December 24th, 2005
Dean was awoken by a smattering of kisses all over his face. Dean couldn't help but laugh as Seamus crooned, "Merry Christmas, Dean Thomas." Dean opened his eyes and looked up at his half naked lover and grinned, "Merry Christmas to you too, Seamus Finnigan. But were you aware that it's only the eve of Christmas?"
"Yes, but it's our Christmas today." He explained.
"Oh, right. Right. How silly of me." Dean chuckled as he stretched all his limbs out, working the tired out of his muscles. Of course Seamus was calling today Christmas, because even though tomorrow was the official Christmas day they were spending it with family and friends. Today was their own private Christmas, just the two of them and Peanut. Dean climbed out of bed and pulled on his flannel pyjama shirt that he had gotten too hot for last night. He tossed Seamus his matching one. Dean's was red, Seamus' was green. It had been their cheesy gift for last year. After seven years of being together, and five Christmas' living together, they had developed a number of traditions.
This was the first: pyjamas.
Seamus pulled his over his head and headed out of the bedroom with him, scurrying down the stairs. At the bottom Peanut was spinning in circles and bouncing around with excitement. Seamus beat Dean to the bottom of the steps and ran out of sight. As Dean touched down onto the first floor Seamus reappeared, putting a pair of foam reindeer antlers on Peanut's head. She was a very good dog and didn't ever try to take them off. This was a newer tradition, but a tradition nonetheless.
"Preheat the oven," Dean said as he reached the kitchen and headed for the fridge. Seamus had already turned the dial on the oven. "Already done," He assured him as he scurried away from the kitchen towards the living room and fiddling with the telly and VCR. Dean carefully took out the apple pie he had prepared the night before. It was one of his favorite pies, and had been his own family's tradition for years. Seamus had been more than happy to keep up the tradition. He waited a few minutes for the oven to finish heating up before placing it in. He set a timer for a couple of hours and headed to the living room. He flopped on the couch next to Seamus who had just put in the film It's A Wonderful Life. Seamus' family had watched it every year since he could remember, and Dean was more than willing to adopt it into their traditions. As the film played the two snuggled up close. The window was wide open and let in a gleaming white light of the sun reflecting against the snow. Their pine tree stood in the corner, bedecked with ornaments and stuffed with presents underneath - most of which were for tomorrow when they would see friends and family. They had three stockings taped to their entertainment center, just below the telly. Each one was stuffed with little goodies, but they would wait to open them until later.
The two cuddled close on the couch, Peanut hopping up and sprawling across their laps. As the film progressed, the whole house began to smell strongly of apples and cinnamon. Per usual, Seamus was tearing up by the end of the film. Dean never asked why or bothered him about it; he wasn't even sure if Seamus knew that Dean noticed every time. As the credits began to roll, Dean kissed Seamus' cheek. He patted Peanut's rear, asking her to get off. She jumped down onto the floor and followed Dean as he went to the kitchen. "Oh quit it, Pea. You're not getting any of it." He said, nudging her out of the way so he could safely remove the perfectly baked pie out of the oven. It didn't take long to find Seamus peeking into the kitchen with an eager smile. "Ready for breakfast?" Dean asked as he cut them up some slices and dropped a scoop of ice cream on each. Seamus didn't verbally answer, he just ran into the kitchen and grabbed his plate and devoured the pie in one minute flat. Dean laughed to himself, glancing at the clock, "I think that's a new record, Shay." Dean, meanwhile, had not even had a third bite.
Seamus shrugged as he licked the vanilla ice cream off his plate. Dean had finished his first slice by the time Seamus had finished his second. Dean begrudgingly through Peanut an apple from his pie. She swallowed it whole. Dean pulled his wand out from his pyjama pocket, casting a cleaning charm at the same time that Seamus flicked his wand to put them back into the cabinet. "Okay, my turn." Dean said as he moved back to the living room and took out It's A Wonderful Life and replaced with How The Grinch Stole Christmas, already rewound. Unlike Seamus, Dean was religious about rewinding the VHS tapes when he was done watching them. They plopped on the couch for a brief hour to watch Dean's favorite film. Seamus always cracked Dean up when he would try to grin like the Grinch. "You look like a demented goblin." He would tease every time. As the film was ending, Seamus stood and ran upstairs to their room making it down just in time for the Grinch's heart to grow three sizes.
He threw Dean a pair of snow pants and thick socks. Dean absentmindedly pulled the snow pants on over his pyjama bottoms as he continued to watch the movie. The film ended and he clicked the rewind button on the VCR, sitting in front of it and pulling on his socks as the tape rewound. Seamus was already totally bundled as Dean put the tape back on the shelf in their entertainment center. Dean pulled on his boots and his big coat. He couldn't help but laugh at how fluffy they both looked. Seamus put little booties on Peanut, even though she didn't really need them, and they all paraded out into the front yard.
