While I was marginally better at this board game than I was at puzzling, it was just the most minuscule improvement of skill. Briefly said, this board game was set in the industrial revolution in England, where you are playing an industrialist who needs to expand their industrial empire. You can do this by building coal mines, iron mines, steel plants, breweries and all that jazz on the quite nicely stylized board. But what I found most fun about the game, was the ability to build canals and railways. I honestly didn’t really care that I was losing to Em’s enterprise. I was just happy that I had built a very satisfying railroad connection in between my little enterprise, which weirdly enough, was also something that could earn you victory points. Ria had definitely also eaten less cake of this than her natural puzzle talent, but that left us with some role-playing, which was almost just as fun.

As for the final victory, it was a three-way tie between Em, her mom and her father. It came down to a single iron mine that Em’s father had snatched up in the last turn.

“Well played.” He smiled as we had tallied up all the points. “I think that was pretty fun.”

“It was.” Ilse nodded happily. “You chose your board game well, honey.”

I picked up one of the little metal train miniatures that came with this exclusive edition. “It’s a very well-made game, and not the hardest to understand, either.”

“Yeah.” Em nodded. “That said, it is definitely somewhat of a time-sink.” We’d spent at least three hours on this game, and that’s only because we had picked the shorter of the two game-modes. “Proves once more you can’t really trust the average time that’s stamped on these boxes.”

“It was a very fun three hours though!” Ria called out, saying the truth along the way.

Ilse stood up as her husband started to clear the board while the rest of us helped him. “Would you like to open your presents after the board is completely cleaned up?” She asked.

“I wouldn’t mind waiting a bit longer.” I replied.

“Rora…” Ria pouted.

“But, I might get poked to death if I don’t say yes so you get an aye from me.”

Ilse giggled.

“That would be fun, mom.” Em agreed, her sister also nodded along.

“Alright.” Ilse looked behind her to the tree and then looked back at Ria and me. “Oh, we left your gifts in the hallway, didn’t we?”

“We might have.” I laughed. “We were just having too much of a blast, so we kind of forgot about it.” I gave the last of the cards to Em’s dad and walked over to the other side of the table. “I’ll go and get them and put them under the tree, so at least they’ve been under it for a short while!”

“I’ll come carry mine!” Ria swiftly followed me.

“I’ll go and make some coffee and hot chocolate in the meantime.” Em’s dad said but almost fumbled with the box as he did.

“Don’t worry, dear, I’ll go handle that.”

“And I’ll help.”

“Me too.” Both of the sisters offered to help their mom.

Ilse couldn’t say no to that, and she knew it. “Would anyone like some marshmallows in their hot chocolate?” Ilse looked pretty much exclusively at Ria.

Ria’s hand shot up faster than a rocket. “Me please!”

Ilse smiled “And Aurora, would you like sugar in your coffee?”

“Just one cube.” I nodded. “Thank you.”

“Not one single problem.” She winked.

Ria and I walked our little mountain of gifts back into the living room, with Em’s dad holding open the door for us. The three of us then spread the packages below the tree a bit at random so everyone could point to a gift and then the person who it was for could open it.

I got to say, though, it was pretty darn obvious which gifts had been packed by Ria as she had all gift-wrapped them in the most frilly and cute way possible. Mine on the other hand, while neatly packaged if I say so myself, were definitely a lot more stoic, although I did add those premade ribbon things you could buy in gift wrap sets. As long as it looked somewhat festive, it was fine by me.

“Lovely work.” Ilse said as she walked back into the room, followed by her two daughters, who were following her with most of the beverages. She was carrying Ria’s hot chocolate a la mountain of marshmallows.

They all put down the beverages on the smaller table that was closest to the fireplace. It seemed we would be unpacking the gifts there.

Ria didn’t really wait till her hot chocolate had cooled down before she started on her marshmallows. “Ish so niche.” She spoke with her mouth half-full. Not leaving us any doubt to what she thought of the flavor.

Em’s dad took place in one of the armchairs and looked upon his family with a content smile.

