aaronhirsch:
for: @catalinastarter location: lafayette square time: early afternoon
With thanksgiving out of the way, Aaron usually started on decorating for the holidays straight away and this year was absolutely no different. He’d been outside his building fighting with fairy lights for the past hour, having taken it upon himself the year he moved in to decorate the stairwell and fencing as he no longer had a house to do the same to. It had always been one of his favourite things to do with Elena, watching the joyful spark in her eyes as he turned them on —- for years he’d gone all out for her for Christmas, despite his Jewish upbringing. He didn’t push aside any of that, though, the menorah in his third floor window a constant reminder at this time of year, even if he didn’t practise anymore.
He was on his fifth string of lights when he noticed somebody passing by and glanced their way, calling out to them. “What do you think? Too much?”
.
For all of her energy, Carly hadn’t ever been much into the holidays. There were the glittering, traditional affairs from home she secretly loved some aspects of, to the non-acknowledgement or more hard-scrabble realities in other places she’d lived. Even if the calendar said it was Christmas, there were plenty of places in the world that didn’t have extra just because of what the calendar said. In the present, though, she was enjoying small details. One of the best things was seeing ordinary places transformed somewhat by lights and shimmering decorations. She’d been strolling around Lafayette Square for a while, peeping on Christmas trees through windows or inflatable decorations on small patches of lawn.
A voice calling out to her drew her attention up. She recognized Aaron, even from this distance, and it made her smile. “Finish what you’ve got and I think that’ll be perfect. Do you have a whole box left inside you’re going to try to put up, too? Or is it just the lights?”
