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Written for the tenth day of the 2017 "Holigay" prompt challenge.
The prompt was: "Write about a family (or a group that considers themselves family) with different beliefs and how they blend and balance them for the holidays."
Summary: Jesse, Natalie, and Yvette all have their own holiday traditions.
Fluffy, slice-of-life. Stars the same characters as "What Were the Odds?"
“And we didn’t even burst into flame!” Yvette teased as the three of them stepped out of the church. She laced her gloved fingers with Jesse’s. “And to think, I’d once sworn never to step foot inside a church again.”
Jesse squeezed her hand. “Thank you both for coming with,” he said. “It really does mean a lot to me to have all three of us together this year.”
“Of course! And we wouldn’t want to mess up your tradition,” Natalie laughed, pushing her shoulder into Jesse’s.
“My family always went to Midnight Mass, and it just doesn’t feel like Christmas to me without something like that,” he explained. He wasn’t really religious anymore, but there were certain times he still liked to observe some of the rituals. Christmas Eve was one of those times.
“Does it bother you that this wasn’t a true Midnight Mass?” Natalie asked. It was only about 8:30 in the evening, Christmas Eve.
“I liked this one, even if it’s not midnight.” Yvette said, the teasing going out of her voice. “It was very positive. None of the fire and brimstone that I remember from the times I was forced into a church as a kid.”
“Even the more traditional Midnight Mass doesn’t tend to be fire-and-brimstone heavy,” Jesse said. “Since Christmas is a celebratory holiday. Birth of a savior and all of that. But Unitarian celebrations are even more about the spirit of the holiday than anything else.”
“I loved the candle lighting,” Natalie said, referring to the ceremony where the members of the congregation each had a candle, and passed a flame from one candle to the next, until they all had lit candles, and the church was lit only by the collective candlelight.
“It’s a bit like your Yule log, isn’t it?” Yvette asked. “Flame as a symbol of rebirth, and things like that?”
“You know, you’re right,” Natalie said. “I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but it does have some of the same reasoning, in a way.”
“And at least with this not being a true Midnight Mass we have time to burn your Yule log when we get home,” Jesse said, kissing Natalie’s temple.
Natalie lit the Yule log using a fragment of the previous year’s log. She’d saved the piece all year for luck, and now let it burn along with the new one. After, she’d salvage a piece of it as a talisman for the upcoming year to protect their household.
Similar to Jesse and his Unitarian Christmas celebration, Natalie wasn’t especially religious. She had a weird mix of eclectic beliefs that might be best lumped into a “pagan” category. She knew that a lot of the traditions about the Yule log were more superstitious than anything, but observing them made her happy.
Once it was burning, the trio sat down to a very unofficial type dinner. They were planning a more serious meal for Christmas day, and putting too much effort into cooking tonight as well was too much, even for Natalie.
So they were making a meal of holiday sweets. They’d each made their own, based on their own favorites.
Jesse had made a roll cake, chocolate, with a raspberry and cream filling. Yvette had made Kahlua balls that had enough of the rum liqueur in them that it was probably good that none of them had to drive anywhere. And Natalie, always the most motivated baker, had made a variety of cookies. Little nut-coated ones with dollops of current jelly that looked like garnet, sugar cookies with icing so intricate it seemed a shame to eat them, and little round spice cookies with surprisingly bright citrus flavors under the spice.
All three camped out in front of the fire, sharing their sweets, and playing cards, waiting for the log to burn down. It would be bad luck to put it out before it was ready.
“If either of you guys get tired, you can go to bed,” Natalie said, between hands of cards. “I’ll stay up with the fire.”
“Oh, I won’t sleep anyway,” Yvette said.
When the other two just looked at her quizzically, she sighed.
“I know it’s silly, but ever since I was a kid, I couldn’t sleep on Christmas Eve. Way back then I know it was excitement, believing that Santa really was going to visit. But even as I got older, the excitement of the day was enough to keep me up. It’s the same reason I never sleep the night before leaving on a vacation. So I just stay up and read. Either I stay up all night with a new book, or reread an old favorite.”
“That’s adorable,” Natalie said, “I’m just picturing you, little baby Yvette, hiding under a blanket fort in bed, reading by flashlight…”
Yvette flicked a piece of cookie at her, pretending to glare, before she laughed. “You’re probably not far off,” she admitted. “Down to the flashlight, which I knew how to hide if someone came to check that I was asleep.”
The fire burned down slowly, but eventually burned itself out, and the three of them stumbled upstairs to collapse into bed.
True to her prediction, Yvette did not fall asleep. She cuddled up to Natalie, while holding hands with Jesse on Nat’s far side, until both of them dozed off.
Then she switched her bedside light on, bending it away so that it wasn’t shining directly on the bed. Neither Jesse nor Natalie stirred, and Yvette reached for her book. She settled back against her pile of pillows and began to read, letting the warm sense of nostalgia envelop her.
Listening to both her lovers’ steady, peaceful breathing, she smiled.
Some traditions, old and new to her, were absolutely worth observing.
