By the time the cookie fiasco had settled and she'd managed to bake, cool, and properly ice the entirety of the fresh treats, then clean up the mess she'd made doing all of that, it was well into the night and she wasn't able to call Jane's cell phone until the following day. By that time, she was situated across the dining table from Loki, who had gone from grumbling and muttering about domestic abuse—a term he'd learned from Tony, who had been less than helpful about all of this as far as giving Loki arguing ammunition went—as he licked what was probably the fourth envelope she'd hurled at him. She'd neglected to answer his questions of how many more were still to do because, on some level, she did feel badly for him. She'd given him the job because she hated doing it, herself.

"Just a few more," she sighed, opening another card. Her hand was cramping anyway and she didn't mind the idea of a break; it also wasn't good for either of them if his mouth adopted the weirdly medical flavor of envelope adhesive.

"You've written how many of those so far?" he complained after wrinkling his nose and quickly, minimally sliding his tongue over another edge, making a show of slamming it shut and shoving it to the side. "Ten?"

"That makes five," Cora noted sourly as she penned another note. "You know, this isn't exactly fun for me either."

"You have the better job though," he pointed out.

"Would you like to personalize these?" she demanded before holding up a hand as he started to answer. "I take that back, that wasn't an offer." He looked comically disappointed by being unable to put into motion whatever scheme had popped into his devious mind. She could only imagine, considering all the Christmas cards thus far were addressed to their Avenger allies and a few SHIELD agents, including Fury and Coulson. She was planning on crashing the holiday party Coulson had divulged that they were having at headquarters on the twenty-third to hand them out. His idea, of course.

Loki groaned as she tossed him another card, morosely sliding an envelope from his stack and sliding the card carefully in. His demeanor made Cora smile, but she bit it down to a simple twitch of her lips. Her amusement came from his pouting, but she also took to heart that he would outright refuse to do anything he didn't want to do, so the fact that he was helping her meant he was willing to do so. Just not to admit it.

"I know I'm kind of going overboard," she admitted as she finished writing Tony's card and then cautiously filled it with a pouch of glitter since she knew from having visited Stark Tower a few times that he tended to go through his mail while reclining in a chair or lying down. Steve had given him crap about it, saying he only did it to look cool and that he was a hipster, one of the many modern slang words Natasha had taught him and he now used proudly and whenever possible. "Careful with that one."

Loki gained a look of smug approval at her antics and slid it gently into the envelope, not uttering a complaint this time around. "Indeed. Is this another Yuletide tradition?"

"I suppose it is. But I haven't done anything like this any other year."

"Just punishing me, hm?" he murmured with a disgruntled tone at last when he had to seal Tony's card.

Cora paused in doodling a bird resembling Robin Hood in Clint's card before continuing and replying, "I didn't really have anyone to write them to until this year, apart from my grandma. So this is kind of fun…for me." She looked up and found Loki staring at her, mid-lick on the envelope. When her eyes moved in a quick glance between him and the envelope, he realized he'd stopped and started to pull away from it, but the top point of the flap tore off, stuck to his tongue like a normal tongue stuck to a pole. He grimaced a little as he pulled the paper from his mouth and she frowned in sympathy, passing him some more envelopes. "Only a few more."

"You said that three cards ago…," he murmured before his eyes caught on a box at the corner of the room. "What is that?"

"The Christmas tree."

"…In a box?" he wondered, getting up and going to pull back the lid.

"It's a decorative tree," she said, watching him investigate.

He looked up just enough to squint at her. "A what?"

"It's fake," she simplified, growing weirdly protective of her shitty tree.

"It smells," he grumbled as he leaned closer to the box.

"Um, like pine needles." She'd Febreezed it with pine scent for years to make herself feel better.

"Like dust and disappointment. Do all Midgardians have such awful trees?"

"Leave my tree alone," she asserted, wrinkling her nose as she was forced to start licking the envelopes, herself. At least she only had three more cards. "A lot of people have fake trees!"

"And the ones who don't?"

"Have real ones, but they're a lot more work."

