How Green Becomes Wood

Dark stared at Alec blankly for a few moments, "You and Xander are on the edge of seventeen and I am an almost forty-year-old insomniac with a toddler. I need food and a cup of coffee."

Chuckling, Daizi went into the kitchen and switched on the kettle, "We can have the fastest breakfast we can manage, I just know Ivy's schedule will be all thrown off today, so feeding her first will help give her something familiar. Her breakfast is small, though, since I always feed her first before coming downstairs."
 
The twins groaned and whined, but they did so while rushing to the kitchen. Alec gathered everything Dark would need for his coffee and laid it out for him. Xander started getting things together for breakfast, making certain Ivy had a good selection. Tea for the twins and Daizi was next. Once breakfast was ready, both twins bolted down their food and then sat waiting, watching Dark and Daizi.
 
Since Daizi was much more of a morning person---although not quite this much of a morning person---she was doing pretty fine, especially once she had tea. She gladly did the bulk of the preparations, making Ivy her breakfast and cooking for the rest of them while Dark took the time he needed to make and drink coffee before helping his wife cook. Once they both finished their breakfasts, they brought Ivy, and a second cup of coffee, down to the living room.

After getting settled on the couch, Dark said, "How are we deciding the order of opening presents?"
 
Alec noticed one large, unwrapped box with a card on top and carefully pulled it out. "This one says it's to us as a family from the Hollis family. How about we start with that?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one. It was on the porch the other day, and I brought it in," Xander said.
 
Xander and Alec hefted it over and set it where everyone could reach it. Xander cut through the tape, and Alec opened part of the box.

"It's full of smaller boxes," Alec reported. "Each one has a name on it." He handed out the smaller boxes to their designated person.

As they opened the boxes, a clear theme emerged. Daizi's box held a black shirt and a hat with a bat embroidered in silver on the front of both , both with the words, "Mama Bat," in a raised font. Dark's box had the same, but with "Baba Bat." Alec and Xander had shirts that said, "Brother Bat 1" and "Brother Bat 2." Naturally, Ivy was "Baby Bat." All of them were well made, tactile, and detailed.
 
Daizi grinned, feeling the shirt and taking Dark's and Ivy's to feel theirs, "That's so cute, we're a little family of bats! A bat family!"

"I wonder how they decided who was Brother number one and who was Brother number two," Dark mused, knowing he'd likely never wear it, "Spider, this is one shirt you cannot steal from me, because it would not make sense for you to wear."

"Like that has ever stopped me," Daizi replied, grinning at him.
 
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"I'm the older twin, I'm number one," Xander stated, studying his shirt and trying to decide how he felt about it.

"There's a card!" Alec said, pulling it out. He skimmed it and grinned before reading it out loud. "Daizi, darling, I know you already plan to steal Dark's shirt. If you look in the bottom of the box, you will find one of his size that says 'Mama.' Getting him to wear it, that is on you. Dark, dear, I know you will not wish to wear your shirt, but it is my Christmas wish to recieve one picture of you wearing it. Then you may burn it if you wish, or wear long enough that your wife will steal it. Alec and Xander, do not fight over who is the first brother. And, finally, Ivy, sweet little thing, I hope you like the sparkle!' She knows us too well, Mama."
 
"She does know us too well." Dark said, grumbling mostly because he knew somewhere, somehow, Sally would recognize he grumbled about it and be delighted.

"Not well enough," Daizi replied with a grin, "Her adding one in your size which says Mama just makes me want to get to wear the one that says Baba more, it makes it much more forbidden. It just makes me want to steal your shirt even more."

"I suspect she thought of that also," Dark replied, nudging his shoulder against hers.

"We'll have to take a group picture for her," Daizi said, handing her shirt to Dark so he could put the boxes somewhere safe, "I wish there was a bandana for Enkidu saying Puppy Bat, even though it doesn't even make sense."
 
"Bat dog," Alec snickered. "Oh, that would have been brilliant! Right, how about Ivy opens the gift from us next?" He glanced at Xander, who grinned.

"Yeah, let's let Ivy see her first gift."

"Second," Alec corrected.

Xander glanced at the shirts. "Alright, second."
 
"Ivy," Daizi asked, lifting Ivy into her lap, "Do you want to see what your brothers got you? It's so nice they thought to get sweet Ivy-Qadira a Christmas present!"

Dark glanced at them, "Should she be on the floor? She will probably be able to help tear the wrapping paper, but if it is a cumbersome size it may be easier."
 
"It's heavy, but it's not big," Alec said, grunting as he pulled the box out from under the tree. It was an array of different wrapping papers that he and Xander had deliberately not made as smooth and nice as they had other gifts in hopes of giving Ivy an easier chance of working her fingers into the cracks and tearing it.

