete the pictures of her but her daughter insisted that she keep them, commenting that she hoped they could do more photo-shoots together in the future. Happy and excited to have such a willing, pretty and cooperative model, Laura smiled and sent Erin upstairs to get dressed then warned the pair on the sofa that dinner would be in about fifteen minutes and they should think about wrapping up their game.

The photo cards did not require any editing since they were already professional shots with a plain black background. All Laura did to alter them was to add a little text logo in the bottom right-hand corner of each in the gold Sidney font reading “Lydia & Ella’s Sidney Party. Saturday 6th January 2035”.

Knowing that time was very limited, she ordered the prints right away, opting for pink sparkly envelopes this time to fit with the Sidney’s theme. The pack contained enough to post out all the invitations in but also to make presentation packs of the five souvenir picture cards.

They were just finishing up their dinner of cold Girl salad, crispy potatoes and garlic bread and about to move onto dessert when Amelia’s parents arrived to collect her. They graciously declined Laura’s offer to join them at the table since they had already eaten their fill that day but happily accepted coffees and sat on the sofa while their daughter enjoyed home-made trifle that Laura, Erin and Ryan had made the night before.

Once she had finished, Amelia joined her parents on the sofa and excitedly gave them a rundown of the few days she had spent with the Martin’s, not going into explicit detail about the things she and Josh had done over night but making no secret of the fact that they stayed in a luxury hotel together. She told them all about the fun of setting up the hall on Christmas Eve, the party itself and her unexpected night out in the big city then showed them her haul of Christmas presents, prizes from the party and goodies from her date with Josh.

“Sounds like quite a memorable Christmas!” her mum, Penny, chuckled. “You know Grandma will want to hear all about it! All the gory details!” She winked and Amelia giggled before scampering off upstairs to collect the rest of her clothes and belongings that she had not taken with her to the hotel.

“Oh, before you go,” Laura smiled when she came back down, gesturing to the pile of clothes which was now in the corner of the living room, having been moved off the sofa, “if you’ve got time, that is?” she glanced over at Amelia’s parents on the sofa who nodded to assure her that there was no hurry, “Would you mind having a look through Sammie’s clothes and seeing if there’s anything you want?”

“Sure!” Amelia went over to the pile and started to carefully sort through, pulling out a few cute tops and dresses. “Can I keep the dress I wore last night?” she asked.

“Yes, of course!” Laura smiled. “We’ll be dealing with her toys and other things over the next few days,” she explained, “but we’re not quite ready with those yet. We just want to make room in the kids’ bedroom for their own stuff.” she explained to the parents on the sofa who nodded their understanding. They were just finishing up their coffees when Amelia declared that she was finished. And came over with an armful of clothes that Laura went to find a bag for. Once everything was packed and her parents were waiting by the door to take her home, she ran to hug everyone in turn, thanking Laura for all that she had done and hugging her warmly but saving her last and longest hug for Josh who she also kissed with unashamed passion.

“We’ll make another date soon, yeah?” She looked up at him imploringly.

“Yes, of course!” he smiled, stroking her hair and the side of her face then kissing her again. “But go on now, your parents will be starting to forget what you look like!” Giggling, Amelia ran to the door, stopped and waved again, thanking everyone again, then followed her parents out to the car.

Once the table was cleared, Josh invited Ryan to choose which version of Monopoly they should play that night and he opted for “Ghostbusters”, themed around the spin-off Netflix series starring Ernie Hudson who, Laura often commented, had no business looking so good at his age, as Winston with his international network of spook-chasing teams. Nobody wanted to be late to bed that night and Laura could not deny that it felt nice to have her husband all to herself for a change!

The next day, Thursday, they took Erin and Ryan shopping for new clothes, curtains for their bedroom and any other bits and pieces they needed to make themselves truly feel at home. After a lunch of fast food, which everyone enjoyed but all observing that no other meat really lived up to Girl and discussing how it was no wonder that many ancient cultures told stories about people who became addicted to human flesh, having first tasted it out of desperation or being tricked into it. Laura promised to get Girl burgers and sausages for the Sidney party which Erin seemed very pleased about. They chatted quite openly about how much they were all looking forward to eating Ella and Lydia, as casually as if they were discussing a trip to the zoo. Then, of course, there was the girl that Amelia had won at the fair who only Josh had met but the others had seen in photographs. They would get to enjoy her meat in February then Amelia herself in May. All in all, there really was a lot to look forward to in the first half of the coming year!

