Hi! I'm doing the Holiday Flavors ficlets challenge for my character Margaret, or Mamie, Turov.

22. Coal
Colchester...2102

Mamie tapped the arm of her chair. Dinner was over, and there was no reason for them to be waiting any longer to exchange gifts. Her brothers agreed, so the three of them sat with varying levels of impatience while their parents continued to talk in the dining room.

“Babulya! Is it time?” Mamie’s oldest brother PJ called to their grandmother.
She appeared in the doorway with a mug. “Yes, it’s nearly time. Mamie, Alex, why don’t you sort out the presents?”

The eleven-year-old nearly leapt from the chair in her haste to get to the stack of presents. She and her brother Alex soon had six neat piles of gifts. “Pa!! Maaa! Hurry up,” Mamie insisted as she delivered gifts to her grandmother and then claimed her own.

Soon their parents joined, and wrapping materials flew in the air as gifts were opened.

A cry of dismay came from PJ, bringing the bustle of adoration and thank-yous to a halt.

“Coal?” PJ held up a bag of charcoal. “What did I do to deserve this?”

The family exchanged glances before all eyes settled on the suspiciously quiet sister. “What?” Mamie offered. “He asked for camping supplies.”

15. Nutcracker
Paris...2095

Mamie adjusted her nose. She didn’t like being dressed as a mouse. It really wasn’t fair, she thought, that she had to be a mouse, while the bigger kids got to have normal clothes or solo roles. Being little didn’t mean she was no good at ballet!

She peeked around the curtain at the chattering audience waiting for the show to begin. Was her ma there yet? The rest of her family – brothers, pa, and grandparents – had been seated ages ago, but there had been an empty seat, just for her mother.

Her heart sank as she saw that the seat was still empty. Her disappointment was so great that she didn’t even protest as the very patient stage manager shooed her back to where the other children in The Nutcracker were finishing getting ready. It took longer to get ready when you had a real role, than when you were wearing a mouse costume, so Mamie had been one of the first to be completely dressed, shoes tied and furry mouse ears in place.

When the curtain rose and the seat remained empty, there was one mouse who leapt and twirled with less joy than the rest.

7. Eggnog
...2108

Margaret peered into the mug of dubious liquid handed to her. It was the color of milk that had gone bad, and it smelled…well, it smelled pretty good. Sort of spicy. She supposed it was more the texture of the drink as she swirled the mug that made her distrustful. Something was just…not right about it.

And yet her family had been drinking it for years, and they’d never gotten ill from drinking eggnog.

Wrinkling her nose a bit, Margaret took another sniff of the drink. She just needed…a little sip. To taste it. It couldn’t be that bad if PJ drank it.

Closing her eyes to avoid seeing the off-putting viscosity of the eggnog, Margaret took a quick sip. Well, she tried to take a quick sip, but with the thickness of it being unlike anything else she’d practiced drinking, the sip never came, so she tipped the mug further, but then WAY more than a sip was in her mouth. Margaret moved to put the mug down, but changed her mind and instead brought it back up and spit the eggnog back into it.

“I don’t like eggnog,” she announced.

13. Gingerbread
Colchester...2096

Mamie had always helped her Babulya decorate biscuits. There were usually star-shaped biscuits with stars, and spice cookies she got to pour gobs of icing over, and even biscuits with sprinkles on them! Last year, she’d gotten to help cut out the stars, which had led to many misshapen figures and a lot of dropped dough. Babulya had said biscuits were like snowflakes, and no two were truly alike.

Sitting on a kitchen stool, feet dangling, Mamie held up two cookie cutters, pretending to have them walk around. Babulya had never made gingerbread biscuits before, but a new home meant new traditions. And that meant more biscuits!

As her babulya winked her approval, Mamie took her cue and began smooshing the cookie cutters into the rolled out biscuit dough. “Do you think…do gingerbread men know that they’re being cooked?” she asked, freeing a person-shaped cutout of dough and gingerly setting it on the baking sheet. “Or…is it like sitting by the fire?”

Babulya chuckled and switched out the full baking sheet for an empty one. “I don’t think gingerbread know anything, Mamie,” she said gently. “They’re only biscuits.”

Somehow, that was the most reassuring answer she could have given.

18. Tinsel
London…2109

Margaret scowled. Their very first Christmas in their new flat, and nothing was right. Her brothers had managed to get the tree in without her help, but they’d picked a horribly misshapen one. Squatting to wrap the base in the blanket PJ had knitted, she tried not to nitpick at it. But it was hard! This was her first time really getting to help with Christmas decorations since…well, since she’d been ten. All of her years at Hogwarts, the house had already been decorated when she came home for Christmas (if she came home for Christmas).

“And why did you pick this tree?” she asked for about the tenth time since she’d walked in and seen it leaning in the corner.

Alex shrugged. “It looked like it needed a home,” he said. PJ nodded in agreement, and Margaret sighed. Trust her brothers to take pity on a tree nobody else wanted.

She reached into the box on the couch and handed a roll of tinsel to Alex, who happened to be closest. He immediately began wrapping the tree in the tinsel, vastly improving its appearance. “I guess it’s not so bad,” she murmured when he’d finished.