Xander lifted the box and set it in front of Dark and Daizi on the floor. "I think the floor is probably a good idea."
 
Ivy looked curiously at the box and didn't need to be prompted to start grabbing at it--- when they were opening up the presents from the Hollis family, she had already stolen wrapping paper and had been having quite a good time playing around with it. So when faced with this box, she stood and grabbed at it but didn't quite figure out she was meant to unwrap it until Dark started it for her. Then, with the skills she had developed when she learned to peel a banana, she began to mirthfully pull at the paper, shrieking loudly in excitement.

Laughing, Daizi said, "I'm worried she'll enjoy the paper more than anything inside of the box."

"Her present should have just been this," Dark commented, "We could have simply wrapped a trashcan and filled it with crumpled paper and she would have been delighted."
 
"Oh, is that what you that what you got her?" Alec grinned, watching as Ivy shredded the paper. "Good job, Ivy! Just remember not to do this to books, please. Or homework."

"That'd be a fun excuse to take to the teacher. 'My little sister ate my homework,'" Xander drawled in amusement as the box underneath the paper came into view.

It was a fort building toy, a bunch of sticks and some ball joints with holes at many angles. You were supposed to put the sticks and balls together to make a frame for a fort. A blanket could then be draped over it to make it into an actual little room. Ivy might not be able to actually put it together yet, but she'd enjoy the finished product. As a bonus, this one glowed in the dark! It was the biggest set the twins could find, so it'd be a while before she completely outgrew it.
 
When Ivy saw it was a box, she spent some time grabbing at it and then gave up and turned back to the wrapping paper. It made such a good crinkling sound! Enkidu clearly agreed, he tried to steal some to chew on. Once again, babies and dogs were in agreement about what the best toys were.

Dark explained to Daizi what the gift was and then tried to wrangle his daughter while both he and Daizi tried to get her to say thank you. It wasn't quite successful, so of course they thanked the twins in her place.

"I think she will like hiding in here," Dark told them, knowing he'd have fun building structures for her to play in.

"She does love to hide. Don't you habibti?" Daizi added while Ivy discovered she could tear the paper even after she had ripped it from the box.
 
"I just hope it's not a pain to put together," Xander said.

"I think it'll be fun. Maybe we can try it out later today, unless we run out of time before guests come. Then we can do it tomorrow," Alec said happily. "Who wants to go next?"
 
"One of you should open your gifts from us," Daizi said, "I suppose the two of you can battle to decide who gets to go first."

"Unless we listen to the order Sally proclaimed," Daizi teased.
 
"Then I'll go next because I'm younger!" Alec said quickly.

"Wait, no, I'm next!" Xander argued, grabbing Alec around the middle as Alec tried to scramble under the tree.

There followed a brief wrestling match, but Xander finally gave in and let Alec go first. Alec carefully dug around under the tree until he found the gift to him from their parents.
 
All of the gifts Dark had wrapped were meticulous and finding which one was for Alec compared to which one was for Xander, Daizi, or Ivy was obvious. Alec's was the only one wrapped in a sparkly wrapping paper and Dark had added more bows than was strictly necessary. Of course, they were still tagged, but he made it so the one which drew their eye would probably be the right one.

Inside of the wrapped gift was a blank sketchbook, the type with sewn-in pages rather than a spiral binding. The cover was blank and inside the front cover was an envelope containing a gift voucher for a class on Junk Journaling.

After it was all unwrapped, Daizi took the time to explain, "We know you like to keep everything for the memories and can find it difficult to figure out what is okay to leave behind, so your father and I thought this would be a way for you to keep smaller portions of your memories in a contained, specific space."

"The class is supposed to teach you what to prioritize and give tips on how to make the pages meaningful and visually interesting." Dark added. Both he and Daizi were nervous his would have unintended consequences and it would just worsen his tendencies, but the class they read about really seemed like it spoke to many of the anxieties Alec had.
 
Alec took some time looking at the wrapping and the bows in absolute delight, truly loving it and knowing what it meant for Dark to have done this. It was magnificent! As excited as he was to see inside, he found himself trying to open the gift as carefully as possible. The journal confused him at first, especially the Junk Journaling voucher, and he studied the book and the voucher quietly as Dark and Daizi explained to him what it was. A memory book, but with something tangible? That seemed to be what it was. He stared at it for a long time in silence.

Then, carefully, he tore off a piece of the sparkly wrapping and the smallest bow and put it inside the journal. His first entry.

"Thank you," he said, getting up to hug them both. "Thank you so much! I can't wait to go to the class. It sounds perfect! Thank you."
 
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