Archive of Our Own ^beta

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“I have decided,” Lucas began.

Adam, who had been waiting for this announcement, since it was almost the middle of July, said, “Go on!”

“This year, Christmas is going to be different.”

“But I like our Christmases,” Adam protested.

“So do I.  But I always want to cook so many things and we end up with masses of food which we don’t really need, and probably don’t enjoy each of the dishes as much as we should.”

“You do know you don’t have to cook so much,” Adam said, then noticed Lucas’ expression.  “No need for the puppy dog eyes, I know it’s also one of your great pleasures.  So what do you suggest?”

“Instead of cramming everything into three days, I thought we could spread it out over the month.”  He produced a notebook and opened it.

“Aha, this year’s Christmas planning notebook.  Do you keep all your old ones?”

“Of course, they’re great for referring back to.”

“Right, fire away!”

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“We begin on St Nikolaus Day,” Lucas said, “December 6^th.  Since the emphasis is on children, I thought it would be the ideal time for a gingerbread house, and I’m going for a traditional house this time.  Then there’s the trifle, plus I thought either a decorated sponge cake or cupcakes, I’m not sure which at the moment.”

“That still sounds like a lot,” Adam protested.

“But the beauty of it is, we can take a couple of weeks eating through them; the gingerbread will certainly last for that long.”

Adam nodded.  “That makes sense.  But I do think there should be a main course, whatever your preferences might be, we cannot just eat cake and trifle.”

“I was thinking maybe continuing with the childhood theme, a typical family style meal.  Clearly not my family, I want something enjoyable and our meals were always joyless.  Meat and potato pie, perhaps shepherd’s pie, roast chicken – you can choose, although I draw the line at fish fingers!”

Adam laughed.  “How about meat and potato pie?  You want it to be a bit special and we have shepherd’s pie most weeks in winter, not that I’m objecting, but it would give you the opportunity to make pastry.  Roast chicken’s nice too, but if we’re having turkey, then…”

“That was what I thought.  Plus seasonal vegetables.  It should probably be carrots and peas, but I’m not being slavish to the idea.  I’d rather go to the market and buy something fresh and local."

“All of which sounds excellent.”  Adam glanced at the calendar.  “And less than five months to wait!  So, what’s next?”

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“We have to wait until the Winter Solstice, on December 21^st.  Which, as I said, will give us plenty of time to eat everything,” Lucas said.  “Now, I’ve been talking about having a casserole on Christmas Eve for some years, but when the time’s come I’ve never had the enthusiasm.”

“Mainly because you’ve spent most of the day preparing for Christmas Day,” Adam said.

“Exactly.  But now I’ve found a great recipe for a solstice stew, which we could have on the twenty-first, and I could keep some of it back for Christmas Eve.”

“Sounds good.  What’s in it?”

“Braising steak, plus various root vegetables.  The recipe was fairly restrained in just using carrots, onions, and celery, but again I can see what they have in the market and add extra veg.”

“Dumplings?”

“If you’d like them, then certainly.  They’re not difficult to make.”

“I notice you make no mention of a dessert.  Are we saving ourselves for Christmas?” Adam asked with a grin.

Lucas gave him a disparaging look.  “Certainly not.  It’s the perfect opportunity for a chocolate Yule log.  Plus the first batch of mince pies.  What do you think?”

“Sounds great to me.”

“And what about the whole idea?”

“Again, it sounds great.  Just so long as you aren’t giving yourself extra work.”

“It shouldn’t do.  Most of it’s spreading what I normally do into a longer time frame.  Maybe the main course will take a bit longer, but then it should do for two or three days, and it’s not as if I don’t make these sorts of meals anyway.”

“If you’re happy, then I’m not going to complain.  And it’s given me an idea.”

“Ooh, what is it?”

“I’m not telling you yet.”  Adam laughed as Lucas pouted.  “I want to hear more of your plans first.”

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“Which brings us to Christmas Day,” Lucas continued.  “I suppose there’s Christmas Eve, but we’ll have the remains of the stew.”