Ilse joined him at his side, sitting on the arm rest. The chair, made of solid cherry timber, definitely looked plenty strong enough for that. “Are you all ready tostart with the unwrapping?”

“Yes.” I rubbed my hands. I couldn’t wait for my girlfriends to receive their gifts. I cared a little bit less about what I would receive in return, but I definitely was curious and looking forward to what my girlfriends had picked out for me.

Ria put down her hot chocolate and looked very excited. “Who’s going to start picking first?”

“We can roll dice.” Em’s dad suggested and put a twenty-sided dice on the table that came out of his jacket’s chest pocket.

“Dad, did you plan this?” Em asked.

“No.” From the smirk on his face, I could tell he definitely did.

Em rolled her eyes and smiled, and then picked up the dice. “Person who rolls highest picks first?”

Everyone nodded and Em got to rolling. Coincidentally, it was also her who managed to roll the highest of all of us, with a nice natural 20.

“Hmm, how about we take the frilly ones first?” She pointed at Ria’s presents under the tree.

“Those are mine!” Ria cheered and went on to collect them. She immediately handed them out to everyone around the table. I don’t think that was how we were planning to do this, but noone cared enough to object. It was however very impressive how she knew what to give to whom, though, as they were all pretty similarly sized and weren’t labeled at all.

We all smiled at each other and started opening our gifts.

Em and I both had received a watch from her. What Em got looked like a watch that was meant to be worn while running, and from what I could tell it could measure your heartbeat as well. As for me, I got a bit more of a ‘butchier’ watch. It had lots of little dials on its face to tell the date, and it even had a little window to tell the phase of the moon. As for the band, it was made out of this dark brown leather that would fit perfectly with the aviator jacket I’d bought. I was very happy with this.

“Wow, Ria, this is great. Thanks a lot.”

“Yeah! Thanks! I’ll definitely be wearing this when I go running!” Em gave Ria a big hug as she was sitting next to her anyway. I stood up to give Ria a kiss.

“I’m happy you like it!” Ria was overly enthused.

Karin, Ilse and Paul also really seemed like they liked their gifts too. We continued in the fashion that Ria had forged, picking up the next set of gifts. And repeated this until the last gift under the tree had been claimed.

Em had received a game from me, a collector’s edition of the next Turn of Destiny game that she had been talking about for a while now. It came with a statue of the main heroine, which Em was overly happy with. As for Ria, both Em and I had given her a figure from the ‘My heart trebles on your bass’ manga. It were the figures of the two girlfriends the story revolved around. While it was not something she would be able to take home, I’d place them in a prominent spot back at my house, as she’d probably be spending more time there in the future anyway. And when she would get her own office, she could display them there.

This, of course, did not stem her enthusiasm, it only increased it and as a result both of us got a tornado of kisses and hugs from her.

And as for Em’s gift to me, it was a fancy picture frame with in it a picture of the three of us, sneakily taken by Helen on Em’s orders back when we were on our shopping trip. It was adorable. She had also added some heart pillows with it to decorate my house.

And that was not the only kind of ‘housewarming gift’ I received. As from Em’s mom and dad, I also received a brand-new knife set for the kitchen.

Apart from that, the three of us also got another gift, but this one was from Ilse alone. And it was clear that Em didn’t expect that one at all.

When we opened the package together, inside there were three pretty much identical sweaters, seemingly homemade. At that time, Ilse also gave a gift to Karin and her husband, while making a sweater for herself appear too.

“This is a bit of a family gift that I wanted to give to all of us.” She smiled.

While all sweaters kind of looked alike, it was clear that the sweaters for Ria, Em and me formed one set, while Karin had her own astronomy inspired one and Ilse and her husband had their own little set.

“When did you even find time to make these?” Em looked at the sweater in her hands, completely confused.

“There’s plenty of time for me to pass on my own.” Ilse chuckled. “And don’t worry, it’s made with plenty of love and then some.”

“I can tell…” I nodded.

-Not to mention the quality… I can’t imagine having the skill to make these sweaters myself at all… even if I had years to practice. And how did she even get my sizes right?That’s one scarily skilled lady… I’m really happy she’s practically my mother-in-law.-