callmeemily | Here comes santa claus!

The holiday this year is so incredibly different than the last.

Last year? Raleigh was holed up in the boarding house, no one in 300 miles but her shitty boss knew her name, and she was so poor that she was eating rice, beans, and leftovers from the Seaside bakery.

This year, everything's changed. Orchard House is chugging along astoundingly well; Raleigh puts in long hours, but it's paying off. She's been able to hire somebody else to work the register, she's getting custom orders - the whole thing. She has friends. Honest to god friends, and she's got enough money that she's actually got presents for people. For a lot of people - it's a mix of cookies and things, but there's a little something for everybody piled on the table in the back corner, and one mass-text later she's humming through the bakery, music playing from the speakers, warm cider in a carafe, and everything's warm and cozy.

She looks at it, at this business that she's made with the help of this whole town, and she can't help but smile. Tonight? Spending tonight with friends and found-family? That's what this whole thing's about.

Gathering post! Raleigh will tag everyone who tags in, but feel free to tag one another, too. :) It's up to you if they have gotten a text, or just heard the music and seen the crowd. Everyone'll get something!

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It's the kind of hug that Raleigh gives, too, so it all works out in the end. "Of course! I'm really glad you came." She beams - she's been smiley all night long, because it's one thing to put together a bakery, it's yet another to mass-text a bunch of people three hours before you want to throw a party and actually have people show up. And show up, they did-- it's pretty much making Raleigh's day.

"Well, there's cider, and cookies, and gingerbread - I don't know if I made it right, though - and uh. Most of the pastries are gone, but whatever. You see it, you've got it." Right now, it's a party - nothing's being sold, it's just there so people can eat their fill.

She nods over to the table that's got gifts - and a ton of boxes of cookies, too. "This sounds weird, but I got you something for Christmas? If you want to do that, once you grab food?" It's just a thing - this is the first year she's been able to get gifts for her friends, so she actually... y'know. Did.

Mira grins. No matter how much better she is these days at talking to people, and how she's managed to settle into friends she loves and trusts, there's something fluttery and exciting about someone being truly happy to see you, someone new. "Unless you forgot the ginger part, I'm sure it's great," she laughs and starts in that direction, blinking, impressed, at the pile of food and trying to imagine that quite a bit is gone. "That's a ton of stuff. Do you want to sit down?"

"Oh, you didn't have to do that!" Mira. "I um. I actually got you something too? But still. Yes, we should totally do presents." She grimaces nervously and laughs. "I really hope you like it?"

Raleigh laughed. "Well, I mean, I didn't bake all of it today. I'm not that into baking." Most of it was today, but a lot of the stuff that all cooked at different temperatures-- that all was made and boxed up until it was needed.

And now? Totally needed. For the fun and the party. "But yeah, I'll sit down in a second." She goes to get more cider, talking to Mira over her shoulder. "You realise that you saying I didn't have to do it, then saying you got me something, too, means that you're like... totally a hypocrite, right?" She's laughing as she says it, her voice lowering just a tad. "But I swear, I want to tell you that you didn't have to do it, either. So, I guess we both know that we didn't have to get our gifts, so that's even better, right?"

She takes a sip, then nods to the couch that's just freed up, continuing with a sheepish smile. "I really hope you like yours, too. If you don't, I kept the receipt. Don't judge me, okay?"

Mira gets herself some cookies. "I will fly my hypocritical flag proudly if it means doing things for people that they don't need to do for me." She pauses for a second because she's got the mind of like, a ten year old boy, and then breezes right past that. "Right? It's always better when it's not obligatory."

"No judging, I promise. Unless you got me like, a book by Bill O'Reilly or something. And then I think I'd just worry about how I come off to other people." She laughs, sitting down. "Mm, you definitely didn't mess up the gingerbread."

"That's totally right. Assume, forever more, that us getting gifts is 100% non-obligitory," Raleigh said with a grin, even though she knew saying that - and them getting gifts for each other this year - pretty much guaranteed that they'd do it next year.

Raleigh burst out laughing when Mira said she hoped she didn't get a Bill O'Reilly book. "Oh no! You've found me out, whatever will I do? Thanks, way to make my gift suck," she said with a laugh.

She took a sip of her drink, and smiled wider. "Awesome! I'd worried. I haven't had any yet because I've had about twenty-seven cookies already."

She laughs. "Nah, I needed something for my awkward rightwing propaganda shelf, it was looking a little bare."

She pulls hers for Raleigh out of her pocket. It's two things, actually, one a little sillier than the other, and the wrapping gives away that the edges aren't one even rectangle, or at least that Mira is really only good with the theoretical way things behave. "So, who goes first?" She'd been pretty sure when she put it together but now she's slightly nervous that it's weird or off base.

Mira'd spotted a glucose molecule necklace and immediately thought of Raleigh, because of baking - carbs and sugar - and her having been a bio major, she figured she'd get it - and then made her a mix tape with a combination of fun and chill: a whole variety of interesting stuff, and a whole side B of on-the-road singalongs and nostalgic guilty pleasures since Raleigh's music preferences are something she doesn't know exactly.

"Uh. Because I own the place, I say you open first?" She makes a face as she says it, but it's because she's nervous, a little. It's one of those things that even when your friends are just that - friends - when you give gifts you have no idea just how well they will or won't come off.

Case in point, Raleigh's got a gift bag that she's not entirely sure is stuff that Mira will like, but all she's got is that she tried, really. There's the thing she thought was cool - a jar full of lucky paper stars, and it's mostly just decorative, although who in Siren Cove couldn't use a little luck? But, there's also a 15$ gift card to L.L. Bean, because... well. They'd made plans. Sort of.

That works, right? But she totally is going to get her own worrying over with first, because, you know, party-holders perogative.

"I suppoooose that's fair," Mira smiles, and swaps her unruly pyramid for Raleigh's cute gift bag.

She digs into the tissue paper and grins as she pulls out the jar of stars. "Hey, cool!" She turns the jar around, looking at the little shimmery stars. "This is really pretty." She pulls her eyes away from the shiny. Anything star or space themed, really, she's super easy. "And I could use the luck." She pats the jar. "Do I hear a Christmas bonus maybe?"

But she sees that's not it and digs back in, laughing aloud at the L.L. Bean card. "Aw, sweet, this will totally come in handy. Actually, that sort of connects to one of yours," she nods at the gift Raleigh's holding tentatively.

"Everyone needs a little luck," she said with a sort of shrug, but she can't help but smile, especially because it seemed like Mira liked what she'd gotten her. "It's actually- like. Apparently if you get a thousand, it's supposed to be a wish. So there's a hundred and fifty there, so the whole wish thing isn't that far away?" It's a little hokey, but she'd tell her anyway.

She looks down at the presents in her lap, and after a second, she opens up the mix tape first. "Oh, wow! Thank you!" She had no idea that Mira would actually put so much thought into this - it's really sweet, and that the B-side is labeled Road Trip makes her grin wider. "I am so totally stoked," she admits with a laugh, and then opens up the other gift, and she can't stop the sound she makes.

She's surprised and touched, and she immediately gets it. "Holy crap," she says quietly as she shakes her head. "This is awesome. That's like- the most appropriate, awesome gift," she said with laugh, shaking her head, and she immediately moves to put it on. "Thank you so much! This is- this is amazing."

Here comes santa claus!

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