It was another week before Janet felt that it would be safe to let Macein out of the infirmary. Fortunetly Cassie and Macein's two week long Christmas/New Years vaction started the same time Janet let Macein out of the infirmary so Macein, who couldn't really afford to, hadn't missed very much school. Even though Janet had let Macein out of the infirmary, it wasn't untill the day of Christmas Eve that she'd let him get out of his bed.
Just like every other year, as had become tradition, SG-1 showed up that afternoon to help decorate Janet's christmas tree and help with any other christmas decorating or last minute errands that needed to be done.
"What do you mean I can't do that?" Sam asked as she and Jack decorated the living room, while Macein and Teal'c watched them and Janet, Daniel and Cassie were in the kitchen cooking.
"Exactly that you use tinsel to decorate christmas trees and things like that.But you can't use it to decorate your superior officer." Jack answered from where he was standing next to the tree, with a large lump of silver tinsel in his hair and on one shoulder.
"You were kind of asking for it Jack." Macein, still not totally comfortable with the colder weather, pipped up from where he was sitting near the lit fire place, wrapped up in a thick blanket.
"Indeed O'Neill." Teal'c agreed.
"And just how was I asking for it?"
"Well Jack, you did say, 'tinsel was one of the most useless decorations, because it always ends up sticking to and covering you more than what its supposed to be covering in the first place'. So I decided to save some time and effort by cutting out the middle man and just covering you with it."
"Alright then....." Jack then grabbed a large lump of tinsel and hurled it towards Sam, who of course ducked allowing the tinsel to hit Teal'c and Macein instead.
First looking at eachother then back at Jack and Sam, both Macein and Teal'c grabbed some tinsel and threw it towards Jack and Sam. This of course started an all-out-full-scale tinsel war between the four people.
Coming to investigate what all the noise was about Cassie, Daniel, and Janet came out of the kitchen to find the others engaged in a tinsel war. Seeing Jack, Sam, Teal'c, and Macein covered from head to toe in shinning strands of tinsel Cassie and Daniel couldn't keep from bursting out laughing.
"You know I could be wrong but I thought you four were supposed to be decorating the house not eachother." At the sound of Janet's voice and Cassie and Daniel's laughing the four others froze.
Glancing at eachother the group silently agreed that Daniel and Cassie were decidedly under dressed for the season and started throwing tinsel at them as well as eachother again.
Janet being smart enough to have stood out of throwing range just smiled, shook her head, and retreated back into the kitchen calling over her shoulder, "Once you've all finished with the decorating come into the kitchen and sample some of the fudge we made."
"Ooh...fudge.." Jack's head shot up when he heard fudge menchined. Abandoning the tinsel war the group migrated to the kitchen.
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Once everything had been taken care of at the house the group wanted to get out for awhile and do some last minute shopping. Arriving at the mall and agreeing on a place and time to meet the group broke up and head in different directions.
Deciding that there were safty in numbers Jack, Teal'c, and Daniel stuck together out of fear for their lives as the navigated their way through the crowded mall. Daniel and Jack, compleatly clueless as to what they should get for the respective women in their lives, were staring to panic as time dwindled down.
"I'm telling you we should just get them...." Jack began to speak as they found themselves sitting on a bench in the middle of the mall.
"Jack I swear if you say gift certificates one more time I'm gonna hit you." Daniel interupted Jack.
"I agree with DanielJackson. I do not belived it would be a wise idea to give Major Carter and Doctor Frasier gift certificates for christmas."
"Alright no gift certificates. But we still need to get them something."
"No kidding but what?.....Man why dose this have to be so hard? We had no trouble finding things for everybody else. I mean even Teal'c was able to find Janet and Sam something."
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Mean while at the same time on the other side of the mall Janet and Sam were finishing up the last of their shopping and heading to the food court to wait for the others.
"So how do you think the guys are doing?" Janet asked.
"I'd say that right about now Daniel and Jack are starting to panic and turn on eachother, because they haven't found a gift for either of us yet. And the only reason they haven't killed eachother or just given up and bought us gift certificates is cause Teal'c is there to referee."
