To One's Art's Content

By: An Undercover Changeling

…

It was the last day of school before holiday break, and Miss Allegra's first-grade class was just glittering with excitement (and, in the case of some students, with actual glitter as well). Crooked paper snowflakes hung from the desks with care, and the smell of freshly-frosted sugar cookies wafted over everyone's heads from the treats' safe hiding spot on top of the cupboard. Miss Allegra was happily handing each student a candy cane, which the children caressed as though they were the rarest, most valuable treasures they'd ever owned. From desk to desk, table to table, there was a bright smile on every face in the room.

Every face, that was, except for Lisa Loud's.

Lisa, naturally, had far more important things to do than mindlessly watching Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, which was what the rest of the class was currently doing. If not for the scrumptious holiday confectionaries and her desire to maintain as perfect an attendance record as humanly possible in a chaotic family of thirteen, she probably wouldn't have come to school at all. Class parties were a waste of time that could have easily been devoted to more useful scholarly pursuits…after all, the school year was short enough already without a fancy party for literally every holiday imaginable!

So, while all of her classmates laughed as Hermey the elf punched a snow replica of his boss in the nose, Lisa sat on the floor in the back corner of the room, perusing the newest edition of her favorite science textbook, Quantum Mechanics and You. She tried her best not to think about the fact that even this book itself had been an early holiday present from her beloved Pop-Pop. No matter how hard she tried, Lisa just couldn't escape the holiday spirit.

Especially now that Miss Allegra had finished passing out the candy canes, and was suddenly hovering right by Lisa's side like a much more cheerful (though insanely annoying) Ghost of Christmas Past come to show Ebeneezer Scrooge the error of his ways.

Go ahead and try me, Madam, Lisa thought with a pout. Not even a series of sappy, uninspired flashbacks could persuade me to leave my cozy spot. Even if it does make me a bit of a Scrooge.

But Miss Allegra simply held out a candy cane. "Here you go, Lisa."

Lisa took it, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.

"But, sweetie…are you sure you don't want to make an ornament for your tree?"

Ah, of course. Miss Allegra is smart like that; she's always got a hidden motive up her sleeve. Though I don't exactly see the point of this one.

"Yes," said Lisa. "As a matter of fact, I am sure. I do not wish to make one of your delightfully meaningless trinkets. I had thought I'd made that fact pointedly clear to you."

"Really?" Miss Allegra inquired with a suspiciously sneaky smile. "Even though they're pretty cute?"

Begrudgingly, Lisa had to admit that Miss Allegra's choice in an arts-and-crafts project, a little snowman made from precisely one-quarter of an egg carton (or, in layman's terms, three eggs' worth of carton), would in fact be considered quite cute to the average person. She could practically picture her big sister Leni squealing in delight at the mere sight of them.

Miss Allegra's crafts were always tastefully chosen to be as adorable as possible. Lisa supposed she could appreciate that.

But Lisa was a woman of science. And there was no room for cuteness in the world of science. "No, thank you. I fail to see the intended purpose of this activity."

Miss Allegra frowned. "It's an ornament. It goes on your tree."

"Yes, I know that," Lisa said, rolling her eyes. "You have already mentioned such to me multiple times over the duration of this afternoon. What I don't understand is why I should make one."

"Because it's fun," Miss Allegra explained. "Besides, you've got older siblings–I taught a couple of them myself. Don't you love seeing all their handmade ornaments lighting up your tree?"

Lisa recalled how, with all the ornaments her siblings had made over the years, the tree was so crowded that one could hardly tell there was even supposed to be a tree underneath. From Lori's popsicle-stick Santa to Lola and Lana's handprint-reindeer, the motley collection of assorted handcrafted creations never failed to get her siblings laughing and smiling over fond memories of accidentally sticking their hands together with glue. Even Lily had brought home a tiny little heart made of modeling clay with a little loop of ribbon through the top, which Rita had placed near the very tip-top of the tree with glowing pride.

