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A moment to remember

Over the next half hour, wrapping paper flies all around the room, along with laughter and cries of excitement. Nounou is thoroughly unimpressed, because apparently the fireplace, his own true love, is much more interesting than us, and he didn’t get anything anyway. Loladorado is just ignoring the whole thing.

But Cyril, Cyril has whipped his phone out, and is recording everything, the smiles and the laughs and the happiness. The kind of videos I can’t help but think I’ll cherish even more once I4m out of this house, and away from them for good.

But now is not the time to think of that. It’s my turn to open my gifts!

The Twins’s Gifts

Cléo and Dad get a hold of their gifts first, with the enthusiasm and total lack of shame that one clearly inherited from the other. The one Dad is holding is mine, a Salvadoradian artisanal statue that made me think of him, and I’m pleased to see his smile as he inspects it.

Cléo somehow went straight for the one gift Mom and I meant for both her and Cyril. Tentatively, she slides the lid open, and discovers the gardening kits inside. And it’s a success!

The Twins’s Gifts

Cléo and Dad get a hold of their gifts first, with the enthusiasm and total lack of shame that one clearly inherited from the other. The one Dad is holding is mine, a Salvadoradian artisanal statue that made me think of him, and I’m pleased to see his smile as he inspects it.

Cléo somehow went straight for the one gift Mom and I meant for both her and Cyril. Tentatively, she slides the lid open, and discovers the gardening kits inside. And it’s a success!

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.

Winterfest Portraits

Happy and well-fed, ready to go sleep the excess of food off, smiles and crumbs of cake all over our faces. Only Mom and Cléo found it in themselves to go for that second slice of pie, and we stay around the table with them, not talking so much now that we’re tired, but just… enjoying. Enjoying the company, the season, the Winterfest spirit.

Family Conversations

It’s a three-course-meal, because Gram is not just a recognized chef, and a grandmother: she’s a great-grandmother, and she’ll make well sure we’re well fed. And though Loladorada wishes she could help, it’s really up to the humans to clean the plates…

This does make Winterfest dinner a marathon. With a lot of talking in-between, to motivate each other, or really, just to talk about what a crazy year it’s been — and how much crazier next year might get. Aunt Miranda slips something about how maybe we kids will find love, with very strong looks at her son and me. Nolan and I exchange a look, and I choose to just laugh about it.

Winterfest Dinner

Nolan, Aunt Miranda and Gram have arrived, and we lose no time sitting around the dinner table. Again, with the vegetarian tofurkey for Gram, and it’s even better than last time — probably because she cooked it herself and brought it over this time.

Gram got in the spirit as much as my parents, siblings, and myself did, and she’s sporting the cutest ugly sweater you’ve ever seen an eighty-year-old wear (how old is Gram anyway?) Miranda and Nolan put on fancy clothes but aren’t quite repping the wacky Winterfest spirit.

It’s okay: we have more than enough winter-themed freezer bunnies to bring the wacky back up.