[This got a minor SPAG and word choice edit in 2023 when it was posted.]
The prompt was: "Write about a family (or a group that considers themselves family) with different beliefs and how they blend and balance them for the holidays."
Summary: Jesse, Natalie, and Yvette all have their own holiday traditions.
Fluffy, slice-of-life. Stars the same characters as "What Were the Odds?"
“And we didn’t even burst into flame!” Yvette teased as the three of them stepped out of the church. She laced her gloved fingers with Jesse’s. “And to think, I’d once sworn never to step foot inside a church again.”
Jesse squeezed her hand. “Thank you both for coming with,” he said. “It really does mean a lot to me to have all three of us together this year.”
“Of course! And we wouldn’t want to mess up your tradition,” Natalie laughed, pushing her shoulder into Jesse’s.
“My family always went to Midnight Mass, and it just doesn’t feel like Christmas to me without something like that,” he explained. He wasn’t really religious anymore, but there were certain times he still liked to observe some of the rituals. Christmas Eve was one of those times.
“Does it bother you that this wasn’t a true Midnight Mass?” Natalie asked. It was only about 8:30 in the evening, Christmas Eve.
“I liked this one, even if it’s not midnight.” Yvette said, the teasing going out of her voice. “It was very positive. None of the fire and brimstone that I remember from the times I was forced into a church as a kid.”
“Even the more traditional Midnight Mass doesn’t tend to be fire-and-brimstone heavy,” Jesse said. “Since Christmas is a celebratory holiday. Birth of a savior and all of that. But Unitarian celebrations are even more about the spirit of the holiday than anything else.”
“I loved the candle lighting,” Natalie said, referring to the ceremony where the members of the congregation each had a candle, and passed a flame from one candle to the next, until they all had lit candles, and the church was lit only by the collective candlelight.
“It’s a bit like your Yule log, isn’t it?” Yvette asked. “Flame as a symbol of rebirth, and things like that?”
“You know, you’re right,” Natalie said. “I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but it does have some of the same reasoning, in a way.”
“And at least with this not being a true Midnight Mass we have time to burn your Yule log when we get home,” Jesse said, kissing Natalie’s temple.
Natalie lit the Yule log using a fragment of the previous year’s log. She’d saved the piece all year for luck, and now let it burn along with the new one. After, she’d salvage a piece of it as a talisman for the upcoming year to protect their household.
Similar to Jesse and his Unitarian Christmas celebration, Natalie wasn’t especially religious. She had a weird mix of eclectic beliefs that might be best lumped into a “pagan” category. She knew that a lot of the traditions about the Yule log were more superstitious than anything, but observing them made her happy.
Once it was burning, the trio sat down to a very unofficial type dinner. They were planning a more serious meal for Christmas day, and putting too much effort into cooking tonight as well was too much, even for Natalie.
So they were making a meal of holiday sweets. They’d each made their own, based on their own favorites.
Jesse had made a roll cake, chocolate, with a raspberry and cream filling. Yvette had made Kahlua balls that had enough of the rum liqueur in them that it was probably good that none of them had to drive anywhere. And Natalie, always the most motivated baker, had made a variety of cookies. Little nut-coated ones with dollops of current jelly that looked like garnet, sugar cookies with icing so intricate it seemed a shame to eat them, and little round spice cookies with surprisingly bright citrus flavors under the spice.
All three camped out in front of the fire, sharing their sweets, and playing cards, waiting for the log to burn down. It would be bad luck to put it out before it was ready.
“If either of you guys get tired, you can go to bed,” Natalie said, between hands of cards. “I’ll stay up with the fire.”
“Oh, I won’t sleep anyway,” Yvette said.
When the other two just looked at her quizzically, she sighed.
“I know it’s silly, but ever since I was a kid, I couldn’t sleep on Christmas Eve. Way back then I know it was excitement, believing that Santa really was going to visit. But even as I got older, the excitement of the day was enough to keep me up. It’s the same reason I never sleep the night before leaving on a vacation. So I just stay up and read. Either I stay up all night with a new book, or reread an old favorite.”
“That’s adorable,” Natalie said, “I’m just picturing you, little baby Yvette, hiding under a blanket fort in bed, reading by flashlight…”
Yvette flicked a piece of cookie at her, pretending to glare, before she laughed. “You’re probably not far off,” she admitted. “Down to the flashlight, which I knew how to hide if someone came to check that I was asleep.”
The fire burned down slowly, but eventually burned itself out, and the three of them stumbled upstairs to collapse into bed.
True to her prediction, Yvette did not fall asleep. She cuddled up to Natalie, while holding hands with Jesse on Nat’s far side, until both of them dozed off.
Then she switched her bedside light on, bending it away so that it wasn’t shining directly on the bed. Neither Jesse nor Natalie stirred, and Yvette reached for her book. She settled back against her pile of pillows and began to read, letting the warm sense of nostalgia envelop her.
Listening to both her lovers’ steady, peaceful breathing, she smiled.
Some traditions, old and new to her, were absolutely worth observing.
[This got a minor SPAG and word choice edit in 2023 when it was posted.]