Now every sibling in the Loud family had an ornament on the tree except Lisa.

Not that it bothered her or anything. Only a fool would feel left out by the prospect of not having a cheap little tchotchke of her own with which to decorate the family Christmas tree. And Lisa was no fool. Clearly.

"I do not find art to be an enjoyable pastime," Lisa replied to her teacher. "I never have. My stubby digits make it nigh impossible for me to create anything crafted of an art medium by hand that does not resemble a pile of toxic waste. In other words, I am a bad artist. Besides, my siblings' creations might be nice, but I highly doubt that, considering the sheer number of ornaments on my family tree, there would be room on it for mine even if I were to make one. There is simply no logical reason for me to partake in this experience, and I would appreciate it if you did not bother me about it again." She held her book high in front of her face, waiting for her teacher to go away so she could dive right back into an exciting section about the Pauli Exclusion Principle.

"Okay, that's fine, Lisa," Miss Allegra said. "I just think your family might be sad if you come home for the holidays with nothing special to give them."

Would they be sad? Hypothetically speaking? Lisa wondered to herself. Were they sad last year when I came home empty-handed during the holiday season? Surely not, right? They weren't expecting her to make anything for them, were they? Was it simply an unspoken rule that a well-mannered child should come home with some sort of holiday craft to present to her parents and siblings as a token of her affection towards them?

Because Lisa did love her family–a love that went far beyond simply appreciating their usefulness as her test subjects. And she wanted to make sure they knew she loved them. If this was a potential way in which she could show them that, perhaps it wouldn't hurt her all that much to give it a try, at least.

Dang it. Miss Allegra really knew her weak spots, didn't she?

"Fine," Lisa groaned. "Just this once, I will attempt to make one of your useless projects."

"Glad to hear it," Miss Allegra told her, her smile widening. "All of the materials you need are on the round table near the window."

So, Lisa got up from her comfortable spot on the floor, dusted a few stray pieces of glitter off her pants, and walked over to her seat. She shoved her book inside of her desk, then went over to the table Miss Allegra had pointed out.

A colorful array of ribbons, pipe cleaners, pom-poms, buttons, glitter glue, and markers assaulted her eyes, along with several white snippets of egg carton. Miss Allegra had clearly painted them herself beforehand, which Lisa understood, because putting paint anywhere in the vicinity of some of the knuckleheads in her classroom would have surely ended in disaster.

Lisa took the piece of carton closest to her, then hesitated, not completely sure what to do next.

She knew the directions, of course, because a good student always paid attention when her teacher was talking, whether she thought they were useful words or not. But she didn't understand where to start.

She was still gawking at all the craft supplies when she felt a tap on her shoulder, which caused her to startle in alarm.

Obviously, it was her classmate and best friend, Darcy Helmandollar. No one else in the class would have dared to disturb the young scientist while she was busy thinking.

"Egads!" she shrieked. Then, composing herself and clearing her throat, she gave her friend a proper salutation. "Oh…hello, Darcy."

"Hi, Lisa!" Darcy said with a cheerful wave. "Are you going to make an ornament?"

"Apparently," Lisa grouched. "But why, may I ask, are you here? If I recall correctly, you have already made one of your own."

"Yes, but Miss Allegra said there were some extras, so I'm making a friend for mine!" Darcy rocked on her heels for a few moments, carefully considering her options, before selecting a carton segment of her own. "Ooh, do you want to make them together? They can be snowman twins!"

Lisa wasn't entirely sure she liked the sound of that, but at the very least, it would give her a clue about what she was supposed to be doing here. So she nodded, earning a big smile out of Darcy.

Darcy pointed to the cut pieces of ribbon scattered across the table. "What color scarf do you want?"

There were red ones, blue ones, purple ones, and green ones. Lisa shrugged and picked up a green one.

"Good choice!" chirped Darcy. That reaction actually made Lisa sort of happy for some reason.

