Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Ada and Noble's Twelve Days of Christmas! For the next twelve days, we will each add a chapter a day, which will result in 24 (12 of mine, 12 of hers) amazing Christmas oneshots. All of our oneshots have "themes," and we will both post a chapter/oneshot about the same particular theme for each day of Christmas. I have no idea how she interpreted the theme, and she has no idea how I've interpreted the theme. If we have a similar idea, it's just because we think so much alike at times. ;) We've been working on this for about a month now, which would explain the lack of updates from us both.

So here is the first one! I used this theme as kind of a prologue, which explains why it is so short and semi-plot less. This is (by far) the shortest of my oneshots. The best is yet to come! Enjoy!

The First Day of Christmas

Theme: New York Christmas Tree Lighting

Title: Christmas at Last

This was it.

The time of the year that people all around the country anticipated all year round was finally here. Lights were being hung, the streets were buzzing with shoppers, little white flakes of snow were falling from the sky, and Christmas cheer was all around. Christmas was finally approaching.

Downtown New York was packed with citizens of every age because tonight was the night of the annual Christmas tree celebration. By the end of the night, New York's most famous Christmas tree would be glimmering with thousands of beautiful Christmas lights.

Jake had heard about this celebration many times, and he had been encouraged by his family and friends to go at least sometime in his life. He had decided that this was the year, and that he was going to take Rose along with him. She had told him only a few days ago that she really wanted to see the celebration this year especially because some of her favorite bands were going to be performing.

Jake had been happy to agree as he had already been planning on asking her to come along with him in the first place, but he had no idea what this kind of a celebration would be like.

The place was packed. Everyone was crammed in from building to building, and there was barely any room to push or shove or get to the front of the mob in hopes of seeing the bands better.

There was food of course, as well as hot beverages, but they were almost impossible to get to.

And of course, as luck would have it, it was negative two degrees Fahrenheit.

"Are you excited?" Jake turned to ask Rose as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. Even though it probably wasn't smart, he never wore gloves.

"Very," her response was short, but the glimmer in her eyes told him that she was being truthful. Rose had, in fact, worn gloves. She always did as she was just a little smarter than Jake when it came to winter wear. She also wore a thick winter coat and a cute winter headband to cover her ears.

The two fell silent as the bands begin to play. Because they were so loud, it was no use trying to talk over them. Instead, Jake and Rose remained silent as they enjoyed listening to some of their favorite bands.

As the sun sunk further down beneath the horizon, it began to get even colder. Everyone in the crowd was huddled together to keep warm, and everyone's breath was clearly visible.

Soon, however, the music had stopped. It had been two full hours already, and the time had just flown by.

It was now time for the most anticipated event in the City of New York. It only happened once a year, and this was it.

It was time for the annual lighting of the Christmas tree.

Everyone remained silent as they waited for the tree to be illuminated by various beautiful colors.

Sensing the excitement of the moment, Jake reached over and slipped his hand into his girlfriend's. Rose had remained silent throughout most of the night, but the silence was more romantic than awkward for the two.

Some citizen of the New York area who had apparently done a great act of charity or something was now on center stage holding the remote that would turn on the lights.

The announcer then proceeded to slowly count down from five.

"Five, four, three, two," he hesitated for a short moment to build the tension before he continued, "one."

And with that, thousands of beautiful lights of many colors illuminated the tree and lit up the sky. At first, the lights were so bright that everyone in the crowd squinted before their eyes could focus in on the now fully lit tree. It was now complete. The once bland tree was now shimmering with color and spirit that practically screamed Christmas to the people of not only New York, but the United States as a whole.

The crowd reacted appropriately, cheering and jumping up and down in excitement.

"It's beautiful!" Rose exclaimed excitedly as she turned to Jake. "Have you ever seen it before?"

"Only on tv," he replied slowly, clearly still in awe by the tree. "It's not the same at all. I see that now."

"Yeah," she sighed happily. "It's funny how something so simple can make so many people so happy. Why do you think that is?" She questioned him.

"Well," Jake paused to think about it for a minute, "I guess Christmas is a time of hope and love. Christmas for some people is the only time that there family is really brought together. It means good times, good food, and family time," he stopped for a brief moment to think about it some more. "I guess," he replied after thinking for a minute, "I guess this ceremony means that Christmas is here to a lot of people."

Rose, in response, simply nodded at his explanation. It seemed reasonable enough to her.

She sighed again as a feeling of happiness and excitement swept over the crowd.

She shuddered as a cold breeze blew through the air, and Jake tried to pull her a little closer. She willingly cuddled into him a little more to regain some warmth. Jake was always warm, something that Rose would never get sick of.

Without saying anything else, the two leaned in for a quick, but passionate kiss. Many others as well were taking the opportunity to share a kiss at this seemingly beginning of the Christmas season.

In a world where hope was disappearing rapidly, the people of New York could not possibly display any more hope. The entire city was buzzing with Christmas spirit because it was here.

Christmas was here.

XX

Well, that does it for the first day of Christmas. Tune in tomorrow for the second! I do have ten of the twelve oneshots already completely written out, so it's almost guaranteed that all of these will be posted on time. Yes, you are welcome. Lol.

And my sincere apologies to everyone waiting on updates for "Secrets of the Past." I've been so busy with this that I haven't had time for that. I am planning on posting a new chapter in very early January. In the meantime, it's been nice to take a break and write something a little bit different.

Thanks for reading!

~ada