"Sounds about right to me."
"You know it amazes me that two smart men could be so clueless and dense when it comes to women and gifts."
"Yeah, but ya gotta love 'em any. It's just one of those things in life."
"Ain't that the truth."
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"Ok we're smart guys we can figure this out. We just have to think about this logicly....." Daniel got that look on his face that he always gets when he's deep in thought.
"Alright lets think..." Jack picked up where Daniel left off, "Wait I think I got away to figure this out."
"And what would that be O'Neill?" Teal'c questioned.
"What are three things every women loves?.....chocolate, clothes, and jewlery......Right?"
"So Jack what you're saying is that if we try to focus as much as we can on getting them a gift in one of those three catagories we should be ok?"
"Yeah. Now come on lets go."
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Later that evening the group found themselves lounging around the living room with Teal'c kel-nor-reming in one of the Lazy-Boy chairs, Jack dozing in the other, Sam sleeping on the large couch, Daniel and Janet cuddled up together fast asleep on the smaller couch, and Cassie and Macein, both out cold, sprawled out on the floor, with Timber, who Janet had been kind enough to let stay inside for the night, in front of the lit fire place.
After a couple of hours or so Macein found himself waking up, earlier then he normally did, laying near the fire place. Figuring the only reason for waking up so early was do to the fact that he was freezing, despite his close proximity to the fire, Macein carefully got up, so as not to disturb any of the others, and went in search of his warm blanket.
Finding his blanket Macein stood in the middle of the room and gazed at the christmas tree: a Blue Spurce decorated with white lights set to random, slow, fade-and-glow, with shiny gold and white garlands, glass balls of different colors, candy canes, a varity of different ornaments, and of course the random clump of silver tinsel, here and there. Gazing at the christmas tree, for reasons Macein couldn't explain, gave him a sense of peace that he hadn't felt for awhile.
"It's beautiful looking isn't it?" Macein slightly jumped when he heard Daniel's voice, as he stood next to Macein. "Sorry didn't mean to startle you."
"No it's ok I just wasn't expecting anyone else to be up. What are you doing up?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
"I got cold and went to find me a blanket. How do you people live like this?...with the cold I mean"
"I don't know we just do. And as for why I'm up, I guess I'm just worried about wether or not your moms going to like the gift I got her."
"Don't worry I'm sure that she'll love whatever you got her. And...uh..speaking of gifts do you..um..think maybe I could give yours now?"
"Can I ask why you want to give it to me now instead of waiting 'till tommorow?"
"Yeah..um...it's just that its kind of personal for me and not that I don't want others to see it, it's just I'm not really sure it's one of those gifts you want everyone to see. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah I think I do. But I'll admit you've got my intrest peaked."
"Here." Macein handed Daniel a small box. Immeditly lifting the lid off the box Daniel found a ring that had two bands: gold and silver, intertwined and snaking around eachother holding a gem stone not quite like anything Daniel had ever seen, it almost looked like it was two different subutle colors: a light blue or purple, depending on where the light hit it. It wasn't exactly the fanciest ring Daniel had ever seen, but he felt that it had more value then any ring he'd ever seen before.
"It belonged to my mom....my birth mom...it was here wedding ring. I had Jack get it for me when he went back to the planet, that last time when they...you know. This rings been passed down for generations. It's tradition for the mother to give her wedding ring to her son to give to his future bride when the time comes for him to marry or if there is no son the mother gives it to the man wanting to marry her daughter to give to the daughter.
I don't really have any need for the ring right now so I want you to have it and before you say anything, don't think I didn't notice you eyeing those wedding rings at the jewlery store earlier today. Besides just because my birth mom won't have the chance to give it to me dosen't mean that maybe someday my other mom can't hand it down to me. Just think of this as my way of trying to keep at least one of my old family traditons alive. So how, when, or even if you use it or not is up to you now."
Saying all that he needed and wanted to say Macein went and settled back down on the floor closer to the fire and quickly drifted back to sleep. Seeing that the conversation was obviously over Daniel returned to his spot next to Janet and fell asleep as well.