Then, Darcy pointed to the pipe cleaners and pom-poms. "I think we should do pink earmuffs."

Pipe cleaners. My archnemesis, Lisa thought bitterly, scowling at the offending craft materials. But she simply nodded. "It's all the same to me."

Besides, she knew pink was Darcy's favorite color. It was actually the most popular preferred color among all of the first-grade females at Royal Woods Elementary School by a pretty wide margin. She'd done a poll of the entire population (complete with a bar graph and a pie chart) on this very subject on the third day of the school year.

Darcy smiled at her again. "Aww, you're so nice, Lisa!'

Lisa paused. Hardly anyone had ever called her nice before. The closest thing she could remember was when Leni had referred to her as "Crispy on the outside, soft and warm on the inside. Like a toasted marshmallow."

She wasn't entirely sure she believed it, but it was kind of nice to be called nice.

"What kind of buttons should we use?" Darcy asked her.

Lisa studied them…and there were quite a lot of options. Big ones, small ones, round and square ones, even a heart-shaped one or two. Leni and Lola would have liked them all–they always loved it when their mom brought home from the store one of those colorful bags of assorted buttons for them to dig through. Lisa, however, knew next to nothing about fashion, other than that she hated it when Leni tried to force her to stand in as her model.

A couple of sparkly silver buttons caught her eye. They reminded Lisa a bit of some of the shinier specimens from her collection of periodic table elements (gallium, a shiny metal with a melting point so low that it could melt right in one's hand, was one of her favorites), so they were moderately pleasing to look at. Besides, Leni and Lola would've killed her if they knew she had the option to choose something sparkly, but didn't pick it.

She pointed them out to Darcy. "Those will do."

Darcy clapped her hands. "Perfect! I love your sense of style, Lis!"

I don't have a sense of style, Lisa thought to herself. Though, once again, she appreciated the praise anyway.

Lisa grabbed a couple of markers (the washable kind, of course), while Darcy picked up a few tubes of glitter glue and some glue sticks. Then, both of them made their way back to their desks, which were, as always, parked right next to each other.

Back when she'd been in preschool, Lisa had never liked having a neighbor sit next to her at the table. She'd found it to be more distracting than enriching, since she preferred to work in solitude whenever possible. Besides, none of the kids had ever really wanted to be her seatmate anyway. None of them had asked her–not once the whole year.

So it was still a surprise to her that she actually enjoyed having a desk beside Darcy's. The company was nice, and it made her feel good whenever Darcy tapped on her shoulder to ask for help solving a math problem or deciphering a difficult word in their reading workbooks. In addition, Lisa knew this relationship was quite beneficial for herself as well. She tended to get so focused on her work that she missed the bell for lunch or recess. Darcy was always there to alert her when it was time to leave or move on to a new activity. And the silly drawings and notes she passed under the table to Lisa were sort of funny sometimes. Once or twice, she'd had to catch herself before she laughed out loud at a doodle of a kitten wearing a jetpack.

Maybe I should make one for Cliff, Lisa mused. That way, I could bring her drawings to life. Or maybe I can make one for her cat as a little Christmas present. Though, depending on how soon I can get the necessary parts from Japan, it might be a few weeks late.

"Mind passing me a glue stick?" Lisa asked Darcy.

"Sure!" Darcy replied. "I'm so happy you're finally making a craft with me! Miss Allegra's been trying to get you to do one all year."

"Consider it a Christmas miracle." Lisa uncapped her glue stick, turned her carton upside-down, and rubbed two dots of disappearing purple glue onto the appropriate spots on top of the second and third segments. Then, she stuck her two silver buttons on top.

It took her a few tries to bend her pink pipe cleaner into the correct shape, but eventually, she caught on. She arranged it around the top of the snowman's head, then glued a pink pom-pom on either side of it to make a pair of earmuffs.

