Picaso Family
Previously at the Picaso Family: While the family has slowly been climbing their career ladders, exploring their hobbies, and making some acquaintances with the other people of Veronaville, Jessica's desire to bless her marriage with Matthew hasn't been fulfilled yet. Will Winter, the season of family, help her change Matthew's mind on having children?
While Jessica enters her carpool, Matthew's got struck by the Veronaville Flu going around town and therefore calls in sick.
Having the house to himself, he takes a little time to clean things up...
... then after eating some brekkie...
... he's healthy already.
This calls for a party!
While waiting for the New Year's Bash to happen, Matthew kills some time playing his handheld.
Jessica's shift at work is over.
After taking care of a call received by Matthew...
... she jumps straight into her garden, which is suffering due to the winter heat.
She's trying her best to save the small patch...
... but all Jessica can do is harvest the crops her plants have produced and wait til spring to try again. At least her efforts earned her the silver gardening badge.
Time to warm up again with some spaghetti!
Perhaps unlock a few...
... aspiration rewards along the way.
With the party almost there, Matthew had the idea to order a pizza.
Just in time to arrive with the guests.
Jessica tries to have some small talk with Victor about what's been on the telly recently. Victor clearly hasn't seen the show Jessica is on about.
Matthew is a bit more successful hosting the pizza part of the party. He's doing fine...
Time to focus more on Jessica - I remembered that Trent Traveller is a fellow nature enjoyer, perhaps the two of them can bond over that?
Midnight is slowly approaching and with that comes father time! Time to call him in--
--side??
"AAAAH?!?!"
After Matthew disappeared in the machinations of the UFO...
... it's up to Jessica to bring the New Year's Bash to a good ending...
Father Time smashes his hourglass...
... and reincarnates once again into Toddler New Year!
After he smustles the fresh year away...
.. I notice that Trisha Traveller got morning sickness?! Oh dear...
With the host mysteriously gone, the party mood did tank eventually, and Jessica catching the flu also isn't helping... This house really does need a clean-up now.
Then, in the middle of the night...
After rubbing out the pain on his sore bum...
... Matthew remembers the horrors he's been through...
He glares back to the night skies. Did that REALLY happen?
It really must have...
... right?
The moment Matthew sets foot back inside, he hears the phone ringing mysteriously. Strong vibrations from his seventh house...
... which is the house governing marriage and relationships, among other things.
A relationship who is REALLY tired at the moment and wouldn't mind to go to the bedroom for SLEEPING.
The two of them hit the hay, but it doesn't take long before the honking of the carpool wakes them up again.
Jessica goes to work, Matthew takes off to his job an hour later as well...
There Matthew finds himself in an unclear situation, and decides the new school approach that's from his video game would help out the best...
... a moment of carelessness in doing so turned out to be a SEVERE protocol breach, which cost Matthew his job...
Poor guy...
Not only that, but someone passed by to kick over the trash can, and now the street dogs are chomping down on rotting garbage, too!
After a needed toilet break...
Matthew, who is in need of some jolly companionship, invites over some folks he met...
... and also orders some food from that new Chinese Takeout place he read about...
Jessica returns home facing a party AGAIN.
The takeout arrives.
Matthew gorges down on it at once, trying to satiate his growing hunger.
This costs him the physique he used to need for his job...
After that he watches some television with Victor.
Turns out Victor is more a fan of hospital dramas than whatever Jessica tried to talk about.
After cramming in some more takeout, Matthew realises he has to use the bathroom... but alas, he didn't make it there on time...
With Matthew being in need of some self-care, it is Jessica who has to clean up after him again...
Not just cleaning, she ALSO has to take care of the shower the husband broke...
All that while she still has a flu to deal with, too!
What does he do in return? Not make it to bed in time.
After he made it to the bed eventually, Matthew had to get up again.. I think that's the excess Chinese takeout taking it's toll on him?
