The Rise of the Drackens: The Scaled Bits
Crafty Traditions
9th December 2020
Nasta – 60 Years
Max – 54 Years
Blaise – 41 Years
Draco – 40 Years
Harry – 40 Years
Braiden – 23 Years
Quints – 22 Years
Eva and Ave – 21 Years
Taren – 20 Years
Lai – 20 Years
Xabiere – 18 Years
Mace and Evie – 18 Years
Mollie – 17 Years
Ceri, Jason, Ethan, and Saeth – 16 Years
Seren and Senan – 14 Years
Lian – 12 Years (2 days from birthday)
Phoebe, Neave, and Lucine – 12 Years
Loren – 11 Years
Cyneric and Kallan – 10 Years
Gage – 8 Years
Rosalia, Nia, and Vanora – 7 Years
Sextuplets – 6 Years
Lyran – 2 Years
Caronwen – 19 Months
Crafty Traditions
Harry made absolutely sure that he had measured out the right quantities of ingredients as he tried to wrangle in the excited kids.
He was making a simple salt dough for the kids to make handprint Santa’s, square presents, and sleighs. He had cookie cutters to help with this, but it had become a tradition for his children to make ornaments for the trees, and considering they usually had two trees, one in each living room, and this year had an absolute monster of a tree in the front garden, they needed lots of handmade ornaments.
He rolled the dough out and then cut it into sections so that each child had their own.
“I want to do a sleigh, Mummy!” Ellette told him. “Like the one outside!”
“Okay, sweetheart, here you go.” He said, handing over one of the sleigh cutters.
He had Caronwen popped on his hip as he supervised the kids, and then once things had calmed down a little, he used her hand for a decoration, lightly pressing it into a section of dough.
“Are you almost done, Harry?” Max asked him.
“I know you want your kitchen back, love, but give me a chance.” Harry chuckled.
Max snorted. “It’s not that, but these kids are overdue for their naps, and our little dragon warrior here looks overtired.”
Harry looked at Caronwen, and she was looking rather sleepy. Harry smiled and kissed her, before handing her over to Max.
“Take her for a nap then. I’ll finish up here.”
Max took the nineteen month old, and Harry carefully cut out her ornament, placed a hole into the top with a straw, and then turned it over and carved her name and age into the back with the point of a metal skewer. He smiled to see it, and he turned to carefully place it on the baking tray with the others, after he’d carved their names and ages into them first, before popping it in the oven. He made sure that he cleaned up the kitchen before Max skinned him alive.
He had another dozen ornaments for the kids to decorate, and truly it had become a tradition in their household for there to be handmade ornaments decorating the trees. Draco still presented him with new, hand-blown, glass baubles with their newest babies on them every Christmas…or he did on the years that they had new babies. Harry loved that tradition too.
He tried to push away and ignore the pang he felt at not having a new baby this year, but he calmed himself, and his Dracken side. Caronwen was only nineteen months old, not even two years old yet. He could wait a little longer.
Once the cut outs were baked and cooled, and the kids had had their naps, if they’d needed one that was, Harry once again took over the kitchen table, but this time with paints, glitter, and colourful strips of ribbon.
He supervised the kids as they decorated their ornaments, spilling glitter everywhere, asking his help to tie their chosen ribbons through the holes, and then they were running off to put their ornaments on their chosen tree.
Harry smiled as he was once again left to clean up the mess left behind. Not that he minded as he put the finishing touches to Caronwen’s ornament, tying the red ribbon around it and then taking it to the tree in the main room, hanging it high, dead centre. His heart felt like bursting and he turned to survey the room.
This is what Christmas was to him. This is what he had always wanted and he loved every single second of it, mess and all.
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A/N: Day three and a little blurb about Harry and the kids, and some of the traditions that they keep in their household. I remember making salt dough decorations as a young child, in school, and they used to always have pride of place on the Christmas tree despite how misshapen they were.
StarLight Massacre. X