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 Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 12:56 am
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 1:33 am
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2016 1:24 pm
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 9:38 pm
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 11:47 pm
Solo #80: Patience is a Virtue
December 19, 2016
Quote: You've signed up for a Secret Santa this year, be it in a hobby group, school, work, or just in your circle of friends. You've received a name and a small index card's worth of information about their likes and dislikes, so it's time to go shopping for them! Or, maybe you're receiving your own present? Was this a good idea or just extra holiday stress?
Jada was surprised to pull up in front of the house and find a package on the doorstep. They hadn't been scheduled for any deliveries today, and normally she was formed of such minutiae. Until they had a butler, she was required to sign for packages and the like. So what was this one? It clearly wasn't an early delivery from New York. She hit the button to raise the garage, parked the car, and stepped out into the cold air with a shudder. In through the front door it was, unfortunately; she wasn't exposing her home to any more cold air than she had to. The gloves were pulled on as an afterthought, the biting cold making her hands tremble.
She pulled her bags out of the car, wrapping them over her gloved hand with a sigh, and slammed the door with one heeled boot, pressing the button on her keychain which would lock it with her teeth. Jada's tall heels clacked across the concrete, then crunched into the snow-covered gravel, and she closed the garage door much the same way as she had her car- Carefully, and with much grumbly growling as cold metal keys scraped across her cold-reddened cheek. It didn't take the young woman long to rethink her decision- how was Jada going to pick up the damned package with her arms full, and she'd have to set the packages down, and she could have just closed the garage door against the cold while she hauled stuff into the house, and--
Did one of those southern countries want a winter transplant? She could be in the Bahamas for Christmas. It really wasn't too late.
At long last, she made her way out of the snow-and-gravel pit, lugging her burden up way too many steps, pausing to take stock of the situation. The package on her doorstep said To Jada in large computer-printed letters, with a love from your Secret Santa following it behind. Ugh, she'd almost forgotten about the Secret Santa she had signed up for; the person running it must have dropped it at her door without telling her she was going to come by. Sighing, Jada set down some of her bags carefully, gloved hands fumbling about with her keys. She'd completed her shopping for the person she was Santa for almost a week ago- really, not long enough that she should be forgetting that she would be getting a present in return. Her hands trembled as she shoved the key into the lock, turning it almost violently to open it, and squeaking as a gust of cold blew into the large, echoing foyer.
No one else was home; she couldn't hear any sound apart from the emptiness of lonely halls. The chandelier swayed with a trapped breeze, and Jada looked up the marble staircases for any signs of life. The kitchen lights were off, there were no stately steps along the hall. “Hello house,” she told the grand emptiness, dropping her keys on the table next to the door and turning to get her bags. Box first, then the bags, and she shoved the door closed, locking it with a sigh. The Christmas tree in the back twinkled, scattering light over the paper-wrapped gifts beneath.
There would be time for her to open her Secret Santa if she wanted. Opening gifts had always been one of the best parts of the holidays. Szelem and Michael had loved to watch their children open theirs, and the halls had always rung with the squeals and laughter of their 4 children, the footsteps of a full staff, the sound of Christmas music playing through the home. But one rule that had always been firmly enforced was no opening them early! Patience was, after all, a virtue... Yet here, and now, there would be absolutely no one to tell her not to open the gift. Giulia and Aidan wouldn't be home for another 3 hours, so she could even dispose of the wrapping.
Leaving the box in the foyer, she moved over to the speakers, turning on a little bit of holiday cheer. There wasn't anyone home, after all... why not enjoy herself. As the music began, she pulled off her gloves, chucking them on the table and dancing over to yank out the wrapping paper for her other packages, and dancing back across the marble floors, flinging the paper on the white couch and starting to wrap the other gifts.
Her Secret Santa package sat on the table, teasing her the entire time she wrapped. Mariah Carey, Michael Buble, Eartha Kitt, and others serenaded her as she buried herself in wrapping paper and tape-cuts. It would be there when the work was done... and maybe she'd be bad and open her gift after all.
