vanillajello | Overland Park, KS, Christmas Day 2011, Sunday FT

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Overland Park, KS, Christmas Day 2011, Sunday FT

It was Christmas Day, fucking finally. It even felt like it: there had been some pretty impressive snowfall earlier in the week, so it was a seriously white Christmas, and Kate had really done her best to get the house looking Christmassy (and less creepily than when Grandma Sandy had been around some months before). The living room looked postcard perfect, with the tree in the corner and other decorations all around.

There'd been some Skypeing with Boston, earlier, and even the parentals had been pretty impressed with how things looked, when Kate had insisted on carrying her laptop around for a webcam tour. They were alone again now, though. Moosh was in the kitchen, putting finishing touches on what he had deemed gift-giving snacks, while Kate, in her adorable/ridiculous bear dress, was sitting cross-legged on the living room floor, a camera in her hands. Because a lot of these things just called for being immortalized as pixels.

She looked pretty happy. And sort of bouncy, even though she was sitting down.

"Sorry if I'm all hyper or whatever. I kinda always eat too much sugar over the holidays."

[ooc: NFB. For thems that are here!]

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"Ah, got it," Luke said with a nod. "Luckily gift giving overrides my natural proclivity to wander away."

"So, until then, what should we do?" Bod asked, glancing around. "Are you going to tell Christmas stories, Kate?"

They had ghost stories on Halloween, didn't they? Come on.

"Bod, I love you, but you are so clueless sometimes," Kate replied. Lovingly. Then she turned to look towards the way to the kitchen, raising her voice, "Hey Mooshie, you gonna come out here soon or do I have to start telling these guys about Rudolph?"

"Just a minute," came her brother's voice.

"So, no Christmas stories," she decided. "Also, anyone wandering off will get tackled. There's no one here I wouldn't dare do that to."

"Might be worth the pain just to see you attempt the tackle," Luke said, chuckling. "But I'll be good since it's Christmas and everything."

"She's actually quite good at tackling," Bod said, nodding. "She hasn't ever full on tackled me, I don't think, but she's stronger than she looks and surprisingly spry."

And he smiled lovingly right back at Kate. "You could make tackling a new tradition, Kate."

"Well, I did tackle T once," Kate noted, shaking her head. "I mean, Mom's not huge or anything but T's scrappy as hell, so I'm pretty sure I could take Luke."

"Wow, that sounds very much in keeping with Christmas spirit, Katie-Kate," Marshall deadpanned, coming in with a snack tray in his hands. "Very peaceful and merry."

"Kate would fit right in with my family," Luke joked. "Traditionally we cap off holidays with fights and chariot races that usually end in injury."

"And we..."

Well, no one outside of Kate (that he knew about, of course, and he wanted to be safe around her brother) really knew about his family so he had to go with a lie here.

"...didn't have enough money to celebrate."

Kate gave Bod a faint smile, and reached out to give his hand a little aqueeze. "Well, that's why we're doing this. Celebration." Beat. "Sans chariot races."

"I don't think a chariot would move much in the snow, anyway," Marshall remarked, setting the tray on the coffee table. All the snacks looked pretty fancy, but there were some gingerbread men on there, too. Plus everything was guaranteed to be tasty. "Gift-giving snacks are served. Happy now, Kate?"

"Ecstatic, little brother." And totally reaching for a few things to eat.

"Someone does like her food," Bod said, squeezing her hand back and laughing. "Of course, I'd be concerned if she didn't eat. That would be something worth worrying over."

He was teasing, Kate, really!

"Well it'd be weird for anyone to pass on this kind of food. Thanks, Marshall," Luke said. He grabbed a gingerbread man and promptly bit off his head. Seemed like the right place to start. "I bow before your superior cooking skills."

"As you rightfully should," Kate said, which made Marshall snort and shake his head as he took a seat. She rolled her eyes at him. "Don't act coy. I'll withhold your Christmas present if you start acting like you're not all that. The rest of us can't cook like you, bro."

