Christmas Lunch

[adifferentlife]

The best way to celebrate any holiday is to share it with people that one care's about, Sybil is sure of that. It's why she's organised this, a luncheon for any and all that she's friends with. It's not something she's done before, and it feels very adult to be hosting a party within her own home. It's not something she ever imagined doing in such a small space, or without a staff to support her, or even before she was married with her own home, but those aren't things that are considerations here.

Instead she's let everyone know when to come and to bring something to share with the others. She's ordered in the main part of the meal, a roasted turkey instead of a goose and a roast of lamb as well. There's champagne and wine, and she has the record player Kaine gave her in the corner playing christmas carols by Bing Crosby. There's a small tree of real pine with strings of beads strung through its boughs and little elecric lights twinkling. Henri has helped her to decorate and do the cooking that she's tried, even if most of the cookies she made needed to be thrown our they were so burnt.

Once people start to arrive she relaxes, allowing herself a glass of wine once she's sure everything is in order and things are going well. At some point there is nothing else she can do, other than talk to her guests; her friends. It's nothing like a Christmas at Downton, but her second one here in Darrow and it feels like the Christmas it's supposed to be.

Comments

[jaimemieux]

Combeferre smiled with sympathy. “Ah, yes. Progress does move forever forward, yes? Inevitable - and not so very terrible, as far as inevitabilities go. I have found myself in a similar predicament, if fact. Previously, I was studying medicine as well, though,” he shrugged, his voice entirely free of self-pity, "I fear I have a bit more than thirty years to catch up on."

[toanend]

"Oh, Heaven help us," laughs Katie. "I know Sybil's in the same boat. And you're right, as complication's go, it's not a bad one. It is kind of intimidating, though. How far back are you?" This is part of why she loves these kinds of social events. The other people around are mostly, if not exclusively, the kind who know where she's coming from.

[jaimemieux]

Strange, Miss Marks' concern might have had a much smaller scale, and even Sybil had less to learn than Henri, and yet all three of them were joined by this strange predicament, suddenly ignorant in a field they had once known so well. "1832, in fact." He gave a rueful shrug. "Which, contrary to what some people seem to think, wasn't quite all leeches and laudanum, but I do have quite a bit to learn."

[toanend]

"Oh, wow," Katie says, eyes gone wide, "I'll bet." Compared to what he and Sybil have to contend with, she feels grateful her own gap is so comparatively brief, but it's daunting all the same. Still, if they want to follow their dreams, they'll just have to buckle down, she supposes. "It's just so much. Sometimes I think I'll never catch up. But it's so interesting, too. It must be nearly a whole new field for you."

[jaimemieux]

"In many ways, yes," Combeferre conceded. Pasteur, Darwin, Curie, and Watson - and thousands of anonymous doctors and scientists in between - had fundamentally changed medicine, and even the extent to which the human body could be understood. But Combeferre clung with a certain pride to all his colleagues had known and understood, and the knowledge he had gained in operating theaters and lecture halls. "Medicine was changing dramatically when I was at university, and any number of concepts taken for granted today were in their infancy, known, but unproven. And more than that, doctors were finally wedding medicine to scientific practice, instead of Galen tradition. What I mean to say, I suppose, is that a man from just twenty years earlier might have found the present age infinitely stranger still."

He laughed a little. "Nevertheless, I have never been so terrified of all I have to learn."

[toanend]

Jamie gurgles, waving a hand at Henri, breaking Katie's solemnity. Henri seems so very smart that she's sure he has very little to worry about. All the same, she can understand the concern.

"Well, it'll get a little less daunting," she says. "I promise. And I'm sure Sybil would be happy to study with you."

[jaimemieux]

"Merci. Daunting or no, I believe the end result will be worth the work." He turned his attention to Jamie with a grin. "I fear he may be reminding me that I talk too much. Do I have that right, petit?"

[toanend]

Jamie lets out a gurgling sound, waving his hand toward Henri, though Katie suspects he's more interested in grabbing than hitting. She hopes he is, anyway. He's at an age where it could be either. "I think he thinks we all talk too much, don't you, sweetheart?" she asks, grinning down at Jamie. "Funny little man, you could wanna talk medicine, too, huh?"

[jaimemieux]

“Ah, but perhaps he will someday, and he will credit his success to all our chattering.” He beamed at the child and looked back up at Katie. “Would it be improper of me to ask if his father is here in Darrow?"