Eggnog Binge
Author: Bella
Rating: PG
Challenge: Eggnog Flavour Binge
Toppings/Extras: None
Word Count: 2162
Story Arc: Missing Melodies [ Characters/ Index]
Timeline: December 2011
Title: Holidays
Summary: Its Christmas at the Holloways.
Notes: This was so much fun to write and took so long to finish, I just didn't want to wait till Christmas to post it. It goes in chronological order.
10. grab bag / secret Santa
"What are we going to do for the holidays this year?" Sammy asked. All the members of California is Sinking, Hello, Irony and Burnout Syndrome sat in Ryan's living room.
"What about a Secret Santa? It'll be a hell of a lot better then trying to buy something for everyone else," Dakota suggested, getting a few nods of approval from around the room.
"What's 'Secret Santa'?" Dmitri asked, looking confused.
"It works like this. We put everyone's name into a hat and then everyone pulls out someone else's name. So you have to buy a present for the person whose name you picked and keep it in the price limit," Ryan explained. "But you can't tell anyone who you got. We could have a party closer to the holidays to give each other a present."
"Ok, I like that," Dmitri said.
"Lets put this to a vote then," Sammy said. "Everyone in favour of doing Secret Santa raise their hand."
Everyone in the room had raised their hand and then the real planning began.
11. wishlist
"What do you want for Christmas this year?" Jasper asked Ryan over the phone.
"You know what I want."
""I told you that I still have to think about it," Jasper said with a sigh.
"Just spend Christmas with me this year. I'm going to Alex's parents and their dinner is always amazing. I want to see you this year on Christmas," Ryan asked, not for the first time.
"OK," Jasper agreed.
"Ok?" Ryan repeated disbelieving.
"Ok, but on one condition. Come to my family's dinner next year."
"Of course I will," Jasper didn’t have to be able to Ryan to know that he was smiling.
6. snowman
Lily dragged Eric out into the snowy front yard. He had protested the entire way out the door, saying that he didn't want pneumonia or hypothermia. Lily didn't listen to his protests and just told him it would be fun.
"The first big snowstorm of the year was last night," Lily said, making a snowball with her gloved hands.
"And?" Eric said, finishing zipping up his black jacket on the driveway, and looked warily at the snow on the front lawn.
"There is enough snow to make a snowman," Lily said, smiling at her fiancé from under her royal blue toque.
"This is another family tradition isn't it?" Eric said, stepping into the snow and praying that his boots were water proof enough to survive it.
"Yep. We always made a snowman after the first big snow. It was even better if it happened on a snow day," Lily said.
An hour later the snowman was complete, carrot for a noise and rocks for the eyes, mouth and buttons. Lily had taken off her scarf and had wrapped it around the snowman's neck, much to Eric's amusement.
"Come on. I'm going to make hot chocolate," Lily said as she stamped her boots on the driveway to get off the snow. Eric followed her back into the house.
9. (sugar) cookies / gingerbread
When Denise and Russ got back to the house from Christmas shopping, they found their house looking like a disaster zone. They had stumbled in the door, trying not to drop the bags since they didn't want to break any of the more fragile gifts, and looked at the kitchen in amazement.
It looked like a bag of flour had exploded but had not only sent flour around the room but dishes. Flour covered most surfaces in the room and Denise was pretty sure she saw a mixture of rainbow sprinkles and white sugar beside the sink. The sink itself was overflowing with metal mixing bowls and other baking utensils.
In the middle of the room Romeo and Alex stood side by side, sheepish smiles on their faces and a plate of sugar cookies on the kitchen table beside them. The boys were equally covered in flour, looking ghost like under the covering of flour.
"We made cookies," Alex said.
12. let it snow
"Its going to be a white Christmas this year," Ryan remarked, eyes on the road as the snow fell from the sky.
"Yeah, it'll be nice after last year. I can't stand a Christmas without snow," Jasper said. "Do you want me to drive for a little bit?"
"No I'll be fine, we're nearly there anyways," Ryan said. " I just can't wait to have some of Denise's hot chocolate. It is to die for."
"That good?" Jasper asked.
"You haven't lived till you've tried it," Ryan said. "Do you have a favourite part of a snowstorm?"
"When I was growing up I loved hearing that the buses were cancelled the next morning," Jasper and Ryan both laughed. "Now I like everything except for the shovelling."
