Christmas :D
“Merry Christmas!” Ellie shouted joyful as always.
“Merry Christmas!”
Although it wasn’t really Christmas, it was boxing day. The five of us back in grade seven decided to do a get together every year at her place. Doing a secret Santa between us all. This was going to be the second year we had done it. This year, I had gotten Jason to buy a gift for. It was possibly the easiest gift I had ever had to buy in my life. Well, I suppose it could be classified as gifts, as in plural. I bought him measuring cups with his name engraved into the handles my mom had made, and a spatula or two with a Star Wars characters on them. He would never admit out right to anyone that he enjoys baking but we all know it. He baked the best peanut butter cookies any of us had ever tasted. I had always asked him to give me some for my birthday.
“How do we want to go about this?” Ellie asked.
Her vibrant pink hair was picking up every Christmas light in the house, and her electric blue eyes had such big sparkles in them you would almost think they were stars. Christmas had always been her favourite holiday. I don’t think I had ever seen anyone have just as much Christmas spirit as she did.
The five of us all sat down onto her couch, contemplating how to do it. If it should be clockwise, just in order, or place them all in the middle.
“I say we go in a circle.” Melody replied.
We decided to go clockwise, starting with Adrian. Even though that was most likely what we would end up doing anyways.
“Who got him?” Ellie asked.
“I did, just give me a minute to pull it out of my bag.” Jason replied.
He pulled out something horribly wrapped in white and red wrapping paper. Handing it across the couch to Adrian. He opened up to find a two 120 paged sketchbooks with a high-quality graphite tin set. It took Jason three hours to pick it out for him. I knew the rules of secret Santa was that you are not supposed to tell anyone who you got, but he had stressed out about it so much that he just spilled it to me. I remember the mall trip like it was yesterday. All he had talked about was asking me if Adrian would like it. No matter how many times I said yes, he always found a way for it to be a no. He was so caught up with it, that he didn’t even realize I bought his gift the same day. A huge smile crossed Adrian’s face.
“Thank you!” Adrian said, examining the set.
Ellie handed her gift to Melody. It was a book she had been wishing for but had never gone to go buy. Only, it wasn’t the original cover, it was one of those fancy limited-edition ones for its fifth anniversary. Or maybe it was the tenth? I knew nothing about the book. All I knew it that she had been wanting it for ages. It came alongside a small package of multi-colored sticky notes, and a handmade bookmark Ellie had colored with her highlighters and colorful pens.
“Woah that’s so cool! What book is it?” Adrian asked.
Melody stood up and handed her gift to me, then walked towards Adrian and grabbed a spot right next to him. Showing him every piece of the book and explaining it in detail. They had both been book nerds since forever.
“Okay I’m not that old to receive a walking stick yet” I laughed as I looked at the oddly shaped gift in front of me.
I unwrapped the gift while she was still rambling on about the book to Adrian. I opened it to find a superhero poster. Not just that, but it had the signatures of four different actors that played them. Specifically, my favorite ones.
“Oh my, Melody when did you have the time to get these.”
“Adrian invited me to an event last month because he’s just as nerdy as you all are. I wasn’t planning on getting you that gift originally, but I remembered you talking about your favorites and to my convenience they were all there. Sorry Adrian but I don’t actually know many superheroes.”
Adrian had his hand covering his face looking away as she still sat next to him. I couldn’t tell if it was Ellies hair being radiant as ever, or if I had for the very first time seen his face go pink.
"You must have gone far above our price limit." Ellie laughed.
"Only by a few dollars actually! But I figured it was acceptable for such a thing" Melody replied.
Gifts like these were the reason we picked names late in November. It gave us just the right amount of time to pick out something thoughtful.
“Well Newt, I’m going to guess you got me!” Jason exclaimed.
“I love how you assume that when there’s another possibility but yes. I don’t think it tops what Melody just showed but here.”
I handed him the wrapped box I had put them in. It was wrapped in a blue paper with snowmen on it that my mother had used for my gifts yesterday. He unwrapped it and reached to pull them out. I had completely forgotten to remove the card I had written to him. It was sitting right up the top, I was going to take it out this morning before I finished wrapping, just completely scratching the card idea. Due to the fact Jason had a habit of reading everything out loud and I did not need the friend group to judge me for my writing. He picked it up and opened up the envelope. Opening his mouth at the same time.
“Nope! You’re not reading this in front of them!” I said. Snatching it from his hands.
He tried to reach above my head to grab the card. Something he could have easily done if he had been standing.