“Plus whatever we’ve treated ourselves to locally,” Adam interjected.  “We always seem to spot things we fancy that week.”

“Exactly, and the whole point of this arrangement is that I can concentrate on Christmas Day.”

“You’re not planning on doing anything too exotic are you?”

“Oh no, we’re already agreed we like our traditional Christmas.  So, turkey and all the trimmings, although probably I won’t finalise the veg until the last minute.  Plus the Christmas pudding, which I will make at the beginning of the month.  And more mince pies, since they never seem to last.”

“I can’t imagine why!”

“And then turkey sandwiches for tea, plus Christmas cake, although..” Lucas paused, before adding, “I’m not sure about how I’m going to decorate it, the current decorations are looking a little the worse for wear.”

Adam smiled.  “That fits in with an idea I’ve just had.  I’ll tell you about it in a minute.  You normally do an extra dessert as well, but that may not fit with your plans this year.

“If you’re happy, I think I will.  I haven’t yet decided what though.”

“You’ve got time to choose and have a practice if it’s something new.”

“Yes, although I’ve glanced through my recipe books, and nothing leapt out at me.”

“How far in advance would you need to finalise your decision?  Would the beginning of the month be too short notice?”

“No, so long as it was a variation on a theme, and didn’t require me to learn a completely new technique.  Why?”

“My thoughts for your Advent calendar presents this year, which would constitute a significant part of your Christmas present again.”  Adam stopped and looked over at Lucas.

“It suits me,” Lucas nodded.  “It’s rather like having a massive stocking and opening one present a day, with one bigger present on Christmas Day.”

“Good.  My idea would be to give you a baking present every day.  You could make a list of things you might like, and any dates by which you’d need them, and I could throw in ideas of my own.  How does that strike you?”

The grin on Lucas’ face was enough that his reply of “That would be amazing,” came as no surprise.

“That’s good,” Adam said.  “I do like your plans for our celebration meals this year.”

He went to stand up, but Lucas said, “There’s one more day to go.”

Chapter Text

“Now, I know New Year’s Eve is traditionally a time for parties,” Lucas said, “but we don’t go in for them now.”

“For various reasons, we never did,” Adam agreed.  “Most people we knew who threw that sort of party didn’t appreciate us coming as a couple.  It would be different now, of course, although you were never a great one for parties.”

“If there’s something you’d like to go to you must say.  I would come with you, you know.”

“I’d far rather celebrate the New Year just with you.  And even if we were to go up on the headland, there’d be other people present, and my idea for going there would be to look at the stars and enjoy the peace.  So, was your idea to prepare a lot of party food?”

“Not really.  Party food requires lots of small portions of different things, which only makes sense when you have sufficient people to make the preparation worthwhile.  I was thinking of having a turkey, leak and ham pie, which would use up the rest of the meat, as I was sure we’d have our usual gammon between Christmas and New Year.  The gammon will only require roasting in the oven and basting occasionally.  What do you think?”

“That would be really nice, I’d enjoy that.”

“And then, since I’m guessing one of my Advent presents is going to be a new cookery book…”

“I’m not saying anything!”

“Good, it is.  I can choose a new dessert to try out, or a cake, or even both.  The days leading up to the New Year should be for playing with one’s new toys.  I’ll have time to shop for any specific ingredients which are needed.”

“And what am I supposed to do while you play with your new toys?” Adam protested.

“Immerse yourself in your new novel.  You always reckon the latest 400-page thriller isn’t any good if you haven’t finished it before January 1^st.”

Adam laughed.  “There is that!  I approve of your New Year’s Eve menu.”

“If you’d rather, I can do some party-style foods.”

“To be honest I’d prefer to have a decent pie, plus dessert and cake - and don’t try to kid me there’ll only be the one - all of which can be eaten on New Year’s Day as well.”

“In which case, that’s what I’ll do.”

“Excellent – I’m really looking forward to December now, although I’m also planning on enjoying the summer while it’s here.”

“Quite right!  So, how about heading to the beach and having an ice cream while we’re there?”