Well, things are finally calm and quiet around here again. But somehow, it doesn’t feel as nice as it did before.

I guess it’s like this every year around Christmastime. For all of us. We get used to all the company – all the talking, and laughing, and playing with Stefan’s kids… We love it. Especially Mama.

She spends weeks and weeks stressing and freaking out about getting the house ready for company, of course. Poor Papa goes crazy trying to calm her down and remind her to just breathe.

But when the time comes for everyone to go back home, she cries and cries and tells them to stay longer next time. You’d think after all these years it would get easier, wouldn’t you? But it doesn’t.

Not for any of us.

But every time we say goodbye, I try not to think about how much it’ll suck not seeing everyone for a while… I just try to focus on what a great time we had. And this Christmas was definitely no exception.

Not only did I get to see Stefan and Josh and their families, but we all finally got to see Clara for the first time since we found out she’s pregnant. I still can’t really believe it! Seeing her like that was pretty surreal… Mama was practically beside herself.

The other big highlight (besides Lucas finally being home!) was finally getting to meet the famous Hazel. She really is such a sweet girl, and when I see my son with her… Well, it’s clear he’s totally smitten. And I love seeing him like that.

Though I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about them living together so soon… They already found a place, and moved in together last week. I talked to her Papa about it, and he agreed it was a little sudden… But who are we to stop them, I guess?

Still, it was kinda nice to know that Mark and I are on the same page. He seems like a really great guy, and it was kind of a shock to realize that we already knew more about him than we thought we did… Who would have guessed that the boss Jocelyne was always talking about was Hazel’s Papa?

Anyway, the point is, we had a great Christmas and New Year, and everything finally seems to be going well for the kids. Things with Clara and Florian are getting better and better, Lucas and Hazel are clearly head-over-heels, and it sounds like Gus has been talking to some boy from school a lot… Noah? We don’t know much about him yet… But Lettie and I are definitely keeping an eye.

The only one I’m still kind of worried about is Jocelyne… We don’t really know much about what’s going on with her lately. She told us she’d broken up with Elliot, and quit her job at the library last month. Something about being too overwhelmed with theater? Nothing too outrageous or anything, I guess. And she seemed fine when she first got home.

But the night of the Christmas party, things started getting kinda weird, I guess. She was really distant from everyone, and I have no clue why. And she spent the rest of her time at home acting the same way – spending lots of time in her room, and not really talking to anyone, except Clara.

She kept telling us she was just stressed out about the new semester starting, but I’m not sure if I really buy it. It’s not like my Jocelyne to panic so easily, especially about school.

I hope she’ll be okay. We’ve all seen before how devastating a breakup can be… Maybe it was just hard for her to see Lucas and Hazel together? Or Clara and Florian? It couldn’t have been easy after how things ended with Elliot…

But I know I’m worrying too much about this whole thing. It might take some time, but everything will be okay. My Jocelyne is such a wonderful girl. She’ll bounce back from this. She’ll meet other guys, start dating again…

And someday, she’ll find the one.

——————————————–

Author’s Note: I am 15 chapters ahead on my writing/screenshotting and have exactly ZERO self-control… So starting this week, we’re back to five chapters a week instead of four. If I start catching up too much I’ll cut back to four. And as always, I will let you know! 😀 We’ll now have Wednesday chapters. Mondays and Fridays are still my “days off” 😛