She tied her green ribbon around the snowman's neck, creating a scarf, then, when Darcy struggled to make a proper knot, Lisa did hers for her. After adding some silver and gold glitter glue to the sides of the carton to decorate them, Lisa uncapped her black and orange markers to get started on the face.

Pasting things was relatively easy. Actually drawing things was definitely the hard part. There were times when Lisa wished she were as talented in the artistry department as her younger sister, Lily, who could make a masterpiece with just a few tubes of finger paint. Being her roommate, Lisa could proudly say she'd been gifted more of Lily's paintings than anyone else in the family (though not by that big of a margin, probably). One Lily had made of herself and Lisa playing patty-cake together was still hanging right over Lisa's work desk at home at this very moment.

Well, art couldn't be that hard, right? Lisa knew what a snowman was supposed to look like. Their nose was typically a button or carrot, and they had two eyes made out of coal. Sometimes, there was also a corncob pipe involved, but Lisa doubted she'd ever have the artistic skills needed to make one of those.

She drew two dots for the eyes, and then five more in the shape of a smiling mouth. Then, she turned her carton to the side and drew an orange isosceles triangle for the carrot nose. It wasn't perfectly symmetrical (and thus more of a scalene triangle, honestly), and truly not her best work, but it was good enough. Finally, grinning at Darcy, she drew a pair of round glasses around her snowman's eyes–just like the ones she was currently sporting.

"Ooh, that's a good idea!" Darcy said, doing the same on her own snowman. "You always have the best ideas. That's why I'm glad you're my friend."

Huh. If I had known the processes utilized in making arts-and-crafts had involved receiving so many compliments, there's a chance I would have engaged in them sooner.

"Thank you, Darcy. I have found that you possess many wonderful ideas of your own. Such as that magnificent kitten jetpack you drew for me last Thursday."

"Ha! I knew you secretly liked it!" Darcy cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted to a boy across the room. "Petey Wimple, you owe me twenty dollars!"

"Um, all I have is a nickel," he hollered back.

"Fine, but it's my nickel now," she told him. He frowned at her.

Miss Allegra, who was, as usual, walking around the desks to make sure none of her students accidentally hurt themselves, stopped by Lisa and Darcy's area.

"Oh, Darcy, Lisa, those look wonderful!" she said. "I'm so proud of you, girls!"

Lisa tilted her head, a strange, warm feeling blooming in her chest. "You're…you're proud of me?"

Miss Allegra nodded. "It takes a lot of courage to get out of your comfort zone and try something new. Thanks for encouraging her, Darcy."

"No problem!" Darcy said. "I'm just happy I got to spend time with Lisa! She's my best friend ever!"

While she should have, logically speaking, been used to it by now, hearing the words 'best friend ever' being used to refer to her still caused Lisa's brain to explode into glittery dust. She gave Darcy a little smile.

"I know," Miss Allegra said with a grin of her own. "You two just sit right here and I'll get you some string for your ornaments. It's almost time for you to pack up and leave, but before you do, would you like some cookies?"

Well, that was a no-brainer. Not even a scientist could refuse a frosted sugar cookie.

Two minutes later, Lisa and Darcy sat at their desks, each happily cradling a plate topped with two snowflake-shaped cookies (with white buttercream frosting and sparkly white sprinkles, no less!) and watching the ending of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Right as the elf tossed the toy bird out of the sleigh without an umbrella to slow his descent, even though it had previously been established in-universe that he was a swimming bird and not a flying bird, Darcy tapped her on the shoulder.

When Lisa turned to look at her, Darcy held both of her cookies in front of her eyes. "Look! I've got snow in my eyes!"

True, the humor was a little bit juvenile, even for a first grader, but Lisa laughed anyway. "That is quite amusing, Darcy."

And the cookies actually tasted pretty good. They had the perfect consistency of flour, sugar, and baking soda, and were baked for exactly the correct amount of time. That had been pretty hard for her to get right whenever she and Lily baked cookies with their mother (though, of course, with what had happened last Mother's Day, Lisa was no longer allowed to be in charge of the oven until she turned fourteen).

