Happily Ever After

80: Happiest of Holidays

The redhead cried in relief. No matter what the next four attachments said, Sarah knew that she had a place to go to school, one she'd dreamed of, and would have the opportunity to study things she was fascinated in, with the support of her family. And that... that was something she didn't take for granted.
Sarah had never felt so proud of herself.

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As November went on, some more exciting things became revealed.

Zola Grey-Shepherd had also early bird applied for Harvard (inspired by their top standing in the medical research journal), and had been deemed with early acceptance. So, the two girls were eager and excited to be together, and of course, agreed to be roommates, which eased the worry in both Maya and Carina's hearts, as well as Meredith, Maggie and Amelia's hearts.

Knowing that both girls would have a good friend looking out for them was deeply reassuring.

December came, and Maya yet again realized that she was never one for Christmas. As a child, she had never celebrated the holiday, but ever since she had been with Carina, it had quickly become one of her favourites.

On December first, no earlier and no later, Carina would haul in boxes of decorations. It had been a struggle to store these decorations initially in their apartment, but now that they had a house with a garage, the Italian had an excuse to have so many boxes.

She'd collected some from her childhood, as well as gotten some made. Bobbles with school pictures of the girls, little family ornaments, even one for Moose, were all stored in massive boxes.

The holidays were always a process; a step by step month long celebration. While neither of them were very religious, Carina insisted that the holidays were about celebrating family, and thankfulness.

For that, Maya could not complain.

For this Christmas, they were spending it at il lupo. Both Maya and Carina had gotten a large chunk of time off, from the time the girls got off school until they went back. Plus, they were bringing up the crew; their friends and family would be appearing sporadically throughout Christmas break.

Luckily, the process at il lupo was much the same as it usually was.

Step one of this process was to select Christmas music. As expected, Carina had accumulated a specific playlist of the classic Italian Christmas songs, as well as some American ones she had grown to love.

Now that the tunes were blasting throughout the house led them into the second step; decorating the living room. They would spend time hauling in all of the massive boxes of decorations from the garage, and they would set to adorning the living room.

First was the tinsel; sparkling, gold and silver tinsel were strung in the living room from corner to corner. Their fireplace was rid of the usual pictures, and ceramic statues were set up; one of an Italian church (that lit up when plugged in), one of a market (also lit up when plugged in), and little figurines of families celebrating Christmas, evergreen trees, snowmen and animals.

Then, it was the coffee table. A beautiful cloth was laid down, and ceramic bowls were placed upon them. Candies were dumped inside, which catapulted them into step three; the tree.

While she had both a false tree and experienced a real tree, Maya had expressed the fire hazards with a real one, plus Carina preferred a false one. Less work, and saves the environment all at the same time. Once the tree was set up and the skirt put on, but not decorated, introduced them to step four; baking.

Maya learned there was a whole book for holiday baking. Carina's mamma, Lucia, had crafted this book, and it sat in their cupboards until December, and then sat on their counter, in valuable use, for the remainder of the season.