Back at the house, they spent a few hours rearranging furniture, putting up the new curtains and generally changing anything the siblings wanted changing in their bedroom. By the time they were finished, it barely looked like Samantha’s room any more which both parents actually found comforting. It made her absence less apparent. It wasn’t her room that she wasn’t in any more, it was very much Ryan and Erin’s room, which was how it should be!

Friday morning, a thick cardboard packet like the ones books are often shipped in arrived.

“That will be the invites and cards!” Laura grinned and it landed with a heavy thud onto the door mat. “Why don’t you pop over and see if the girls are home?” she suggested to Erin and Ryan who were sat at the kitchen table with her helping her make pizza dough for the evening. “Then we can do an unboxing together!”

“I’ll go!” Erin declared quickly, standing up and wiping her hands on her apron.

“I don’t mind coming too?” Ryan offered but his sister assured him in an only slightly withering tone that she was perfectly capable of making it across the road and back on her own. She quickly took off her apron and slipped on her coat, pausing to pick up the parcel and putting it safely on the window sill before opening the door so that it would not get bashed around or trodden on. Ryan quickly helped Laura cover the ingredients and get cleaned up while they waited for Erin to come back, hopefully with the girls from across the road. Josh had gone into work that day but mostly to discuss the options for parental leave with the HR team, since they had recently taken in the two foster-children on a basis that was intended to be permanent. He knew that adoption came with the same allowance of paternity leave as a new baby but he wasn’t sure where he stood as a foster-parent and he also needed to be sure how much paid time he could take, since surviving on Laura’s part-time income alone would not be viable for the family, especially as the number of dependant children in their household had doubled!

Less than ten minutes after she had left, Erin was back with Lydia and Ella in tow, the sisters having hastily thrown on the first clothes they had worn since getting home on Tuesday before coming out.

“Hi girls!” Laura smiled. “I know you’re not officially coming over until three but I thought you’d want to see these as soon as they came in? If you’ve got time now, we can address them together and get them sent out?” She invited them over to the dining table and set the heavy slab of a parcel down. The sisters excitedly climbed onto the closest chairs and the family sat around them, excited to watch their reactions. It was Lydia who actually tore out the perforated strip to unseal the packet and they unfolded it together. Like their order for Samantha’s party, each separate product was wrapped in its own brown paper parcel. “I ordered twenty five of everything.” Laura explained as the girls took a packet each and began to carefully tear them open. “Apart from the envelopes, there’s fifty of those.”

Carefully, not wanting to risk tearing what was inside, the girls opened their packets, finding that they both contained one of the souvenir art cards Laura had decided to create.

“Oh yeah!” she grinned when they looked a little puzzled. “Those are for people to take home from the party, like the pictures of Sammie you all got in the stockings! Hope you don’t mind?”

“Oh no!” Ella assured her. “That’s an awesome idea! And you chose such pretty pictures too!” While Laura smiled proudly and her two new children watching with interest, the sisters set the cards carefully aside and reached for another pack each. This time, Ella opened another set of souvenir cards but Lydia got the invitations themselves.

“Oh wow!” she enthused, passing one to her sister for inspection. “These are so cool! Thank you so much!”

“Genuinely my pleasure!” Laura grinned.

“It really looks like we were wearing the hats and boots!” Ella exclaimed.

“Yeah, you’ve both borrowed my feet!” Erin explained with a giggle before explaining how she had posed for Laura, leaning on her brother to try to copy their stances as near to exactly as possible. “I’ll show you those photos later if you like?” she promised.

The excited young meat-girls reached for the final two of the thinner packs and unwrapped the remaining art cards then, while Ella started to sort them into piles, Lydia opened the thicker package which contained the envelopes. They both gushed over the glittery pink envelopes which they agreed with Laura were “very Sidney’s”!

“Did you decide who you wanted to invite?” Laura asked. “We can get the invitations sent out this morning to give them plenty of time to arrive. I’m going to send digital ones to everyone from the party too,” she explained, “so that they can save the date, but there’s something special about getting a physical card in the post. Especially one with such a nice picture on it!” The sister giggled.

“Yes!” Ella took out her phone. “I got their addresses by saying I wanted to send them something but didn’t say what!” She gave Laura the details of her two requested guests and Lydia did the same. Since these were girls that she had no connection to what so ever, who did not even go to the same school as her own children, Laura thought it best not to email them but to just let the invitations from the sisters arrive in the post, which is made it even more important that they get sent out quickly!