Miss Allegra got some red string and a little hole-puncher from her cabinet and finished Lisa and Darcy's ornaments by punching a hole through the top of each one and looping the string through the hole. Hypothetically, Lisa would definitely have been able to do that herself, but she didn't do anything to stop her teacher. It was kind of a sweet feeling to let herself be helped every now and then, even though she didn't need it that often.

The school bell rang for dismissal, and Lisa put on her coat, helping Darcy when she struggled to zip up her own. She slid her ornament safely into the front pocket of her backpack, gave Darcy a fluffy-mittened wave goodbye, and headed out the door. She walked down the hall towards the cafeteria, where she knew her parents would be picking her, Lola, Lana, and Lucy up that afternoon.

Lining the hallways were some of the other students' holiday crafts. From the self-portraits the fourth-grade class made of themselves dressed in winter coats and hats (her sister Lucy's was painted entirely in black and white), from a giant tree made of paper plates painted bright green and decorated with glitter and pom-poms, they all looked as though they had been a lot of fun to make.

Lisa had never truly appreciated them like this before. But now, she took a few moments to stop and look at them, noticing all the tiny little details and wondering about the lives of the students who had signed their names on the bottom of each one.

When she finally made her way into the cafeteria, her mother, father, and three older sisters were there to greet her. Her mom gave her a hug, and though Lisa typically pulled away as fast as she could, not enjoying the fact that her mother's hugs were always a bit more crushing than she preferred, this time, she let it last just a moment longer than usual. Besides, it was pretty soft and warm due to their puffy jackets and her mom's furry pink scarf, which made it a pretty okay experience overall.

When Lisa finally managed to break herself out of her mom's embrace, her father looked down at her with a little smile. "Did you have a good day at school, honey?"

Normally, Lisa would balk at this cheap term of endearment–she was nobody's honey, not even her father's–but since it was Christmas, she decided she could allow it.

"Yes," she replied. "It was quite satisfactory."

"Let's get you home, then," Rita said. "And fast. Your other siblings are in the car, and I predict it'll be about seven seconds before they start fighting over the radio."

Lisa followed her parents and sisters out the door and into the snowy wonderland outside. Although she wasn't a fan of expressing inane human emotions like excitement, she'd always loved it when the sky unleashed a thick blanket of white snow like this–especially when it occurred naturally and she didn't have to persuade her friends at NASA to do it for her. Even though she and Lynn Jr always got just a little bit too extreme with them, she loved the snowball fights she had outside with her siblings in this perfect type of weather.

She smiled to herself when her father gripped her gloved hand (because even geniuses still slipped on the ice from time to time) as he led her and Lucy to the car. Her mother walked behind, holding onto the twins.

Just as her mother had expected, her older sisters were fighting over the radio. Lisa could hear their raised voices even before Lynn Sr opened the van door.

"Dude, seriously?" Luna complained. "Just because it's Christmas doesn't mean we have to listen to the Christmas stations every single time we're in the car!"

"It's tradition!" Leni snapped back. "It doesn't feel like Christmas without the holiday music! A real musician would know that, Luna!"

"Come on, guys, I want to listen to the sports station," Lynn Jr piped up. "They always do a special holiday hockey tournament this time of year, and if I miss hearing the results, I'll be behind until well past New Year's!" She unbuckled her seat and leapt up to turn the dial near the dashboard, changing the radio station. The screams and whoops of an excited crowd of hockey fans filled the van from front to back.

"You'll be fine," Luan told her. "Every hockey game sounds exactly the same. Hey, wow, that team scored another goal! Uh-oh, one of the players lost a tooth! Oh dear, the benchwarmers are freezing their butts off again! Bor-ing. Leni, turn it back to 'I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.'"

"Nobody likes that song!" Luna hollered at her.

Luan shot her a glare. "I like that song!"

