Here comes santa claus!

[callmeemily]

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!

Comments

[callmeemily]

"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."

[astra_inclinant]

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.

[callmeemily]

"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.

[astra_inclinant]

"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.

[callmeemily]

"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."