How Green Becomes Wood

"Right," Daizi nodded, feeling over the belt, and shaking her head, "It's hard to keep track, I can't see the piles all spread out."

"And it is cruel to be functioning this early," Dark added.

"You did do a wonderful job on the belt, habibi. I'm not surprised your business is so successful!"
 
"Sorry, Mama," Xander chuckled, "and thank you. It's work, but it's pretty fun. I don't know the future of it, but it's working for now."

Alec gave him a nudge. "You should open a gift from Mama and Ba!"

"Yeah, alright," Xander agreed, pretending not to be as excited as he felt.
 
Xander's present was small and wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine. It wasn't fancy, sure, but importantly: it wasn't busy. The eye could rest. Inside was a high-quality multi-tool engraved with his initials. With Cooger's help and internet research, they had picked one with tools which would be helpful for equine purposes (cutting hay bales, prying out unwanted nails, etc), but also for leatherworking (it included an awl). Hopefully. They didn't doubt it'd be helpful for Xander, but they hoped they had successfully found one that could help him out in his interests in a pinch. It wasn't chosen to replace any of his current tools, it was made to supplement them, so he always had something on him in case the need arose.

Along with the multi-tool was an envelope stating they had made three donations to charity, albeit not impressively large ones, to two horse charities in Xander's name: the first was to Equus, to support horse welfare and horse-human bonds, and the second was to protect the wild horse populations.

"We know you don't really want an abundance of things," Daizi said as he opened it, "so we thought you might like something small but useful you can keep in your pocket or your car, with many purposes."

"And we thought you would appreciate gifting forwards."
 
"I..." Xander stopped, at a loss of what to say. He carefully opened the multitool, checking all the many different options it had and feeling how high-quality it was. Then he looked at the donations. They were exactly what he would have picked if he'd thought to pick one. "Thank you," he said quietly. "This is... this is awesome."

Alec reached up and took Daizi's hand, squeezing it lightly. "He loves it," he whispered to her.
 
"You're welcome Xander," Daizi said, absolutely beaming to have gotten it right while Dark relaxed. He was so hard to shop for.

"The blade should be small enough it does not count as contraband if you bring it to school, but it may be safer to not do so." Dark said, proud he and Daizi had been successful with every gift they gave their children this year, "We would've added a sheath, but I thought it would be like buying me something made of wood."
 
"Thanks," Xander said seriously. "It is awesome, and I won't take it to school, but I think I'll keep it in my van and stuff. It's really useful. And... thanks for donating. For me." He smiled and carefully tucked them back into the box so he wouldn't lose them. Maybe he'd start his own "junk journal" so he could keep momentos like that. He'd keep them for now, at least, and he did journal sporadically, so he might not need to keep the actual slips, but he could for now.

"Oh! Mama, it's your turn!" Alec grinned. "Do you want to open your gift from me or from Xander?"
 
"Alright, we'll hand you one, and you have to guess whose it is," Alec said. He glanced at his father. "No hints, Ba!"

Xander reached under the tree and pulled out the first one he saw. Then he put it in Daizi's lap. It was a small box wrapped in fabric rather than paper. It was a vibrant red with varying shades of white snowflakes, but most importantly, a good two-thirds of the snowflakes were raised, giving them a tactile feeling. A white, lace ribbon tied around into a near-perfect bow finished it off. Inside, packed tightly and carefully with tissue paper, was a thick ring made from small branches of willow and apple. Thin, fine pieces of twine held it together, and from the ring hanging on longer pieces of twine were several tiny copper bells, silver keys, a singular pentagram, and a few small gems that caught the light.
 
Dark held up both his hands while Daizi exclaimed, "You can't make me choose! That's so unfair!" but nonetheless took the time to carefully examine the wrapping and then lifted up the chimes and took care to examine them closely. "This is beautiful," she said, feeling all of the details. With a little laugh she said, "It sounds like Ivy. The bells." It took her until she felt the pentagram between her fingers to ask, "Is this from Xander?" She supposed a pentagram wasn't a difficult symbol to know to include but with his recent ponderings into religion, it seemed correct from him.
 
