Merry Christmas, Iris!


Ronan is bundled up so tightly that he can barely move his arms, and the only direction they can go is up, since all of his limbs are about as thick as tree trunks. It's the deal that he had made with his mother (rather, the deal she had forced upon him) if he wants to play outside. When he had flung his bedsheets off on Christmas morning, bounded to his mother's bed, and leapt onto the mattress to wake her up, perhaps he had been asking for it. But he really can't care less, since it had snowed, and it never snows, ever, and now he can use the sled that he accidentally got (read: stole) from the old lady next door, and now he can use the boots that he has (read: was given by Aunt Katniss), and he's so excited he can barely breathe properly.

He stuffs in his pockets some the chalk that he had received and has the other presents stationed by the door. It's almost anticlimactic, in his opinion, to have waited so long to open them, only to not use them, so he decides that he will use all of them today. At least, he'll try to; Mom wouldn't like it if he set off firecrackers on Christmas day, so he'll probably have to leave Aunt Jo's present inside, left only to wonder what happens when fire and the cold air collide. He sighs and supposes that Uncle Peeta and Aunt Katniss's truck (that he can actually sit in and honk with) will have to do for now.

As he puts on a set of plastic trousers over his cotton ones and woolen pants, he plans his day in his head. First, he'll ruin the serenity of the snow by stomping all over (but not in the spots where he plans to sled, of course). Then he will scooch himself down the hill between the trees a few times to get the track down. After sledding until he gets tired, he'll go to the hose, and if it works without blowing up, he'll pour water in a bucket and dump it down the track for speedy fun tomorrow. Then he'll use the porch table to make the ceiling an igloo and park his truck behind it for a quick getaway if he needs it. Then he'll play kitchen and make sugarpies with the crystalline snow, and hide from the bad guys as he saves the world with his awesome sugarpie powers. By then, he'll be properly tired, but he just has to make a snowman (and a snowwife if he can manage it), so he'll do that, and then he'll probably make a snowangel and get snow up his bum.

He plunges his head into a woolen hat, and he's so ready to get out of the house and into the snow to make his fingers numb, and he opens the door, and...almost makes it.

"Ronan!" a voice comes from upstairs. "Don't forget your scarf!"