“Why not!” He questioned.
“You can have it when you're alone. You read things out loud to much.”
I could already feel my face burning with embarrassment. Even without him reading it out loud. It didn’t stop him from looking at his gifts though.
“How did you get my name on these! Its so cool!”
“My mom knows some people. I figured you’d like it.”
He starred at them with amazement. As if I had just handed him the coolest thing he’s ever seen. He was a very simple guy that way.
“Adrian did you get me?” Ellie asked.
“Yeah! I didn’t know what you’d like though, so sorry if you don’t like it, it has the receipts.”
He handed her a rainbow gift bag with pink and blue tissue paper. He had been the only one to use it. She opened it up to a purple polaroid camera with two cases of film. They weren’t both normal films, however. One was the rainbow package.
“I love it so much!” She squealed.
“Can we all take a picture now?”
The five of us huddled together and took it in the middle of the living room, the camera flashing brightly into our eyes. The rest of the day all we did was bake Christmas cookies. Jason got to use his brand-new gifts, and Ellie took multiple pictures of all of us. Covered in flour, and eating raw cookie dough.
“Hey, why are you the only one staying clean! Get over here!” Jason said, chasing Ellie out of the kitchen.
By the time the two of them came back, she had not a single particle of flour on her and Jason looked like he had accepted defeat. We made sugar cookies to decorate, only to afterwards determine that we had no icing to decorate them. None of the five of us had thought out that much, but at the same time none of us had cared. The evening rolled around and everyone was leaving to go home. Taking to go containers of cookies with them. Adrian and Melody got picked up on time, the original agreement for the hangout to end. But Jason and I were still waiting for a ride. My mother was picking us both up, and she was not known for being on time. Luckily Ellies parents and brother were running a little late from being out all day.
“Do you want the group picture Newt? I took a lot of photos today and I think you would appreciate it the most.”
“Sure, I can take it.” She handed it over to me.
“Why don’t I get one!” Jason asked.
She handed him a picture of himself she had taken. He looked like a wreck. He may have been a good baker, but he was not a clean freak.
“Okay you know what, you can keep that.” He said, returning it to her.
I looked down at the photo she had handed me. It was really good quality for the amount of light that was around. If anything, it made us much more visible. My mother finally drove into the driveway, allowing Jason and I to be able to leave the house and go home.
“Do I get my card now?”
Damn it. The last thing I needed was for my mother to hear an audio version of the card I wrote talking about how grateful I am to have him around.
“Newt you didn’t give him his card! Tsk tsk”
I sighed. “Fine you can have it. But don’t you dare read it with anyone around”
I handed it over to him and he placed it into his box. After dropping him off, my mother gave me an entire lecture as to how rude it was to not give the card first. But I think she understood why when I got a phone call from Jason in tears about it. Crying about how he was just as grateful to have me. This is why I don’t write cards to him; he’s the kind of guy that cries over dead animals in national geographic. I ran upstairs to my room and closed the door. Saving my mother from having to hear Jason ramble on through tears. I hung the poster onto my wall, and I took a pin and placed the polaroid picture onto it as well. Flopping over onto my bed while still listening to Jason go on about my card. He had already been going off about it for about ten minutes. It didn’t take very long until our personal phone call became a group one. Staying up far later then any of us should have. But it was Christmas for us, so it felt like it was acceptable to do so. Ellie was showing us all of the pictures she had taken. I don’t think I should have been laughing nearly as loud as I was so late at night. But the funniest faces were made. The entire time Adrian had been staring down at his new sketch book. Looking up sometimes, observing in silence.
“Are you going to show us what your drawing Adrian or are you just going to sit there?” Ellie asked.
He looked up shocked as if we hadn’t noticed. Slowly he lifted up his sketch book. Showing us possibly the best drawing of us I had ever seen. He had drawn out the entire call format. Each of us in our own little squares. It made me realize just how messy my hair was but for the little amount of time he had spent on it, it had a shocking amount of detail in it.
“You’ve got real skills man!” Jason said.
“Thank you. It’s quite easy.”
“I don’t think so. I’ve seen a lot of your art work. That’s definitely not average. Its really good.” Melody spoke.
“I don’t know about you guys but I’m going to go to bed. I have stuff to do tomorrow.” Ellie yawned.
The five of us said our goodbyes and the call ended there. Even though it wasn’t actually Christmas itself, as that had already passed. I would still count it as the same. It had been one of the best Christmas’s I had ever experienced.