Lily clapped her hands in agreement, babbling with glee as Leni leaned forward to switch the station (with some protests from Lynn Jr and Luna).

Lincoln, meanwhile, had put his paper lunch bag over his head (though there were, at least, some little eye-holes), apparently too embarrassed to be seen out in public with these hooligans.

"Girls, please," Rita said as she and Lynn Sr hopped into the front seats. "I've told you this a thousand times: if you can't agree on a station, your father and I will pick it for you."

Everyone groaned as Rita changed the radio to 'Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,' except for Lily, Leni, and Luan, who cheered.

Lana, Lola, Lucy, and Lisa carefully climbed into the car. The floor was a mess with all the kid's backpacks and lunch bags, but the children did their best to step over them. Except for Lola, who kicked Leni's bag out of the way on purpose.

"Oh hey, I love this song!" Lana said, clapping her gloved hands.

"Me too," Lucy agreed. "It's the perfect combination of morbid and festive."

"I live in a family of nutjobs," Lola declared with a roll of her eyes.

"Okay, kids, put your seatbelts on and let's go," Rita said. "Yes, that includes you, Junior."

Lynn Jr sat back down in her seat and buckled up, then immediately crossed her arms in front of her chest. "All I wanted was to listen to the ding-dang hockey game," she grumbled.

"Watch your language, LJ," Lynn Sr told her, as if he wasn't the one whom Lynn Jr had gotten the habit from.

Lisa snuggled into the backseat between Luna and Luan, the latter of whom was singing merrily along to the tune about a family sadly deciding what to do with the grandma's Christmas presents now that she'd been run over by Santa's sleigh and killed (who even gave that man a license, anyway?). The van was toasty-warm thanks to Rita having left the heater on so the older kids and Lily wouldn't freeze to death while she was collecting the elementary schoolers.

True, the van was a bit cramped, and smelly thanks to Lynn Jr's gym bag and the leftovers of the peanut-butter-and-sauerkraut sandwich Lincoln had had for lunch, and very, very loud, but Lisa was used to it. At this point, she would've been a lot more disturbed by a calm, silent ride home.

Even though she wasn't lucky enough to get a window seat today, Lisa was able to look over Luna's head to see the snowfall pick up in speed and intensity. With the chilly winter breeze at full swing, it almost looked as though the snow was falling sideways instead of straight down.

"I must say, that is quite a formidable flurry," she said to Luna.

"Huh?" Luna glanced out the window, then gasped and pressed her nose right against the glass. "The Brain Box is right, dudes! I'm dreaming of a White Christmas this year!"

The whole van erupted into an excited cheer.

…

As soon as they got home and hung up their soggy coats, Lola, Lana, and Lucy ran straight to the living room, their hands glistening with sparkly trinkets. Their parents and siblings soon followed suit.

Lola held her ornament up first. It was a transparent, round bauble filled to the brim with glitter of every color. Her first name was scrawled on one side in pink marker. "Mr. Sayers gave these to us, and said we could fill them up with whatever we wanted! Naturally, mine was the most fabulous in the whole class," she added with a smug grin.

"Wonderful, Lola!" Rita said as Lola searched for an empty branch on the tree (which were, of course, quite hard to come by). "What did you put in yours, Lana?"

Lana lifted up her brown bauble. "Dirt."

Rita scrunched up her nose. "Oh…that's wonderful, too."

"Hey, I put some glitter in there, too!" Lana shook her ornament, revealing a few specks of shimmering gold glitter among the clods of dirt.

Next, Lucy held up a popcorn garland, which would have looked completely normal, except for the fact that each and every kernel of popcorn was dyed tar black.

"Don't eat it," Lucy warned everyone. "I painted it in art class, and I'm pretty sure I didn't see a 'non-toxic' sticker on the paint jar."

"How lovely," Rita told her, taking it from Lucy's hands and wrapping it a few times around the tree. "Really makes the colors pop. Thanks, honey."

