WINTER WONDERLAND GROUP LOG

[holynights]

When the happy confirmed couples are ready to venture out of their honeymoon suites and experience more that the Winter Wonderland lodge has to offer, they'll find that they're basically staying as some of the only guests in an exquisite, all-inclusive winter resort. Think Sandals, but with snow instead of beaches. While the honeymooners will be whisked away to the camp retreat for the middle week of the competition, there's plenty for them to explore when they return!

As more couples transition from Mistletoe Manor to the resort itself, everyone may run into each other during the day while in search of activities. They might have breakfast together at the buffet, head out on a skiing adventure together, visit the pool without having to worry about cameras zooming in on wardrobe malfunctions, or simply hang out together and enjoy some live entertainment during one of the occasional ballroom concerts. If none of that is particularly tempting, they can entertain themselves by putting together their own events.

Most activities and entertainment are likely available, at least sometimes, at the resort. The only real limitation is that participants aren't allowed to leave the show's general domain - they can't find a nearby town or book a flight out of here, for example. Travel between honeymoon suites and Mistletoe Manor is freely available, and while honeymooners are expected back in their shared beds at night, there's no one really doing nightly checks.

If anyone would like to invite other honeymooners back to their suite for a spell, all they have to do is request an extra key (tell Shay and she'll add the new person/people to the filter)

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WEEK 6 COOKING CLASS

[holynights]

[The honeymooners will also have a chance to create a dish alongside this week’s challenge for the participants! Since the winning couples have already found their matches, there won’t be a competitive component to their cooking. Instead, everyone will be offered a couple’s cooking lesson, after which they can pair up (or work together as a full group) to make a dish that will also be brought to the potluck-style match discussion this week!

The cooking class will go over some basic techniques of the modern kitchen and introduce all the participants to a few local traditional specialties. Feel free to make something up or have them go with a dish that is significant to one or both of them. The class probably goes over some finer points, like drink pairings, suggested desserts, and historical anecdotes to keep the experience French.

They’ll be able to share their dish at the community dinner later this week, through the magic of modern food preservation and regular magic—so even if they don’t normally attend those gatherings, perhaps they’d like to stop by to share a meal this week!]

For Dominique~

[hallowdiscourtesy]

[Barok sits next to Dominique during the lesson and, admittedly, does not absorb much of what's being told to him. He's not going to be cooking after this particular moment. He can already imagine the aghast expressions of his house staff if he set foot into the kitchen with the desire to do anything of the sort. They'd probably think he was finally losing his mind. Ten years of grief finally doing him in.

But it is something nice to do together with Dominique and that is not something he'd ever pass up. Not to mention it's something a bit more involved than eating breakfast or lunch with the other couples. And they can't just spend all their time cooped up in their room watching the latest dramas on the television.

So when it's their turn to cook there is a general sense of anticipation even if he has no real inkling in regards of what to do or make.

He has come to this lesson divest of most of his adornments leaving him in only his dress shirt and vest (and cravat, of course). The white sleeves of his attire rolled up just past the elbow to try and keep his clothing as unsullied as possible with their current activity. Barok is currently idly flipping through the pages of the cookbook which features some of the things they were shown. Having been given the general guidelines it is up to them to decide just which dish they'd like to make.

France is known for much of its cuisine so perhaps they should just make something that she's familiar with. He flips further into the back finding the desserts, the pages flopping over to something he's a bit more familiar with. Christmas plum pudding...

He has not had one of those since Lady Baskerville and his brother were still alive. Which creates the dawning revelation that he will not be spending Christmas alone. In fact... should things continue to maintain their positive trajectory he will not be spending any more of these holidays alone. He wasn't really going to this year anyway, he thinks. Iris will surely have invited him over at least for some part of it. But there is something uniquely special about this in particular.]

Might I make an indulgent request in regards to what we might make?

[dominooo]

[ Dominique is definitely not attired heavily or fancily. Just pants and boots, without her jacket, sleeves similarly rolled up to her elbows, hair pulled back in a single braid to keep it from getting in the way of any cooking shenanigans they're about to embark on. It's oddly domestic, but there's something comfortable about it, she finds. She and Barok have gotten much more used to existing in each other's space.

