It All Started with a Beanie

(27)

After about ten minutes, Parsons and I declare victory since everyone else gives up. I throw one last snowball at Parsons before running inside.

We're all laughing as we sit around the fire, trying not to freeze to death.

"How long was that going on before we got there?" Elliott asks as he sits by me.

"I have no idea." Parsons laughs and I smile.

"What did you guys do while we were gone?" Liv holds a mischievous look on her face which causes me to roll my eyes.

"We just talked and built a snowman before we got in the snowball fight." I shrug my shoulder

"What are you guys Anna and Elsa now?" Ollie says. We all laugh and I notice Cam smile and shake his head at his boyfriend.

"Did you finish the shopping you guys needed to do?" Parsons finally joins us. Liv pulled a recliner up by the fire and we form a semi-circle beside her. Elliott sits next to the recliner, on the left side of me. We both sit on pillows and have blankets wrapped around us. Ollie and Cam sit across from Liv and use each other for warmth. Parsons sits down beside me with a blanket. He places it over his lap and puts the remainder on me. I smile at the gesture and he returns it.

"We did. Ollie took forever to get his Secret Santa gift and we still don't know who its for. I swear, he took an hour just to find the perfect one." Liv talks about her twin and I notice Ollie roll his eyes. She mimics him at the end and they begin to bicker and I can't help but laugh at the twins.

"When are we doing our secret Santa reveals?" Elliott asks from beside me. The day after my birthday, Ollie informed me on the tradition of Secret Santa that they do every year. He said that they get gag gifts instead of nice ones. Elliott didn't want to be apart of it but I didn't want him to feel left out so he was included in the drawing of who gets gifts for who. I got Cam and I think I got him the perfect gift.

"The night before we leave. It's the last thing we do as a group." Cam says. "We also have our own Charlie Brown Christmas tree that we put up."

"How long have you been doing this?" I ask out of curiosity.

"It started out with just Cam and I." Parsons says. I turn to look at him and give him my attention. "We were the first friends of the group. We spent two years doing the Secret Santa tradition, even though there were only two of us, before Ollie and Liv joined the group."

"We've been doing it as a group for almost eleven years now." Cam chimes in. He smiles as he speaks. 

"Do you guys have any Christmas traditions?" Ollie asks, looking between me and Elliott. I snicker at the thought of our tradition and I notice Elliott doing the same out of the corner of my eye.

"We actually do. Every year, we watch The Nightmare Before Christmas but we reenact the scenes. We know almost every line by now." 

"We even sing and do the some of the dances." Elliott says, shaking his hair slightly and chuckling to himself.

"Why?" Parsons asks from beside me.

"When we first met, Elliott was terrified of the movie. But I have adored it since I was a kid." I say.

"She bribed me into watching the movie. She promised me a limited edition copy of one of my favorite books at the time." A blush rises to his cheeks in embarrassment but I can't help but smile at his adorableness.

"Turns out, he actually loved the movie and begged me to watch it almost every time we had hung out after. But I managed to convince him it was just a Christmas thing and so we watch it every Christmas now."