Last Part of December
A/N: Ok, little bit of holiday fluff. I'm trying to decide if this is a one-shot or could be continued.
There was a small crowd of people sprawled out in the media room, Colonel Sheppard noted as he walked in. Christmas was a couple of weeks away and everyone was excited this year. It was so different from last year: with the Daedalus making regular runs between Earth and Atlantis, and weekly updates from Earth, people weren't feeling so isolated, and the words 'proper celebration' kept being used. He guessed that tomorrow's Daedalus arrival would be more than eagerly greeted, since it would the last before the holiday. For the last few weeks there had been plenty of furtive glances, and much more secretive whispering with nervous glances than usual, all in the spirit of the holiday, he supposed.
"I can't believe the SGC drew the line at shipping us a tree," sighed Katie Brown. Rodney nodded sympathetically.
"I suppose we can simply fly over to the mainland and cut one ourselves. They should have some sort of conifer, right?" he added, pleased with himself for using botanical terms.
Nearby, Lorne snorted, "Oh, I can just see us strapping a tree to the roof of a jumper." A few people nearby laughed at the potential scene,
Rodney frowned. "At least they're sending some mistletoe."
"Now why would they want to send that," asked Katie, in all apparent innocence. She and a few women exchanged devious looks.
"I believe Colonel Sheppard explained," started Teyla before she intercepted a few looks and smiled knowingly herself. Certain members of the expedition were going to find themselves underneath it.
"What were you going to say Teyla," asked Ronon, not quite following.
"I will show you later," she smirked.
"If someone is going to make eggnog, please refrain from using Radek's rotgut this year," began Carson after a moment's silence. "Alcohol poisoning, along with the potential for food poisoning is not a combination I want to treat again. By the way, Kyte said to tell you Colonel, she's got someone to tape all the bowl games. I think she was still a little upset about one of her teams losing in the last two minutes, and missing out."
"Ah yes the joys of college football, the bowl games. I'll have to tell her I owe her one."
She also mentioned something about getting a couple loaves of fruitcake."
"And you said we were out of projectiles for the Chair," interjected Rodney. Sheppard and Lorne laughed for a few minutes thinking of taking out a Wraith hive ship with baked goods.
Carson waited for the laughter to die down. "Well, I've got some shortbread coming, so hopefully this coming year will be luckier. Lord knows, sometimes we could use it." Noting the puzzled looks, he added, "It's good luck for a the first person who crosses your doorway in the new year to bring shortbread.
"There was silence for a few minutes, Finally, Rodney spoke up again. "What about Boxing Day?"
"Boxing Day? I know it's the day after Christmas, but isn't that the day you return unwanted stuff," asked Katie, slightly puzzled.
Rodney bit back his usual sarcastic remark and explained to the mostly puzzled group, "It's traditionally been a day where people tipped the employees underneath them in appreciation. A sort of worker appreciation thing."
"Oh, I think I saw that on an episode of MASH once," exclaimed Sheppard. "Everybody switched jobs for the day."
"That could be an interesting idea," added an amused looking Dr. Weir.
TBC?
A/N: Ok, I wasn't sure if I could continue this, especially since we don't celebrate Boxing Day in the States. However, I will take any comments, suggestions, or offers to help, since I was thinking of writing something along the lines of the MASH episode.