Now, she glances at him curiously, expectant but open-minded. ]

You don't tend to ask for anything indulgent... so why not?

[ As though she would have even remotely considered saying no. ]

[hallowdiscourtesy]

[A habit he'd like to continue as far as asking for things goes but this feels a bit special. He gently taps at the recipe in the book.]

This is a Christmas plum pudding... It's a staple for the holidays back home. The last time I had partaken in it my brother and his wife were still alive. [He hesitates for just a moment debating just how much he wishes to open up about such things. But if he's managed it with both Lord Ferdinand and Lord Roland then he should, naturally, be free to do so with her. It's imperative even that she knows these sorts of things about him.] This will be my first Christmas in a decade not spent on my own. More importantly it would be my first one with you.

Pray forgive the selfishness of the request but it would mean a great deal to make this particular dish. I can't speak of its complexity having never made anything of the sort before but should it prove simple I would like to make something dear to your heart as well.

[dominooo]

... No, I think that's perfect. [ thoughtfully, glancing at the recipe before she starts moving about to gather what they'll need. ]

My brother was... taken away by my grandfather to raise, but I remember in the winter season spending as much time as I could with him and our friend Noe. Plum pudding is a fond memory for me, too.

If it won't bring back painful memories of your brother and your sister-in-law... I'd like to go for it.

[hallowdiscourtesy]

[He gives a slight shake of the head. He would like to believe the time for wallowing in painful memories is finally starting to pass.]

It's as good a time as any to honor those memories, is it not? [He has spoken of Klint plenty but has not really touched on the more damning things. It, unfortunately, had come up plenty during that strange bout of memory sharing. But by the time he saw Dominique after all of that it felt much too raw to also go over it with her.] Plum pudding it is.

[He begins setting out the bowls. There's already brandy marinated fruit just for this dish which is good otherwise they wouldn't be doing very much baking.]

Why was your brother raised separately from you?

[He can but suspect that the male needed to be raised to run the home and it was best to do it away from his sister. That seems like the sort of thing that would be done in their time but perhaps Vampires have a different way of doing things. Even if it hadn't been just him and Klint he's not sure there would have ever been any reason for separation. Other than the usual University and work...

He moves the cookbook between them so they can both peer at it as needed. Seems like the dry ingredients need to be mixed first. Flour, spices, breadcrumbs, almonds, sugar... so on.]

He was the one you got along well with, yes?

[The rest have been unkind to her, if he recalls. The reason she doesn't see herself as the jewel she is.]

[dominooo]

[ She's measuring out the dry ingredients to start the mixing, staring down art them as she begins to sift them together. ]

Louis, yes. I had always thought he was my older brother, but I... did not find out until after his death that we were actually twins. To vampires, twins are an ill omen, and it's always been the case that when twins are born, one is chosen and one is discarded. For a reason I don't understand, my father chose me to keep, and Louis would have been killed had Grandfather not offered to take him instead.

Realizing that, when I'd told him once that I was envious of his life with Noe, not being under so many restrictions growing up... that I'd wished we could switch places, I think I must have truly hurt him.

[hallowdiscourtesy]

[He breaks the eggs about as badly as any person who doesn't know how to do this can break eggs. But once cracked he mixes them in a small little dish on their own, listening to her speak.]

Not knowing at the time what you do know now... You can hardly be blamed for your words. And it was how you felt. There will ever be things we regret saying or not saying. They will plague us but there is no way to know, in those moments, if they were the right or wrong thing to say. Forgiving ourselves for these indiscretions is all we can do especially when it comes to those who are no longer with us.

[His eggs beaten he moves the small dish aside so he pick up the dish of the brandy coated candy fruit. As instructed gently pours in a little at a time into her bowl while she stirs the dry ingredients.]

No easy feat, of course... But I do like to think had we the opportunity to know for sure they would offer easy forgiveness. My brother taught me many things and some were lessons but others I learned just by being raised by him. And I knew that no matter my indiscretion or the words that would leave me... I would always find forgiveness in him. There was nothing in the world I could do to make him hate me. Nothing that would allow that hurt to persist or for that love to flicker out. I am sure it is not so different for yourself, Dominique. You were, after all, twins.