"No." Rodney said.
"But…" Elizabeth held up the Santa suit with her best attempt at a puppy dog face, which was nowhere near as pitiful as Sheppard's. Rodney's eyebrows furrowed even deeper when Sheppard did make his begging face at him and enhanced it with the sly use of a little half smile. Rodney hated him at that moment.
"No, I will not be subjected to the inane ideals of a holiday that's been so twisted by commercialism that it bares no resemblance to the pagan turned Christian holiday it once was. I will not pander to your foolish American-tainted sensibilities and spend hours surrounded by screaming, spoiled, dirty urchins high on sugar and running circles around their irresponsible idiot parents!"
"But…" She started again but Rodney refused to let an acclaimed diplomat even start to work on him. Sheppard was bad enough with his pout and his slouch and his odd alien life form hair.
"No, not even if you," He stopped, "Is that what I think it is?" Sheppard was holding up a gold chocolate box. The biggest gold chocolate candy box ever.
"Yep." Sheppard said with a smirk. The damned man knew that he was winning.
"Fine!" Rodney yanked the costume away from Elizabeth and stomped out of the room.
Damn them and their need to treat the Athosians to an Earth-style winter holiday party and their insane idea that the children needed to have a Santa to hand out gifts and tell their wishes too. It was stupid. But then again, it was kind of, maybe, sort of a nice gesture.