Who’ll go first?

We’re done singing, and the gifts are right there, looking at us… daring us to be the first to lean forward and tear open the wrapping paper.

For a minute, we just look at each other, half out of politeness, half daring each other to look more eager than the others.

“All together?” I propose

“All together.”

Winterfest Carols

We walk into the living room together, after a breakfast made entirely of coffee — because we can’t even think of eating again yet, and our stomachs have to be ready for the Winterfest lunch.

There’s only five of us, but it’s still a cacophony of laughter and jokes. Until Dad starts humming a Winterfest song, which prompts us all to slowly quiet down, then join him… then break into a canon of Winterfest Carols. Fwingle Zibbs, Mayzie Grobe, the classics.

Can we sing? Apart from Mom, not really. Does it matter? Certainly not.

Winterfest Morning

A white Winterfest morning is just what the twins and I had been dreaming of: and there it is. Snow, and piles of gifts, ours to open, now that the morning has come!

Or, more accurately, the very early afternoon. Winterfest Eve put us into a food coma so deep I doubt the San Myshuno Carnival Parade would have woken us up, nevermind Father Winter.