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Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 6:47 pm
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Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 6:42 pm
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Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 6:43 pm
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Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 6:44 pm
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Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 10:26 am
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Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 1:49 pm
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Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2016 9:24 pm
Solo #81: The Christmas Seal
Jan 01, 2017
It was days before Christmas, and Jada and the twins were in the kitchen, putting the finishing decorations on some of the cookies that they were practicing how to make for Santa. The actual cookies wouldn't be until Christmas Eve, when Michael, Lucas, and Zora were around to help prepare them. Only the twins still believed in Santa, but a tradition was a tradition; even the sadness Michael had never been able to break when he looked at the twins, even though he had raised them for some time, was not enough to break it. The lights were hung, the tree was lit in the back window, most of the presents wrapped and stuffed under the tree. They even had gifts for the pets, and things to deliver and donate to the pound. The twins were, for five, apparently growing very socially aware in their new classes- or from watching too many Sarah McLachlan sad dog commercials. Either was both quite likely, and quite unexpected.
Giulia was kneeling on the counter, and Aidan was sitting on Jada's knee, and the two of them were dotting little eyes onto the snowman faces, the Santa faces, and the little seal cookies the twins had insisted on in lieu of reindeer heads. They were, it seemed, quite fond of their suspicious intermittent visitor. In fact, they had elected that Santa's sleigh was pulled by seals this year. Not what Santa was expecting, and it could make flying difficult, but they remained quite certain it was fact. One of the two yelled her name, and Jada leaned in to carefully sprinkle the colored sugar where they indicated, watching their blue eyes bright with interest. Blonde hair tied back, baby-fat hands with childish (clear) manicures waving and pointing, rosy, chubby cheeks.
They had just finished the sparkly hats and were preparing to pull out the things to begin with gingerbread houses, when Castor's hackles rose and he uttered a low hiss. Pausing, the three listened, and were surprised to hear the bark and ORK that spoke of the inspiration for the Christmas cookies. "The seal!" Giulia screamed, and took a flying leap off the counter. Aidan slipped from Jada's leg, and the two were flying out of the kitchen doors and across the marble floors, crashing into the doors and screaming loud, happy welcome to the little white battering ram orking its way across the snow. Jada followed at a more sedate pace, but was there in time to let the seal in without it having to pause.
Giulia chased it across the foyer as it slipped and it inside, and Jada closed the door, listening to the laughter and loud orking. Her lips curved in a wry smile, resigning herself to a not-so-silent night, and she chased the three 'kids' across the foyer, scooping up the seal and spinning. "Giulia, Aidan, why don't you go get the presents we had in case our seal came for Christmas?" she bent her head to give the wriggly little beast a kiss to the top of its head. She figured by now it would only give her those wet snuffles she was growing accustomed to, and was not disappointed.
“I know you're not a proper seal,” she told it, carrying it across the house and towards the family Christmas setup, “But whatever you are, the twins adore you. Ergo, as long as you continue not bringing us trouble, I'll let you keep your secrets.” she plopped on the couch, settling the creature across her thighs. “You're welcome to come back Christmas day and scandalize my other siblings.” She took note of the objects in the seal's mouth and smiled.
Twin forms ran into the room, and began tearing up the gifts they had gotten for the seal. “Hey now,” Jada protested, leaning to the side and swatting their hands, “Those are for the seal to open!”
“But he has no hands!”
“Mama!”
“Let him open his own gift!” Quiet sulking ensued, and the seal slipped off its spot on her lap, depositing its gifts carefully- before flailing into the gifts with a raucous ORK. It unraveled all kinds of fish-themed candies and treats- swedish fish, blue raspberry aquariums, gummy whales, packets of dried squid and waffley fish crackers, European candy, Asian candy, homemade candy, crackers... and actual salmon and squid, neatly packaged and frozen. “What do seals eat?” she asked the twins as the packages were laid out for the creature to see more clearly.
“Candy!” Giulia chirruped.
“Fish, you dummy.” Aidan's sigh was genuine pain.
“They eat the bones of their enemies.”
“That's a walrus, not a seal.”
“It could be both.”
Pouring herself exactly four ounces of red wine, and a few sips of the catnip-infused 'cat wine' for Castor, Jada recollected the frozen meats, the candy, and the seal. “I'm going to put everything up until our Christmas Seal is ready to leave again. How about you put Seal's gifts to us on the tree?” she put the items into a canvas bag, tightly knotted and looped and wrapped to a size that the unnaturally-intelligent pinniped would be able to carry or drag in its mouth. The twins hung the snowflakes at the very bottom of the tree 'so Mr. Seal could see.'
Settling the seal back across her lap, the three read stories to him, and to each other, until they fell asleep.
When she woke up, the twins were tucked in bed, there was a throw over her, and the fish and candy was gone.
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Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2016 9:39 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2017 7:19 pm
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