A light snow fell on the city of New York that Christmas Eve. Inside the loft, Santana, Dani and Rachel sat relaxing and talking. Dinner had been eaten, the dishes put away, and now the three girls were just relaxing and enjoying one another's company.
"I feel like...we should be doing something," Dani said.
"That's because we've been going non-stop since Thanksgiving," Rachel said. "It feels weird just to chill."
"I have an idea," Dani said. "Since this is our first Christmas alone together, we should talk about Christmas traditions. And maybe we could think up a new tradition just for us."
"I like it," Santana said.
"Me too," Rachel agreed. "You go first, Dani."
Dani flipped her neon blue hair out of her face and thought for a moment. "Okay, I actually have a mixture of two. It's from when my brother and I were little. Our parents didn't want us growing up to be spoiled, entitled little shits who threw tantrums because our iPhone wasn't the right color. So each year, on Christmas Eve, we got to open one gift. The catch was that whatever we opened, we had to donate to the local children's home the next day."
"That's legit," Santana said, grinning.
"Yeah, they weren't messing around," Rachel said.
"Not in the slightest. I will say that they didn't ever let us open big presents. It was always good stuff, but never anything that we would sink into depression over losing. Though my brother did have to give away the toy car he'd been wanting one year, because he ignored how my dad was trying to gently steer him toward something else. What about you, Rachel?"
Rachel sniggered. "I've got a great one, actually. When I was small, Daddy had me convinced that Santa was actually a black man named Jolly Jenkins." Rachel had to stop at this point and wait for Santana and Dani to stop laughing. "Ever other year since, I've gotten presents from Jolly Jenkins instead of Santana. In fact, I think he should be coming this year."
"Oh my god, that's perfect!" Dani said.
"How did I not know about this?" Santana asked.
"It's one of those weird family things that you don't really think about," Rachel said, shrugging and grinning. "Santana?"
"Food. That's it. You have to remember to pace yourself at dinner, because there's the good luck cake afterward, the bedtime hot coco, the midnight snack if you heard Santa's reindeer leaving…. It's entirely possible to gain five pounds in six hours."
The other two sniggered.
"So...what'll our thing be?" Rachel asked.
"I have an idea," Santana said, smiling. She got up and went over to the tree, selecting three boxes. "I got one for each of us," she said, handing one to Rachel and one to Dani.
The two women opened the boxes and gave identical, "AWWWWWWWWWW!" sounds. Each had a small silver ornament - Rachel's, a microphone, and Dani's, a paint brush.
"What's yours?" Rachel asked.
Santana grinned and opened her box, displaying a small silver TARDIS. "Should we put them up?"
The three women hung their ornaments on the Christmas tree, as outside the snow continued to fall.
LbN: The bit about Jolly Jenkins is a true story from my family, lol. Thanks for all of your reviews!