December, 8th

“If he’s not coming in the next minute, I’m leaving,” I grumbled to myself as I pulled my jacket more tightly around my body. It had started snowing just the tiniest bit, and I really didn’t enjoy standing at a Christmas market, with the temperatures in the low 30s, waiting for a guy who was on some weird mission.

“My, who has you so fed up? It can’t be me, now, can it?”

I swirled around, looking straight into blue eyes and a grin which had engraved itself into my brain. “You are late.”

“Yes, I had to change first. I was working as a busy elf again, and I thought you’d appreciate me wearing normal clothes for our tour.” He was right, I did appreciate it. He looked very handsome in his black jeans, his cozy-looking coat and the dark blue beanie on his head. Strands of dark hair peaked out under it.

I eyed Adrian up and down, giving myself an excuse to check him out. “Mhh. I liked the green hat better on you.”

“Note taken. I’ll remember next time.” He pulled some sort of stick out of his coat. “This is for you.”

I took it with a scoff. He had seriously brought a yardstick. “Thank you. It can serve as a weapon, too. Just so you know.”

“I’ll remember that before I buy you decorated Christmas cookies or something else that might aggravate you.” He grabbed one end of the yardstick, leaving the other one in my hand, and led me through the big crowd at the market. There were decidedly too many people who loved Christmas, I realized. “Speaking of cookies, did you know there is a booth where you can decorate your own? That’s our first stop today.”

“No, I didn’t know that. For good reason. I can decorate my own cookies without doing it in Christmas style.”

We came to a stop at a busy booth. There were mostly children here. De-cookie-rate your Christmas, it said on the banner on top of the booth. “That’s a horrible punchline.”

“That’s exactly the point. The cheesier Christmas gets, the better. That includes a ridiculous name for a rather trivial activity.”

I raised an eyebrow. “So you admit the Christmas Craze is way over-the-top?”

“Yes.” He softly pulled on the yardstick to navigate us closer to the cash desk. “It needs to be, in order to truly enjoy Christmas. The real magic happens when you embrace the cheesiness, laugh about it and allow yourself to take part in it.”

Before I could respond, he talked to the cashier, paid and then the guy behind the desk led us to two free seats. Just a minute later, two small bags of sugar cookies stood on the table in front of us, together with all possible pipes and decorations. Adrian smiled at me, obviously enjoying my pained expression. “Come on, little elf. Let’s create the best Christmas cookies the world has ever seen.”