Summary: MC (Ingrid) shares one of her holiday traditions with her husband, Liam.
Liam trudged up the stairs, thankful for an end to the interminably long meeting he’d just endured. As he headed towards the royal apartments he shared with Ingrid, he suddenly remembered that she’d wanted to start decorating for Christmas. Liam sighed. He was so exhausted from work lately and with the overwhelming preparations for the upcoming holiday ball, he was a little Christmas-ed out at the moment. But he knew how much this meant to Ingrid and she meant everything to him, so he resolved to do his best to get into the Christmas spirit for her.
He pushed open the door to their quarters and was completely unprepared for what he saw. Their sitting room was decorated with fairy lights and candles and there was Ingrid, sitting on the floor in her pajamas in front of two large bowls, one of cranberries and one of popcorn.
“What’s all this?” Liam asked, a smile slowly spreading across his face.
“Hi, love,” Ingrid said with a grin as Liam knelt down beside her to kiss her, loosening his tie as he did so. “I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh yeah?” he asked, standing up to take off his jacket and remove his tie completely before coming to sit with her on the floor.
“Yup,” she said. “I know you’ve been feeling stressed lately, so I thought we could do something fun that’s still festive.”
“Does it involve eating massive amounts of popcorn and cranberries?” he asked, eyeing the bowls.
“We’re going to make garlands!” Ingrid announced happily.
“Garlands? Out of popcorn and cranberries?”
“Yup,” Ingrid said.
“Okay,” he agreed, “but that seems like kind of a strange way to do a garland. Aren’t they usually made out of tinsel or something?”
Ingrid raised an eyebrow at him as she picked up the needles and thread she’d prepared.
“Seriously? You’ve never heard of a popcorn and cranberry wreath?”
He shook his head.
“Nope, it’s not really a Cordonian thing.” Liam glanced at the bowls in front of them. “Is there any particular way I’m supposed to do it? Like any certain ratio of cranberries to popcorn I should use?”
“You can do whatever you want,” she said. “Personally, I like a one to one ratio, but you might like a lot of popcorn interspersed with a few cranberries or vice versa. It’s a very personalized project.”
“Alright,” Liam said with a smile as he reached for the popcorn. “I’m game.”
They started to string their garlands in companionable silence.
“So, this is a tradition of yours for this time of year?” Liam asked. Ingrid nodded.
“Back when I was a kid, my parents and I always used to make a garland like this for our tree and then after Christmas, we’d hang the garlands outside for the birds.”
“Hey,” Liam said, setting down his garland for a moment. “What do you think about getting our own tree for up here? I know we have the big one in the ballroom–”
“Big is an understatement,” Ingrid said, thinking of the massive 25 foot tree. Liam smiled.
“Hey, when you’re royalty, you’ve gotta go big or go home,” he said. “But I was thinking we could get a little one for up here. Something that’s just for us that we don’t have to share with the rest of the kingdom.”
“I’d love that,” Ingrid said. Liam couldn’t help but stare at her–his beautiful wife, even more lovely in the soft glow of the decorative lights she’d hung.
“We’ll go get it tomorrow,” Liam said. “We’ll go pick out a tree, drag it upstairs ourselves, and get pine needles everywhere.”
Ingrid laughed.
“Sounds like a plan,” she said. She leaned over to kiss her husband and Liam could taste cranberries on her lips. Something just for him, in a moment just for them.
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