Other than the guests you see above, I'm not saying who's at this party.

Actually it's not much of a party... it was originally only supposed to be a Friday-night supper. No dancing or anything. That's why Gwynn is "only" wearing her last-year's formal dress, and Brit isn't in her wedding dress. The Real Party is scheduled for the 13th, and I will find something new for Gwynn in time for that.

Alred does not wait for Christmas to start having parties. However they must follow certain strict rules due to it being Advent (namely, no leaping while dancing and no candy before breakfast). However he is finding it tricky this year due to Father "Dan-cing! During Ad-vent!" Matthew being around.

Iylaine does attend parties, but she probably won't be attending any Nothelm parties any time soon due to Osh and Flann being in residence. Since she married Malcolm, Iylaine mostly spends time with the "castle crowd" now... Sigefrith and Eadie, young Sigefrith & Wyn, Brede & Estrid, Ralf, and probably Eadred now that he will be a knight. Nothelm is always crawling with elves and their spouses.

Yes. You know Alred isn't exactly mourning Maud. Sigefrith always spends the day with his kids on that day, so Brit and Dunstan will be at the castle. Meanwhile, while everyone's back is turned, Alred is having a party for his own circle of friends. He has been planning it for some time, as future chapters will reveal. Not in celebration of her death, mind you, but he sees no reason to go on mourning an adulterous madwoman when Eadie is such a charming, living Queen.

Alred's smiling! *Hugs Alred* Gwynn, Connie and Margaret look like they're going to be a fun cohort.

May I just take this opportunity to say that all the girls are pretty but Connie especially stands out for me. I do believe it's the eyes.

@Anonmyous: You're not the only one who has noticed or will notice Connie's eyes.

Verity, my biggest problem with background Sims is simply their habit of spontaneously walking somewhere else, which inevitably ends up being with their back to the action. In this last scene I had to constantly stop and spin people around.

If I reeeeally need them to hold still, I usually put them on one of the three Hula & more neutral poses (arms side, arms crossed, arms hip) because then they won't move till you break it, and though they will smile if a friend walks in, at least they won't do sissy-dreamy pose like Harndall. For example Lar's elves tend to get stuck in the background like obedient dogs pretty often, but in those cases the combination of occasional smile and general snarliness is exactly what I need.

Or, if I need them to stand in place but looking a little more casual, I just make them talk to each other and then spin them around to face the action. You still run the risk of ridiculous poses (inevitably someone will start talking about music and bust out the air guitar) but at least they're not standing there like terra cotta soldiers. This doesn't work too well if it's a serious conversation, though, I admit, because Sims tend to smile and laugh a lot during conversations, but it's great for parties. Especially for witnesses to the finale to my latest one.

Also, for every time someone does dorky-dreamy (Family-aspiration Eadie does that one a lot), someone else spontaneously thinks of saddles and totally makes the chapter.

Hehe... the air guitar pic is awesome. I think the most difficult are the serious conversations. I have a lot of trouble getting my sims to stop making foolish faces. In the last conversation in the throne where I wanted lots of people to look distressed I actually had Harndall coughing... occasionally in between the weird horsey face you get a perfect distressed-looking face. But man, the sound of him coughing and Lochan whining in distress was very annoying.

I can't wait for party chapters *does pre-emptive party dance*.