Item Classification: NSA-TOPSECRET/SCI
Twelve Days of Christmas
Background
Following Anna Sullivan's arrest at Fort Meade, a search was conducted at the NSA safehouse where Sullivan had resided with Elsa Agnarrsdatter. The following itemised journal was recovered and verified as a requested log of Christmas activities by the NSA integration committee. It was handwritten by Agnarrsdatter in a leatherbound journal and contained descriptions of activities undertaken during the period of 12th - 25th December 2027. Corroboration with surveillance sources indicate that Agnarrsdatter's descriptions are accurate.
Journal
1: The committee has asked me to describe what I've done for the twelve days leading up to Christmas. It's a trivial task and one rife with drudgery but nonetheless I shall undertake it to the best of my ability. So, yes, Day one - Anna finally taught me how to mow the lawn. Perhaps it is a good thing our house is situated far from the neighbours, because the lawnmower belches an almighty hackle. We've certainly come a long way from landscapers in tall pointy hats wielding scythes. Anna fell on her behind laughing as I tried to start the mower with a pull of a cord. And there're spinning blades beneath this thing? This can't be safe. But Anna says it is and I trust her.
2: On one of our morning cycles we noticed that the pond finally froze over enough to go skating. Again, there's a fear in me that she'd fall through the ice and freeze to death but it's hard to put a damper on her enthusiasm. I haven't skated for two hundred years. They were always filled with bad memories. It feels lonely standing on the ice. The Royal escorts always in eyeshot. Other couples holding hands and all. But it's nice doing it with Anna. Despite the scarf she wore I could see snot leaking from her nose and I hope she doesn't get a cold because we have ten more days of this.
3: Anna pleaded with me to go to a dog shelter today. I almost couldn't bring myself to, because I knew rules were rules and there was no way we could bring one of these majestic creatures back. Who knew so many abandoned dogs existed in the modern age? Back in Arendelle there were always dogs wandering the streets but despite their shabby treatment, could always count on a carpenter or blacksmith to give them a roof in rainy weather or some scraps at the end of the day. God bless these volunteers. They had a Christmas theme going on and put reindeer antlers on their heads. A trivial gesture but adorable nonetheless. Anna looked like she was about to cry petting these beasts.
4: We finally got around to finishing the NSA-approved list of movies. The last one was "Breakfast at Tiffany's". As with the others, it was delightful and the actress was beautiful. It still interests me how watching a visual depiction of a story could become an activity in itself despite the convenience of having a screen installed in one's home. Popped corn and fizzy drinks and plush velvet curtains. I figured it would've been more productive to capture the motions of daily occurrences on film rather than a fictional story. But Anna just said "that's what the news is for". Perhaps people want a fictional world to escape to when things around them are awful.
5: A restaurateur opened up their kitchens for a baking class and we spent the afternoon making "Christmas Treats". Back then we had spiced cake and wreath cookies. Here they have Christmas pudding and Gingerbread men. Nothing's changed much. It's a rare scent of comfort doing the baking yourself rather than having it brought to you on a tray. The chemistry of mixing ingredients together and watching them bake. Despite the familiarity with our dessert I do find the act of cutting out gingerbread men from cookie sheets and decorating them still awfully trivial. Anna eats each individual limb of a gingerbread man before putting the bloke out of his misery. He's not alive but it's still macabre.
6: Apparently Anna sent off one of her photographs to a printer and had it magically turned into a jigsaw puzzle. This appears to be one of the more trite hobbies people engage in but the picture was absolutely gorgeous: one of the sunsets over the forest path that we used to walk on. I can still see it in my memory when I close my eyes. We took half a section each and the last person who completes their half would have to accede to a "dare". Perhaps an unpleasant task. It's a blatantly unfair competition as my hands and eyes are not attuned to a century with as many external stimulations as hers so obviously, I lost. I do not look forward to my dare. But the framed sunrise over our settee is worth it.
7: My dare is to stand in the shopping street and play the violin until someone puts a coin in the case. It is awful and I am embarrassed. But at the same time not as bad as I would've thought. I was assuming she would make me jump into a frozen lake. Perhaps it's the joy of performing that took over me as I forgot I was doing this as a penalty after all. It took nearly all morning and lunch hour. People actually stood and watched with children and didn't give me a penny. An old man finally dropped a dime and I surprised him by packing up at once. We spent the next five minutes talking about his time playing in the Leningrad orchestra and the conversation was worth way more than the dime.
8: We drove to Baltimore to watch a game of football. I'd greatly underestimated the immense importance people in this world ascribe to sport. There were seas of humans in an enormous colosseum. But instead of gladiators fighting to the death they had armoured men tossing a ball. I hardly knew the rules and neither did Anna. That didn't stop us from having a lot of fun singing their songs. My belief this was an annual event was dumbfounded when she told me there were almost three hundred such festivals played a year in the country. Complete with performances during the intervals, food and drink. It's staggering. Arendelle had annual games with two dozen knights and that was it.
9: A local farm lent us a couple of horses to go riding in the woods. Can you believe it? People ride on horseback in the new world for leisure. Anna was enthralled by these mighty beasts but the sight of them only mired me in a cesspool of unpleasantries. I can still feel Snowmourne's heartbeat giving out beneath my palms sometimes. Perhaps it's a good thing humans no longer use these gentle creatures to enact misery on each other. My mount today was named Estelle. I swear she could feel the memories that ran in my veins and was gentle with me. We had a great time riding the woodland paths. Pretending we were 19th century explorers in a world where things made more sense than they do now.
10: I'd always been interested in how the modern world treated its less fortunate and today, Anna brought me to a soup kitchen she used to do community service in. It aches me that despite the display of wealth and abundance. Food stacked on shelves at the market. Some still do not have enough money to eat. It's a pitiful thing that the world has progressed so much and only amplified the basic tenets of human misery which plagued every year of my reign. Sickness. Hunger. Warfare. Fortunately it appears that the social services are on top of things. Perhaps in another two hundred years we'd finally solve the problem of hunger but my hopes are running thin by now.
11: Party time! I'm not supposed to write these entries before they happen but maybe a part of myself can't wait. Anna made a whole event of it all. I bought three dresses because I couldn't decide. Oh, this fills me with as much excitement as heading to a ball. As much as I hated them, they were the only social activities in the calendar for royalty. I haven't even danced for two hundred years either. Though I highly doubt, given the music Anna's been exposing me to, that whatever dancing might happen would resemble the dances we had. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's going to be fun and I really hope I don't embarrass myself in front of Anna's friends.
12: After teasing me for weeks, we finally had our first snow. I'd nearly forgotten how beautiful it was. White and pure. Like nature's do-over that washes all the ugliness away. Oh, some things never change. Since this is the last entry I'm supposed to give to the NSA - I'd like to thank them for giving me this opportunity to have a new life in the new world. And for giving me the lovely escort Anna Sullivan. I couldn't have done any of this without her. Her joyful disposition and methodical planning has only served to make this entire experience a genuinely fruitful one. Merry Christmas!