Spring and New Life

Jean didn't exactly handle things gracefully.

Beyond belief, Cora was back from the dead. Yves was over the moon, and she insisted they call the boys home from boarding school at once. They did, but all was not immediately well. Jean was angry, incredibly angry. Wouldn't you be, if your mother had died suddenly when you were a child, leaving you with a less-than-attentive father and a younger brother that in many cases you had to parent yourself? Jean had been forced to grow up too quickly, and here he was, on the cusp of actual adulthood, facing the person who had, whether she had meant to or not, taken his childhood from him.

Something Yves had never thought to have again.

In an attempt to smooth things over and to celebrate the reunification of the family, all of them spent the rest of the winter in the sunny hills of France. Jean and Rickard had never been, and Yves was itching to see all his old friends in Champs le Sims.

They booked a pair of rooms in a charming inn and spent a glorious couple of weeks relaxing and enjoying themselves.

The boys slept in and got to eat breakfast in an empty dining room.

Yves caught up with old friends.

Cora found her old favorite bench and spent some time with a good book.

 Back at home, the family seemed to have patched things over. Winter was finally over and spring was in full bloom. I got them a new table, wanting to get rid of that old tiny thing and the memories it held - and with extra seats in the hopes that soon Jean would be adding to the family.

 Cora spent a lot of time outside, working valiantly to bring her struggling garden back to life and continue with her dream of having a huge nectar collection.

As I thought, it seemed Jean had new sorts of things on his mind.

Yves seemed to realize how Jean had grown up.

Cora, working away with her now multiple Nectar presses.

The vacation to France seemed to have left quite an impression on Jean.

As had the recent long winter.

And he still had a lot of issues to work through.

He had found his love.

Jean ended up asking a girl named Yusun Kolb to prom, and it was quite clear they were meant for each other.

He proposed at graduation, with the rest of his family, well, being themselves. To be fair though, if the love of your life had come back from the dead, you'd kiss her too, wouldn't you?

The wedding is scheduled for a few days from now, once the leaves are fully in on the trees (the reception is outdoors). I'm really hoping it doesn't rain.

All in all, it seems like life is back to normal for the Lassiter family. Jean still doesn't have the best relationship with his mom, but at least they can have a conversation without it devolving into a yelling match. That's progress, I suppose. We'll see how things go when Yusun joins the family in a few days.

The Spring Festival, day one

Just a few days from now will mark my one year anniversary with lotro, and I find it fitting that my 'birthday' falls in the Spring Festival. I love the festivals in the game. Each one holds different activities to try, and while some are simple, some require a good amount of skill and practice.

One such activity requiring a bit of effort is the horse race. There are two race-tracks in the game, one in the Shire and one in Bree, and since the advent of the new, improved horse races back in the winter festival, I have made it a point to practice riding on the race-course every time I go to my house in Michel Delving (what? It's on the way, and since I am such an avid collector of horses, I figured it wouldn't hurt). When I first tried the race-tracks back December, I failed the races more times than I won them.

However, as a result of my practice, I ran the Spring race today with Indrabar, and received my Spring Fest Horse Token, which, when combined with other items, will allow me to trade for a spring horse. Yay!

 My only wonder now is if Turbine has added a new horse to the Spring Festival, as they did in the Winter Festival. Just in case, I went ahead and ran the Bree race too and received a token from there, so, provided I can get the other necessary items and the money, I will have at least one (and possibly two!) new horses in the near future. Now I simply need to get my other characters up and ready as well so I can have Spring horses for them all!



Stay tuned for a rundown of the other events in the land of Middle-earth during the Spring Festival!