"Yep," Xander confirmed. "It's witch's bells for protecting the house and stuff. I read about it and thought you'd like it."

"Darn. I hoped it would take you a little longer than that," Alec said cheerfully.
 
"I love them, Xander, thank you," Daizi told him, "I'll have to think of the right place to hang them. And of course it had to be Xander, I know my boys well enough to be able to guess something like that."
 
"Of course you do," Alec chuckled. "I wouldn't believe anything less of you, Mama!"

"I'm glad you like them, Mama," Xander said. He didn't mention it, but he'd made it himself. Not the bells and things, but he had spent a really long time getting the apple and willow branches to wind into a circle and then tying it. It was simple, but a pain in his fingers to get it right! Thanks to its more whimsical and handmade nature, he was expecting her to guess Alec, despite what it actually was.
 
"That is very true," Dark said, shaking his head while Daizi got up and brought him a pretty average sized box. It was wrapped well enough, although it didn't have the same flair as the rest.

Dark thanked her and begun unwrapping it. Before the paper was fully gone, he saw the picture on the box and turned to his wife with more excitement in his eyes than had been visible from him in a long while. Whatever it was made his face light up like a child. "Daizi..." He said slowly, like he couldn't quite believe it as he removed the rest of the paper, "Thank you."

"You always say you want to get a tiny table saw for your miniatures, but you never buy it," Daizi replied, grinning, "You always end up saying you can make do with your band saw. Now you don't have to."
 
"A tiny table saw? Really? That's so cool, Ba!" Alec cheered.

Xander waited a beat before asking, "What, you aren't going to ask if you can borrow it?"

Alec cackled and shook his head. "No way! But I would love to see him use it. It looks brilliant!"
 
Setting the box down, Dark turned and pulled Daizi into a tight hug, "I love you so much Spider."

"I love you too," Daizi replied, squeezing her eyes shut and savoring how animated he was. He had been so down for so long, making him this happy was all she really wanted.

"I have the best wife in the world," Dark murmured to himself, although since he was still squeezing her to his chest, Daizi of course heard.

"Yes, you do," She teased, kissing him before pulling away, deciding this was a day she'd fight anyone who complained about them being too affectionate. He had been so depressed lately. "Who is next?"
 
The twins said nothing as Dark and Daizi had their moment. Neither would say it, but they were both relieved and happy to see how animated Dark had become, if only for a moment. They'd seen how heavily Dark had carried himself lately, and it was good to see his eyes light up again.

"It'd be Ivy's turn, but I think we're out of gifts for her," Alec reported. "Unless you got her a second gift? I guess it'd be me next, and Peter left me and Xander."
 
"We don't have another one for her," Daizi said, going beneath the tree and handing them both presents, "But she has one for both of you."

"She picked them all on her own," Dark joked.
 
"Did she? How very sweet!" Alec said, amused.

"Indeed," Xander sighed, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. It was so silly, but it wasn't a big ask, so he tried to be enthusiastic as he opened the gift and thanked Ivy for the book.

Alec had no trouble enthusiastically thanking Ivy and fussing over the sweet little book she's "picked out" for him.

After Ivy's gift, the twins quickly opened Peter's gifts to them. Alec was flabbergasted to open the gift that looked probably professionally wrapped to find a high-end dance shoe known as Fuego dance sneakers. They were designed to look almost like normal sneakers, but with a built-in circle on the toe and heal that enabled some fancy dance moves on any surface whatsoever. Meaning he could spin and slide on concrete almost as well as a dance floor. Xander recieved a book on Martial science, Fight Like a Physicist, by Jason Thalken. It looked like a pretty cool book, though potentially boring. Xander hoped it read more interestingly than it looked.

Daizi's gift from Alec was next. It was a larger box, but light, and what was inside would likely confuse her as it was mostly strings and bits of wood. It was, in fact, a smaller-sized loom. He'd included a few packs of natural threads and yarns for her to use. While some looked the same, the different colors felt different under the fingers, and there were multiple different sizes and types of spin, creating a variety of different feeling yarn.
 
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