1. home for the holiday(s)
"Merry Christmas," Ryan said as Denise opened the front door. Ryan and Jasper were standing on the doorstep, bags of gifts in hand. It was Christmas eve's eve and the snow was steadily falling, promising a white Christmas that year.
"Merry Christmas Ryan," Denise said, taking the bags from Ryan and Jasper. The couple went back out to the car, grabbing their actual luggage from the trunk of Ryan's car.
"Denise, this is my boyfriend Jasper," Ryan said, once they were inside the house, taking off the layers of winter clothing. "Jasper, this is Alex's mom Denise."
"Merry Christmas Mrs. Holloway," Jasper said, handing his coat to Ryan to be hung up in the closet.
"Merry Christmas to you too Jasper and call me Denise," Denise said with a laugh, leading the couple into the living
room.
"Thank you for inviting us," Ryan said as he hugged Denise.
"You're always welcome here Ryan," Denise said, as they walked into the living room to greet the rest of the family.
5. silver bells
"No Alex," Denise said with her arms crossed across her chest.
"Why not? These were my favourite decorations growing up," Alex protested, holding a box of silver bells in his arms.
"They were your favourite because you could torture everyone in the house with them. Every single time you walked past a garland of them you would make them ring. And I do mean every single time, even if it was two in the morning and you were going to the bathroom," Denise explained, pulling the cardboard box out of her son's arms.
"Oh yeah, I remember now," Alex said with a nostalgic smile. "But I'm older now so I won't do it. Please Mom."
"I'll let you put these bells up the day Hell freezes over and not a moment before," Denise said, walking down the hall to put the box back in storage.
2. deck the halls
"You're letting Romeo and Ryan put up the Christmas lights outside?" Alex asked.
"What? Their arguments are like an annual tradition all on their own," Russ said. The rest of the family was inside, decorating the house and trying to help put up the tree. Russ and Eric were struggling with the artificial tree, trying to put all the branches in and trying to keep the tree straight.
Outside they could hear Ryan and Romeo yelling at each other about something, most likely what lights would go where or who would be the luck one to go up the ladder to put the lights up. It was, as Russ had mentioned, an annual event. It almost always ended with them covered in snow from an impromptu snowball fight.
This year was no different. As the pair stumbled through the door, hair almost completely white with snow, Denise had ran upstairs to grab towels so Ryan and Romeo didn't track snow through the house.
8. mistletoe
"How much mistletoe dot these people have?" Romeo said as he and Ryan got back inside after putting up the lights around the house. He saw mistletoe hanging from pretty much every doorway.
"You're not walking under that doorway till Alex gets out here," Ryan said, looking at the mistletoe hanging from the roof between the entrance hall and the living room.
"You don't move either till Jasper gets out here," Romeo retorted, water dripping from his hair as the snow melted. It didn't really surprise either of them that their significant others took their sweet time getting into the entrance way.
4. fruit cake
"Its my grandma's recipe. Just try it," Denise stood at the kitchen table, glaring at the people sitting there. Romeo, Alex, Ryan, Jasper, Lily and Eric all sat around the dining room table, staring at the fruit cake sitting in the middle of it.
"But its fruit cake," Alex protested, the others nodded beside him.
"Its good though," Denise said, receiving disbelieving looks in return. "When I was growing up I refused to try my grandma's fruit cake, even though everyone told me it was delicious. I finally tried it after I got into university and guess what? I loved it."
"Fine," Alex said grudgingly. "I'll have a piece."
Denise smiled and cut a small piece, putting it on the plate in front of Alex. Everybody looked at Alex as he took a bite.
"Damn," Alex said as he swallowed. "This is good."
The others quickly dug into the fruit cake.
14. all wrapped up
"Finished," Alex said with a sigh, leaning back against the couch. Romeo stood at the doorway to the living room, watching the scene in front of him. The living room floor was covered in multi-coloured scraps of wrapping paper, leftovers from the wrapping. Small balls of scotch tape were everywhere, evidence of Alex's frustration at wrapping. Beside Alex, who sat on the floor, there was a small pile of presents that overflowed from under the tree.
"Took you long enough," Romeo said, trying to laugh.
"Shut up," Alex said with a weak glare.
"All I'm saying is next year start your wrapping earlier. And don't finish it just before midnight on Christmas eve, it makes it a little less stressful," Romeo said, as he started to clean the mess. He knew that Denise and Russ would not be happy to discover the mess their son had made.
"Shut up," Alex repeated, starting to clear the mess around him.