He shrugged. "It's just practice."

"If I attempted to cook anything, we'd be ordering pizza," Bod joked. "You've a talent for all things to culinary, Marshall. Thank you for cooking."

"So we get to eat and do the present thing at the same time, right?" Luke asked around a mouthful of cookie. "Not that I'm rushing or anything."

Yes, he was.

Psssht, the only reason Kate hadn't gotten to that yet was because between holding Bod's hand and stuffing her face with the other, she hadn't had hands left to grab at presents with.

At least she managed to swallow before answering?

"Oooh, yes!" That probably answered that. She reached for her stack of more-or-less neatly wrapped presents that she'd kept waiting to the side. "How do we do this? Like, one gift at a time, or just... total gift carnage?"

"I...don't know," Bod said, looking around. His gifts were nearby and he glanced back at them. "Is there a preferred way to do this? A way that doesn't make a total mess of the living room."

"We could have a giver give out all of their gifts to the givees at once," Luke said. "And then givees fawn over the giver for being so awesome for a few minutes before the next giver gives gifts."

This all made sense in his head.

It made perfect sense to Kate. She wasn't sure whether that was because it was obvious or because they'd just spent enough time together. Whichever. "Well, that works for me," she decided. "You can go first, Moosh."

This was a surprise to him. And yet not really. "What? Why me?"

"'Cause I say so and you love me."

"... Right." He sighed, but reached for his gifts anyway. Kate's present was the smallest one. "Merry Christmas, sis." Bod's was a little larger, and had more edges. "And here's for you. I, uh, hope it's useful."

And then the largest, softest present was for Luke, and Marshall almost looked embarrassed as he was handing it over. "Entirely Kate's idea." Well, there was an iTunes gif card in there as well. That was all Marshall. After he'd realized there was never going to be a perfect gift for someone who'd put up with your crazy mom even though he didn't really have to. "Sorry?"

"Thank you, Marshall," Bod said, taking his gift and not ripping into it just yet. He glanced over at both Luke and Kate. "Did one of you want to go first? I'm fine with waiting. I actually enjoy watching other people open gifts."

"I'll go." Luke thrived off of instant gratification. He tore into the present, first noticing the gift card when he caught it when it tried to escape to the floor. "Hey, thanks Marshall."

Then he pulled the sweater vest out. And promptly started cracking up. "Oh gods!"

Marshall shook his head, while Kate laughed. Quite a lot. "It was mandatory!" she claimed. "Someone needs to get horrible Christmas apparel, otherwise it's just not right. Put it on, put it on!"

"You're a horrible person," Marshall thought to inform her. "Now are you gonna open your present?"

Kate didn't really need to be told twice. She ripped the paper open, then grinned at the watch. "Aw, Mooshie, thank you! I've been meaning to get one that goes with my uniform!"

He gave her a look that implied that was kind of why he'd gotten it for her, yeah.

"Wow, that is quite a sweater," Bod said, blinking at Luke's gift while he started opening his. He eventually did take his eyes from that sweater and looked down at his opened gift.

"Preparing me for travel already?" he asked, smiling warmly. "Thank you, Marshall. This will mean I won't have to forget things like this when I actually do start traveling. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. Thank you."

"I'm gonna have to hide this thing where Percy can never find it," Luke said, pulling on the sweater anyway. "Okay who's next?"

"Oh, one of you can go next," Kate said, waving a hand, then getting a little distracte by admiring the new watch she'd already put on her wrist. "I can still wait."

Nevermind that she probably had the biggest stack of things to give. But then she was also the only one here with an actual job.

"I can go, if that's all right."

Bod had to push Marshall's gift over to him since it was in a large box and there was no way he was going to pick it up and give it to the other boy.

Now, he didn't know Luke very well but he knew him somewhat through Kate so his box was heavy but he thought it fit the person he knew through Kate. Bod hoped he had a place to store those knives.

And for Kate, Bod passed a large gift that was practical and small gift that he just thought was gorgeous and would fit her.

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