Peanut sprang around in the snow, happy to just see the snow flying around her. Seamus and Dean, meanwhile, attempted to build themselves an igloo. They ended up with a small lump of a space that neither of them could fit in at all. So they collapsed it back down and decided to build a few snow people instead. Seamus ran around the house and grabbed them some sticks to use as arms. Dean crafted a stubby little person of snow, giving it a few sticks of hair to add some more personality to it. Seamus, on the other hand, made a tall snowman with a big smile and difficult to see eyes carved in the snow with the sticks. When they had managed to use all the snow in the yard they finally headed back inside. On the doormat they shook their snow off with Peanut and pulled themselves out of their boots and snow suits. Seamus tugged Dean down to him as he plopped out of his snow pants, nearly knocking him off balance. Seamus leaned up as he pulled Dean down and kissed him sweetly. When he pulled away again his cheeks were flushed slightly, though Dean was sure it was just from the cold. "What was that for?" Dean asked curiously.
Seamus pointed up, showing Dean where he had taped a sprig of mistletoe. Dean smiled, "Another new tradition?" He asked. Seamus nodded, "And I have the right to put it in a new place every year. That way you don't know when to expect it."
"You think I would have seen that," Dean remarked as he headed into the den again, "Considering I'm nearly as tall as the doorway. How did you get it up there anyway?"
"Duh, magic." Seamus laughed as he followed Dean. He plucked their stockings off the TV stand and handed Dean his. "You go first this year."
Dean eagerly fished into his giant sock and pulled out the first thing his hand latched onto. It was a Christmas cracker, of course. He wondered if it was going to be magic or muggle. He popped it open with the same excitement he experienced as a child. A big cloud of pink smoke erupted from inside it and out fell a small bottle of what appeared to be a love potion. "Seamus, what is this?" Dean said, holding the tiny bottle of dark purple liquid in his hand. It looked like just enough for one dose. "It's not a love potion." Seamus explained, "It's for … longer nights together." Dean made a curious face and turned the bottle over to see some writing on the back. His cheeks and neck became incredibly hot with surprise and mild embarrassment. It was a wizard sex supplement. "Why did you have to make that the first one?" He asked a bit irritably as he dug back into the sock for the next gift. Seamus just kissed his cheek in response.
The next item was far more innocent, three Aero bars tied together in a red ribbon. It was one of Dean's favorite chocolates. He immediately unwrapped one and let it hang from his mouth as he nibbled on it. Still biting away at his treat, he pulled out the remaining items in his stocking: a chocolate frog (his other favorite chocolate), a new pair of reading glasses, a new pack of shading pencils, and a pair of teeny tiny hippogriff salt and pepper shakers. Dean had an unreasonable love of tiny household items. He had a growing collection of oddities like this that Seamus managed to find him. He had a teacup that could holy only a teaspoon of tea.
"Thank you, love." Dean said, pulling Seamus closer to him and kissing him. "Okay, you're turn, go on!" He encouraged, handing Seamus his purple stocking. Seamus immediately dumped them all on the floor, as was his preferred method. Among his goodies were Bertie Bott's, a pair of claddagh covered socks, a new robe pin, and a little pepperup potion to last him the rest of cold season. Unlike Seamus, Dean had not even considered purchasing any adult item. He was usually the least vulgar of the two of them, and fancied himself relatively innocent. Seamus thanked his sweetheart for his gifts and hinted that they should test out the potion he had given him a test run. Dean nudged him off again, insisting that they had to keep up with tradition and wait until nightfall for any frisky activity.
They dumped out Peanut's stocking and threw her a new bouncy ball that she eagerly played with and let her sniff at the rawhides that they bought her. They had even found a small bird like toy that they had charmed to fly around and act real. Peanut did not care about chasing cats or rodents, but she loved chasing birds. She was overjoyed with the toys and treats she had received this Christmas.
As the day continued on, they filled themselves with treat after treat, polishing off the edibles that had been in their stockings. The happy couple sprawled across the couch, each cradling their stuffed stomachs as they put on Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the first Christmas movie they had ever watched together. There was no big fanfare for dinner, as the real big meals always came on Christmas day. Instead they had some old leftovers, polishing it all off with even more pie than before. Despite the fact that both of them were filled to the brim with food, it still did not stop them from moving up into their bedroom after a long day filled with foodie delights, snow, movies, and love.