13. silent night
It was the first time in a week that the house was completely silent. It was after midnight on Christmas Eve and Denise lay wide awake in bed while Russ slept quietly beside her.
Insomnia on Christmas eve had plagued her since she was a little girl. It wasn't even that she was too excited to get to sleep, Denise's insomnia had seemed to become a screwed up holiday tradition of not getting enough sleep and surviving Christmas Day on caffeine.
This year there were so many people at the house all the time that there was rarely any silence. This year Denise didn't mind being awake because it was at least quiet and it would be the most quiet she got for a few more days at least.
7. snowball fight
It was a Christmas Day snowball fight, started when Alex was accused of getting into the way in the kitchen and was effectively kicked out of the house till the cooking was done. He dragged his friends and his and Romeo's cousins outside as well, saying that the snow was perfect for a snowball fight and the more the merrier.
They had divided themselves up into teams and soon worked on the team strategies. By the time Denis shouted out the back door that the dinner was ready, the entire group was covered in snow and laughing.
15. a feast
The entire Holloway family and friends sat around the kitchen tables, looking at all the delicious food in front of them. Once everyone had found a seat at the table the plates that were heavy with food were beginning to be passed around. Everyone got a helping of turkey, stuffing and Alex's grandma's homemade cranberry sauce. There was enough food to feed a small army.
Once everyone was done the main course, Russ stood up and made a toast, like he did every year. Then they went around the table, reliving memories of the previous year. Everyone laughed and reminisced as they waited for dessert. Ryan didn't care that he wasn't related to them by blood, this was what he considered to be his family.
3. sleigh ride / sledding
"How much farther do we have to go?" Ryan asked. He, Jasper, Romeo, Alex and Eric were all following Lily down the road, everyone dragging a sled behind them. They looked like an odd group, six adults all bundled up in their warmest clothing, with sleds behind them.
"We're nearly there," Lily said. That would have been more comforting if she hadn't been saying the exact same thing for the past ten minutes.
"Are we actually…" Alex started to say but trailed off. They had reached a park with a huge, snow covered hill. There were a few children already sledding down the hill but there were huge areas without anyone on it, expanses of pure white snow.
"We're here," Lily said with a smirk and took off at a run towards the hill, leaving the guys to catch up.
Rating: PG
Challenge: Eggnog Flavour Binge
Toppings/Extras: None
Word Count: 2162
Story Arc: Missing Melodies [ Characters/ Index]
Timeline: December 2011
Title: Holidays
Summary: Its Christmas at the Holloways.
Notes: This was so much fun to write and took so long to finish, I just didn't want to wait till Christmas to post it. It goes in chronological order.
10. grab bag / secret Santa
"What are we going to do for the holidays this year?" Sammy asked. All the members of California is Sinking, Hello, Irony and Burnout Syndrome sat in Ryan's living room.
"What about a Secret Santa? It'll be a hell of a lot better then trying to buy something for everyone else," Dakota suggested, getting a few nods of approval from around the room.
"What's 'Secret Santa'?" Dmitri asked, looking confused.
"It works like this. We put everyone's name into a hat and then everyone pulls out someone else's name. So you have to buy a present for the person whose name you picked and keep it in the price limit," Ryan explained. "But you can't tell anyone who you got. We could have a party closer to the holidays to give each other a present."
"Ok, I like that," Dmitri said.
"Lets put this to a vote then," Sammy said. "Everyone in favour of doing Secret Santa raise their hand."
Everyone in the room had raised their hand and then the real planning began.
11. wishlist
"What do you want for Christmas this year?" Jasper asked Ryan over the phone.
"You know what I want."
""I told you that I still have to think about it," Jasper said with a sigh.
"Just spend Christmas with me this year. I'm going to Alex's parents and their dinner is always amazing. I want to see you this year on Christmas," Ryan asked, not for the first time.
"OK," Jasper agreed.
"Ok?" Ryan repeated disbelieving.
"Ok, but on one condition. Come to my family's dinner next year."
"Of course I will," Jasper didn’t have to be able to Ryan to know that he was smiling.
6. snowman
Lily dragged Eric out into the snowy front yard. He had protested the entire way out the door, saying that he didn't want pneumonia or hypothermia. Lily didn't listen to his protests and just told him it would be fun.
"The first big snowstorm of the year was last night," Lily said, making a snowball with her gloved hands.
"And?" Eric said, finishing zipping up his black jacket on the driveway, and looked warily at the snow on the front lawn.
