User blog:James of the iron hills/Family -Uncle of 8

Being a stay at home adult was great in James' mind. He got to take care of his nephews and nieces from home while their parents both worked full time, it was like being a nanny excet no one can give you weird looks because you're related to them all. Of course there was a lot of hardwork, after all, being the guardian of 8 kids wasn't exactly easy and he felt like crap whenever he had to tell off the kids or break up one of the constant arguments exploding out of nowhere. It was always easier when James' Dad, Auraestus comes over to help out.

Iron Chef Imrahil
James was lying on a deck chair near the hotel pool watching some of the kids swim around while Imrahil and Heartgold talked next to him, from what he heard of their conversation it sounded like they were dissing Edacnik's motorbike. Berry and Sha were in the pool diving underwater and  grabbing each other by the ankles, flipping the other into the water. The family had decided to go on a holiday to James' old country of work, Australia. James had once been an journalist and had gained a liking for the country, so he'd decided to show his family the beautiful country. It was lovely, they went to the fair-weathered city of Cairns were beaches were everywhere and they could go on adventures whenever they wanted. They were missing Christmas in America but they weren't going to have snow anyway and Summer in Cairns was lovely anyway. Shade, Eureka and Aramir had stayed in their three person room to talk and play games, that was fine with James, as long as they went on an adventure later and didn't spend the whole holiday cooped up on devices.

It was 8:30 and everyone had gotten out of the pool to dry off and get ready for dinner, James was going to talk Imrahil through using a barbecue for the first time so they could make some 'mash and sangers'.

"Okay Imrahil, first of all, check you have everything you need, okay?" Imrahil looked around and turned to James.

"Looks good, I think it's all there." Said Imrahil, James raised an eyebrow.

"You sure of that? What's missing?" Imrahil looked around and realized.

"The food?"

"Yes, that might be important, go grab that quickly." Imrahil moved to go only to kick the gas tank, making it rattle and as he took his elbow off the unlit barbecue he realized it'd been resting on the spark button and as he took away pleasure, a giant plume of flame exploded from the hexagonal grill and Argali let out a squeek of fear. "Dear god, mate!" Bellowed James, taking a step back and extinguishing a spark in his beard, "Take it easy." James turned off the barbecue and stepped back. "You know what." He said, 'Maybe I'll cook tonight."

Christmas day
The family sat in a sqaushed circle in James' and Aurestus' room, a pool of present inside the circle.

"Okay everyone, don't all go at once, no taking other people's gifts, be kind, be grateful and Berry, don't hide everyone's stuff in you Grandfather's minibar like you did last year." Said James and as he finished everyone leapt forward to grab their gifts. Shade had gotten some card slips for Magic: The gathering, ShadowFyre got a copy of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Imrahil had gotten an Aussie cookbook. James wouldn't stop until Imrahil could learn to cook. The kids started comparing gifts and laughing. Travian then pulled out a bottle of eggnog, offering it around, Argali though, took it to the next level, getting shot glasses out of the hotel room pantry and daring people to try and beat six cups without breathing inbetween. Their family were weird and unpredictable but they had fun their own way.

The Plane Ride
The group of ten aboard the Qantas Boeing 747 were lined up in a row, with James, ShadowFyre and Berry on the left triad of seats; Imrahil, Travian, Shade and Edacnik in the middle seats and Auraestus, Heartgold and Argali on the right triad. So far the flight was absolute hell, no one could sleep because they were so packed in Argali kept pressing the crew assistance button when Aurae wasn't looking, trying to order Taiwanese rice and herbs. Edacnik was glaring at Heartgold from his seat, seperated only by the strip of walking space between the two seat sections and an adult queueing up fir the bathroom with their six year old son. ShadowFyre and berry on the other hand, were having a ball. Playing a local game of Hearthstone on their iPods and blowing bubbles in their cups of rasberry coke. James was happy to be near some the tamer kids in the family. The holiday had been a resounding success, Imrahil had gotten the tan he'd 'totally just got by accident', James was fairly sure it was so he could impress Clara, the girl he'd heard Travian and Imrahil talking about and Edacnik was still in joy that Hobit had stayed home with Faenor. Christmas was great, his family was great.