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Everything was plodding along perfectly in the kitchen and André was preparing the tea pot. Dorian was the first but he wouldn't be the only and when more people arrived they'd of course need a nice warm cuppa to greet them from the cold and make them forget about the harshness of the winter wonderland outside. Huddled about and being warm and cosy was what Christmas was all about. Sharing it with your loved ones however they came to be in your life. Fairly soon the door was going again just as André was opening the oven, feeling the heat rush out and fog up his glasses for a moment. They cleared and he looked over his labours and everything was splendid. The kettle clicked and André closed up the oven, placing his oven gloves down on the kitchen counter while he heard Emily talking to someone. He'd find out just who in a minute, for now he'd just get the pot of tea ready. "Em," He called out, waiting until his wife was in the kitchen with him, smiling at the gift she held in her hands. "Can you get the biscuits please, sweetheart?" He asked, setting up the tray with cups, saucers, sugar, milk and teaspoons, ready for their guests.

Picking up the tray once the plate of shortbread biscuits were set down on them he made his way in to the lounge where he saw Dorian and an unfamiliar face. "You must be Julian!" He beamed, stetting the tray down on the coffee table and standing upright, he extended his right hand to the younger man as her put his left hand on Julian's shoulder. It'd be too much to hug the lad upon first meeting but André was sure they'd work up to that! Someday! Perhaps sooner than Dorian, he truly did not seem like the hugging sort at all but River had been wonderful with her hugs. "How are you doing?" He said as though greeting an old friend. He'd heard so many things from River about her brother and he only wished she could be here with them, it would have been a magical Christmas with her and Bert, young Julian too. River held her brother in such high regards it was truly a pleasure to be meeting him now, and of course Emily had made mention of how handsome the chap was. André hoped they could give the lad a little time to enjoy the holiday, they both knew it wasn't an easy time of year, this year in particular they were all feeling a loss, but with any luck they could get through it with one another's support.

Tag: Emily Jane Meadowes and Julian Astraeus Blackthorne and Dorian Michael Humbert and Dorcas Amilie Meadowes and Geralina Amara Drake
Words: 446
Notes: <3 Christmas!
Outfit: Have a very snazzy Christmas!

"Bah-da-da, bah-da-do. Scooby-do-baba. Bah-da-bah-bah bah-ba-da-doo. Bah-dada, bah-dada, bah-bah-bahdy-bah-bah!" André was happy with his little impromptu scat session as he twisted and danced across the floor of the kitchen, preparing lunch for the afternoon. He was the cook of the family and this year he'd even gone so far as to start his own veggie patch, keeping the growing situations as needed with magic for the best possible veggies possible! This winter so far was a brutal one and the thick layer of snow was of no help, although it did look beautiful and it was charming to have a white Christmas. He'd collected everything he'd need yesterday to make sure he'd have enough and he'd prepped it all this morning before his beautiful little princess and his elegant queen were up. He recalled the many christmases past he'd gone through in his life time. Many were missing but quite a few stood out. The ones from his own childhood that were rigid and proper. The ones as a young adult when he was out in the world on his own were lonely but freeing. The ones he had with Emily and her family when he'd started dating her had been the first he'd ever completely enjoyed. None of them compared to Christmas as a parent though. André knew he went overboard each and every year but Merlin help him he just couldn't stop himself, he just couldn't! He and Emily knew that Christmas wasn't the same as it used to be. The war outside of their home brought death and destruction and on such an important day like today so many people were missing their loved ones. André's heart ached for them, ached for their loss. This time of year was one of the most painful. All the firsts were. As a parent it was joy to experience a child's first everything. As a loved one in mourning it was tough to experience all the firsts. This was their first Christmas without Paris, he knew his wife was as open with her grief as he was but it was Dorcas he worried about. She seemed to have somehow developed the mentality that expressing any form of grief was weakness. The last time he'd seen her cry was when she was 6 and she'd accidentally fallen on her rabbit and crushed it. The little love had no hope of surviving and by the time Dorcas had strolled into the house, knees grazed and elbows bloody, it was too later for the rabbit laid dead on the garden path.

It wasn't just a first Christmas about loss though, there was also a little bundle of joy joining them along with her special adoptive daddy. Ariel and Dorian were welcome guests in their home any time of the year. Dorian had been going through one heck of a rough year that started with losing his girlfriend and ended up connecting with his estranged half-brother he'd never known before this year. He'd been on a rollercoaster of a ride. Dating Paris and losing her, finding his half-sister, her husband and losing them both, gaining his niece upon his half-sisters death only to have his half-brother come forward. It wasn't a great year for any of them but him most of all. He was handling everything surprisingly well from what André had taken note of. He didn't know the gentleman as well as Emily seemed to but they were both more than happy to welcome him into their family with open arms, to be the support he needed, whenever he needed. They were there for Ariel too and they wanted meet his half-brother, help support him through what must have been a difficult time. Losing a parent, a sister, a brother-in-law while finding your niece with another man you never knew and only shard a parents genes with and nothing more could not have been easy on the lad. Hopefully he would find some kind of comfort in the fact that River had seemed to adore the man that Dorian was and that Dorian realised just how much Julian had meant to River. It was going to be a rocky road for the pair but little Ariel needed both of her uncles in her life and for as much as they could, he and Emily would support them all in anyway they needed.

The meat was all cooking, the veggies were all in and Emily and Dorcas were off somewhere in the gardens. The pair were a couple of free spirits and he loved them both dearly. His family was his world and that extended to more than just his immediate family and he showed that in his cooking, or so he hoped. He liked a full house. Having grown up in a large and empty manor he loved his little cottage home, all cosy and everything you needed at your finger tips. It was warm and inviting and he wanted anyone that stepped foot into his home to feel safe and not just because of the wards that surrounded it. He wanted it to be a little haven, a place people could always turn to. It was important to him that his home was nothing like the one he'd grown up in. He didn't want that life for himself or for Dorcas, it was high demand and low happiness, very little of it had been about love or family and there had certainly never been any home cooked meals by either of his parents. While he loved his parents and they loved him in their own way, the home and their lives were absent of the precious emotion. Meeting Emily's family had been a completely different world to his own and he had never looked back wistfully. He had built a life for himself and his family the way that he had never known he'd wanted it. Peeping into the oven the heat escaped and André surveyed the food within. Not long now and people would start arriving.

Tag: Dorcas Amilie Meadowes and Dorian Michael Humbert and Julian Astraeus Blackthorne and Geralina Amara Drake and Emily Jane Meadowes
Words: 1,005
Notes: <3 Christmas!
Outfit: Have a very snazzy Christmas!