Despite all the hard work she does in and around the house, Jessica is well-rested to go back to the job she still has.
While at work, Jessica comes across the opportunity to purchase herself a state-of-the-art bug box!
But alas, the box was not well-suited for Jessica's butterfly collection, this unlucky mistake costs her her precious collection...
Matthew, out of a job, is awake again, and gathers himself some spaghetti leftovers for breakfast.
Having not much to do in life, he just lies on the couch to watch himself whatever's on the daytime television.
Then Jessica returns from work, but when she tries to trim the bushes in the front yard the harsh cold of the wintery mistress strikes her once again with a rough coughing fit on the sidewalk.
Meanwhile Matthew found himself some leftovers of his takeout last day to snack on.
It was up to Jessica to clean that mess up.
At least she still had time left to ring up her friend Bottom Summerdream.. is that her only friend in the entire town?
After washing herself off in the shower messed up by her husband...
Jessica comes to the realisation that her bond with her husband is deteriorating a bit...
With Jessica gone on a walk...
... it doesn't take long for Matthew to mess up the bathroom again.
He follows up this feat by ordering pizza!
He then does something productive for once - he tried looking for a new job.
But alas, his athletic job dream wasn't available there and then.
Jessica returns from her walk with a new bug in her collection, and the prospect of having pizza for dinner.
Matthew certainly enjoys it.
When he goes to throw something out however, he notices his nemesis Demi Love loitering near the front yard, most likely meaning to cause a mayhem.
Remembering the knocked over trash can on the day he got fired, Matthew chases Demi off.
He then join Jessica in bed.
A bit of good news for Jessica -- her flu got healed.
Also news -- the takeout must REALLY be taking it's toll on Matthew's tum...
The weird food kick did wake up both him and Jessica. So why not go downstairs and eat a bit of the leftover pizza?
Jessica proposed the idea of going out to go fishing to Matthew. He wasn't into it, however...
Then Jessica's carpool came once more...
... leaving the house for Matthew once again.
Gotcha!
Hopefully they'll take Matthew given his current physique.. at least the costume should cover him up a little.
Jessica encounters another state-of-the-art bug box and, knowing what happened last time, she decides to pass the thing on.
Turns out this was the thing she does need for her collection.
While Matthew reads on about fitness - which is even more of a pre in his new field of work.
Jessica mans the phone in a conversation with Bottom Summerdream.
Afterwards Jessica takes care of some winter cleanup in the garden.
At the dinner table Jessica recalls her story about the bug boxes, to which Matthew gives a lukewarm response.
"Ugh Matthew, your reaction is not music to my ears."
Jessica instead puts her focus on the garden plot - with spring being around the corner she wants to grow her garden a bit to cultivate more vegetables and fruits!
Now comes the hard work - planting the seeds in there. Which is more difficult than you think with the coat of snow still around.
While Matthew takes a long shower, Jessica makes some solid progress on her new garden plot...
... and when she's almost done, she earns herself the Golden Gardening badge! That should help her keep her garden in good shape.
Exhausted but satisfied with her hard work, Jessica cleans herself up a little...
... and joins Matthew in bed.
In the early hours of the next morning, Matthew is awoken by strong gut cramps...
Is it the diet of aged takeout taking its toll on him?
... no, this cramp feels more like it's.. kicking?!
... and it HURTS!
The cramp then slowly turned into a wrenching hiccup...
Matthew faced his worst fears...
... a baby, which he apparently carried for a while...
... shaped and coloured like the people from the nightmarish experience he's been trying to suppress...
... staring at him with eerie, beady eyes...
"... I'm sorry Jess.. I cannot do this."
Matthew put down the baby, grabbed the old newspaper, and looked for an ad for a place away from here...
... along with the rising spring sun a taxi arrived, ready to take Matthew plus a fair chunk of the household funds, to his new start in life...
... while leaving Jessica in the remains of his former life, one he cannot face himself living in.
To be continued
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