"Make sure it doesn't cover up any of my ornaments!" Lola squawked.

A handful of her older siblings added some treasures of their own, including a little clay gingerbread cookie Luan had sculpted to look just like a grumpy-faced Lori. Then, bending down, Lynn Sr patted Lisa on the head.

"Got anything to add, Lis?" he asked.

"That's a good one, Dad," said Luan, rolling her eyes. "Lisa never does any of Miss Allegra's art projects. She's always too busy reading her fancy books."

Lisa felt a slight twinge of embarrassment. 'Reading her fancy books' had in fact been the thing she'd done for a sizable portion of the day.

But not all of it, Lisa thought with a triumphant grin.

"Siblings," she announced. "Prepare to eat your proverbial words."

Lisa pranced back over to her backpack. As all of her family watched with wide eyes, she unzipped her front pocket and revealed her snowman ornament.

"No way!" Lynn Jr exclaimed in shock. "She actually made one, guys!"

"It's so cute!" Lola squealed.

"Now that's what I'd call a master-Lis!" Luan chuckled at her pun, but when everyone groaned in response, she shrugged. "Tough crowd today."

"Pretty sweet job, little dude." Luna nodded in approval.

"And you remembered the sparkles!" Leni said, walking over to give Lisa an affectionate pat on the head. "I'm so proud of you!"

Once again, Lisa was surprised (though not in a bad way) that something as simple as an arts-and-crafts project could garner this much pride out of her friends and family.

I suppose it's not really about the glitter, glue, ribbons, and buttons, but about what they stand for. The pleasure they give to those who behold them.

And…well, maybe there is some use to them after all, then.

"Thank you for the high praise, siblings," Lisa said. "Mother, may I request a boost?"

"Of course, sunshine." Rita gripped Lisa by the waist and lifted her high over her head so her daughter had access to the highest branches. Lisa's clever eyes searched for an empty spot, and, finding one quickly, she looped her ornament securely around a thin green branch. Then, Rita placed her back on the floor, and Lisa stepped back a few paces to admire her handiwork.

Lynn Sr stood beside her. "Now, that is what I call a happy tree," he declared proudly.

"Indeed, Father," Lisa replied. "Indeed, it is."

The rest of the night was spent decorating sticky, messy gingerbread houses, watching tacky Christmas movies, and cuddling under blankets that smelled suspiciously of cat hair. Of course, the twins squabbled over the fluffiest blanket until Lynn Jr cut in and took it all for herself, earning a simultaneous whine out of them both. And Leni, Lucy, Luna, and Luan hogged the couch, forcing her to sit on the floor again.

It was no secret that this moment wasn't perfect or practical…and maybe none of her family memories ever truly would be, but that didn't make it any less meaningful to her.

This felt like home.

...

A/N: I'm mentally preparing myself for the flood of warm and fuzzy holiday stuff. So here, have mine! And why don't we play a little game, shall we? Between this and all of my other stuff, can anyone guess who my two favorite Loud sisters are? :)

Eventually, I want to write stories from all of the siblings' perspectives, but I just can't help coming back to Lisa. This isn't the first time I've written a fic where Lisa does something pretty cute and sweet, and it certainly won't be the last time. I've always loved the episodes and fanfics that explore Lisa's softer side. Because who says geniuses can't be adorable?

I'll admit, many of the activities, memories, and arts-and-crafts projects mentioned in the story are loosely based on things from my own Christmas past-don't lie though, fellow authors, we all do a little of this. And I've mentioned before that I base a lot of how I write Darcy and Lisa's friendship on friendships I've had in the past. Even though this takes place in the present, when Lisa is in first grade, a lot of this little story takes inspiration from a friend I had in high school, who still talks to me from time to time.

As for the friend who, when I randomly came up with this idea in our DMs, told me "you should write this fic, then," thanks. This is on you. :)

Have a very LOUD holiday, everyone! And a happy new year!