"There is enough snow to make a snowman," Lily said, smiling at her fiancé from under her royal blue toque.
"This is another family tradition isn't it?" Eric said, stepping into the snow and praying that his boots were water proof enough to survive it.
"Yep. We always made a snowman after the first big snow. It was even better if it happened on a snow day," Lily said.
An hour later the snowman was complete, carrot for a noise and rocks for the eyes, mouth and buttons. Lily had taken off her scarf and had wrapped it around the snowman's neck, much to Eric's amusement.
"Come on. I'm going to make hot chocolate," Lily said as she stamped her boots on the driveway to get off the snow. Eric followed her back into the house.
9. (sugar) cookies / gingerbread
When Denise and Russ got back to the house from Christmas shopping, they found their house looking like a disaster zone. They had stumbled in the door, trying not to drop the bags since they didn't want to break any of the more fragile gifts, and looked at the kitchen in amazement.
It looked like a bag of flour had exploded but had not only sent flour around the room but dishes. Flour covered most surfaces in the room and Denise was pretty sure she saw a mixture of rainbow sprinkles and white sugar beside the sink. The sink itself was overflowing with metal mixing bowls and other baking utensils.
In the middle of the room Romeo and Alex stood side by side, sheepish smiles on their faces and a plate of sugar cookies on the kitchen table beside them. The boys were equally covered in flour, looking ghost like under the covering of flour.
"We made cookies," Alex said.
12. let it snow
"Its going to be a white Christmas this year," Ryan remarked, eyes on the road as the snow fell from the sky.
"Yeah, it'll be nice after last year. I can't stand a Christmas without snow," Jasper said. "Do you want me to drive for a little bit?"
"No I'll be fine, we're nearly there anyways," Ryan said. " I just can't wait to have some of Denise's hot chocolate. It is to die for."
"That good?" Jasper asked.
"You haven't lived till you've tried it," Ryan said. "Do you have a favourite part of a snowstorm?"
"When I was growing up I loved hearing that the buses were cancelled the next morning," Jasper and Ryan both laughed. "Now I like everything except for the shovelling."
1. home for the holiday(s)
"Merry Christmas," Ryan said as Denise opened the front door. Ryan and Jasper were standing on the doorstep, bags of gifts in hand. It was Christmas eve's eve and the snow was steadily falling, promising a white Christmas that year.
"Merry Christmas Ryan," Denise said, taking the bags from Ryan and Jasper. The couple went back out to the car, grabbing their actual luggage from the trunk of Ryan's car.
"Denise, this is my boyfriend Jasper," Ryan said, once they were inside the house, taking off the layers of winter clothing. "Jasper, this is Alex's mom Denise."
"Merry Christmas Mrs. Holloway," Jasper said, handing his coat to Ryan to be hung up in the closet.
"Merry Christmas to you too Jasper and call me Denise," Denise said with a laugh, leading the couple into the living
room.
"Thank you for inviting us," Ryan said as he hugged Denise.
"You're always welcome here Ryan," Denise said, as they walked into the living room to greet the rest of the family.
5. silver bells
"No Alex," Denise said with her arms crossed across her chest.
"Why not? These were my favourite decorations growing up," Alex protested, holding a box of silver bells in his arms.
"They were your favourite because you could torture everyone in the house with them. Every single time you walked past a garland of them you would make them ring. And I do mean every single time, even if it was two in the morning and you were going to the bathroom," Denise explained, pulling the cardboard box out of her son's arms.
"Oh yeah, I remember now," Alex said with a nostalgic smile. "But I'm older now so I won't do it. Please Mom."
"I'll let you put these bells up the day Hell freezes over and not a moment before," Denise said, walking down the hall to put the box back in storage.
2. deck the halls
"You're letting Romeo and Ryan put up the Christmas lights outside?" Alex asked.
"What? Their arguments are like an annual tradition all on their own," Russ said. The rest of the family was inside, decorating the house and trying to help put up the tree. Russ and Eric were struggling with the artificial tree, trying to put all the branches in and trying to keep the tree straight.
Outside they could hear Ryan and Romeo yelling at each other about something, most likely what lights would go where or who would be the luck one to go up the ladder to put the lights up. It was, as Russ had mentioned, an annual event. It almost always ended with them covered in snow from an impromptu snowball fight.
This year was no different. As the pair stumbled through the door, hair almost completely white with snow, Denise had ran upstairs to grab towels so Ryan and Romeo didn't track snow through the house.