Loki nodded to himself and shoved the box closed. "Where does one go to procure a 'real' Christmas tree?" he asked seriously, finding the concept of a "fake tree" absurd in every proportion.

"You're not serious, that tree is fine!"

"That is not a tree. Lead," he ordered, nodding toward the door.

Cora's jaw dropped slightly and they stared each other down once again before she sighed heavily and got up from the table. This time, he'd won.

Cora wedged her phone between her ear and shoulder, her ungloved hands tucked under her coat sleeves as she trudged through a snowy yard of Christmas trees, the plastic orange fencing flapping with the winter wind. She sniffed from the cold, listening to the dial tone until an uncertain, burly tone answered Jane's cell. "Erm, greetings, who calls?"

It took everything in her not to laugh. "Thor, you're giving the iPhone a try finally? It's Cora."

"Sister mine!" he boomed through the speaker, sounding exponentially more jovial that the phone was working in his favor. The last time she'd seen them, Jane had been trying to teach him at least the basics of smartphone use in case he ever needed to use one and he'd been quite opposed to the idea. "Are you well? How fairs my brother, is he available to use the iPhone?"

She cracked a smile. "I am well and so is he. He's…occupied at the moment, but I'll try to snag him in a minute. How is everyone?"

"Jane is well, as is our boy," he said with pride. He paused when Erik started crying in the background. "He is distressed over his lack of cookies, I think."

Cora laughed. "I won't keep you long then. Listen, would you all like to come over for a couple days, on Christmas Eve and Day? We'd love to have you."

"My…" Thor paused and there was weight in the silence. "My brother has agreed to this?"

Cora watched Loki as he inspected the trees, measuring them up and gauging which one he wanted as snow drifted down, heavier than earlier. She had a feeling it was because of him; his Jotun abilities had become more and more active as winter progressed. "He has."

"Truly?" Thor asked in a hushed tone.

"He may be harsh with you still, but he didn't bite my head off about it like last year." They'd traveled to Norway around this time last year, so in transit, no other holiday traditions had been exercised; this was his first year of it. However, she'd asked if Thor and Jane could accompany them and she'd received an uncomfortable refusal which had risen into an argument of sorts. She had a feeling Loki still thought Thor should hate him and instead of facing the truth of his brother's generous forgiveness, he liked to fester in his own guilt.

For the next moment or so, Cora grinned, listening to Thor excitedly take off to find Jane and ask her what she thought of celebrating all together and after she'd discussed Loki and all that with Jane as well, they hung up with the plan of the family coming to stay over on Christmas Eve and have gifts and food together the next day. She hung up just as Loki called over to her and she made her way through the flurries to see what he'd found.

"What about this one?" he asked her as she joined him and she craned her head back to take it in, nibbling her lip thoughtfully. "No?"

"Actually…," she murmured, taking a step back to get a better look at it. "…I like it."

"Oh?"

"I mean, my tree's the best tree, but this… This is a close second," she rephrased purely as a jab, which he recognized as such. In truth, it was a lovely tree, vibrant and alive. It was the color of his eyes.

He rolled his eyes and nodded. "So… Do we take it?"

"Like everything else, we have to buy it," Cora smirked, wondering what the grand old city of New York would make of Christmas tree thieves. "I'll go find someone."

She was a few steps away when he asked to her back, "So, you asked him?" Cora looked over her shoulder as the wind whispered by. "Thor, I mean. You asked him."

"I did," she said simply, knowing he heard her even though the passing breeze stole her sound.

Loki nodded and when he didn't speak again, she continued to walk through the multitude of trees to find the caretaker. He listened to her go as he glanced over the tree, feeling odd about contributing to her traditions. He often felt as though he fit in with her, but not with the world she hailed from and this was almost admitting that he had become a part of her Midgardian life. He supposed he had, long before this admittance to himself, and smiled faintly as he leaned in to smell the delicate fragrance radiating from the evergreen needles, a vague carol dancing from a weathered speaker nearby. New traditions, indeed.