8. mistletoe
"How much mistletoe dot these people have?" Romeo said as he and Ryan got back inside after putting up the lights around the house. He saw mistletoe hanging from pretty much every doorway.
"You're not walking under that doorway till Alex gets out here," Ryan said, looking at the mistletoe hanging from the roof between the entrance hall and the living room.
"You don't move either till Jasper gets out here," Romeo retorted, water dripping from his hair as the snow melted. It didn't really surprise either of them that their significant others took their sweet time getting into the entrance way.
4. fruit cake
"Its my grandma's recipe. Just try it," Denise stood at the kitchen table, glaring at the people sitting there. Romeo, Alex, Ryan, Jasper, Lily and Eric all sat around the dining room table, staring at the fruit cake sitting in the middle of it.
"But its fruit cake," Alex protested, the others nodded beside him.
"Its good though," Denise said, receiving disbelieving looks in return. "When I was growing up I refused to try my grandma's fruit cake, even though everyone told me it was delicious. I finally tried it after I got into university and guess what? I loved it."
"Fine," Alex said grudgingly. "I'll have a piece."
Denise smiled and cut a small piece, putting it on the plate in front of Alex. Everybody looked at Alex as he took a bite.
"Damn," Alex said as he swallowed. "This is good."
The others quickly dug into the fruit cake.
14. all wrapped up
"Finished," Alex said with a sigh, leaning back against the couch. Romeo stood at the doorway to the living room, watching the scene in front of him. The living room floor was covered in multi-coloured scraps of wrapping paper, leftovers from the wrapping. Small balls of scotch tape were everywhere, evidence of Alex's frustration at wrapping. Beside Alex, who sat on the floor, there was a small pile of presents that overflowed from under the tree.
"Took you long enough," Romeo said, trying to laugh.
"Shut up," Alex said with a weak glare.
"All I'm saying is next year start your wrapping earlier. And don't finish it just before midnight on Christmas eve, it makes it a little less stressful," Romeo said, as he started to clean the mess. He knew that Denise and Russ would not be happy to discover the mess their son had made.
"Shut up," Alex repeated, starting to clear the mess around him.
13. silent night
It was the first time in a week that the house was completely silent. It was after midnight on Christmas Eve and Denise lay wide awake in bed while Russ slept quietly beside her.
Insomnia on Christmas eve had plagued her since she was a little girl. It wasn't even that she was too excited to get to sleep, Denise's insomnia had seemed to become a screwed up holiday tradition of not getting enough sleep and surviving Christmas Day on caffeine.
This year there were so many people at the house all the time that there was rarely any silence. This year Denise didn't mind being awake because it was at least quiet and it would be the most quiet she got for a few more days at least.
7. snowball fight
It was a Christmas Day snowball fight, started when Alex was accused of getting into the way in the kitchen and was effectively kicked out of the house till the cooking was done. He dragged his friends and his and Romeo's cousins outside as well, saying that the snow was perfect for a snowball fight and the more the merrier.
They had divided themselves up into teams and soon worked on the team strategies. By the time Denis shouted out the back door that the dinner was ready, the entire group was covered in snow and laughing.
15. a feast
The entire Holloway family and friends sat around the kitchen tables, looking at all the delicious food in front of them. Once everyone had found a seat at the table the plates that were heavy with food were beginning to be passed around. Everyone got a helping of turkey, stuffing and Alex's grandma's homemade cranberry sauce. There was enough food to feed a small army.
Once everyone was done the main course, Russ stood up and made a toast, like he did every year. Then they went around the table, reliving memories of the previous year. Everyone laughed and reminisced as they waited for dessert. Ryan didn't care that he wasn't related to them by blood, this was what he considered to be his family.
3. sleigh ride / sledding
"How much farther do we have to go?" Ryan asked. He, Jasper, Romeo, Alex and Eric were all following Lily down the road, everyone dragging a sled behind them. They looked like an odd group, six adults all bundled up in their warmest clothing, with sleds behind them.
"We're nearly there," Lily said. That would have been more comforting if she hadn't been saying the exact same thing for the past ten minutes.
"Are we actually…" Alex started to say but trailed off. They had reached a park with a huge, snow covered hill. There were a few children already sledding down the hill but there were huge areas without anyone on it, expanses of pure white snow.
"We're here," Lily said with a smirk and took off at a run towards the hill, leaving the guys to catch up.