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The Christmas day has never been as difficult as this one, because there was way too many things to do and little to no time to actually complete all those tasks for the day. Nick was out to pick out the tree with Daisy and his curly husband was now in the cellar trying to find all the tree ornaments complaining about doing everything last minute. The tree should have been bought days back, the older one, though, thought it would be more efficient and more traditional to buy it on the Christmas day or whatever that means. For other people in England it was currently Christmas eve, but for Nick and Charlie it's different every year. Last year they had Norwegian Christmas, this year it's Czech.
Ever since Nick has pestered Charlie about trying French Christmas because he thought it would be interesting to try something new after four years it being the same boring day. It kind of became their tradition since Charlie wanted to try Spanish the following year. This is the tenth year, so this one was no one's idea and they picked randomly. Charlie was pleasantly, surprised when it landed on Czech traditional Christmas. Charlie has read some classical books written by Czech authors and liked quite a bit of them, such as Franz Kafka or Božena Němcová, The good soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hašek was also quite interesting.
To be fully prepared for Christmas day they always prepare at least one month in advance, two months in Charlie's case because it assures him they do it right. the amount of educational videos they've watched was probably countless but each year it always brings them loads of joy and always gives them stories to tell their friends. Doesn't matter whether it's fails or the golden and most memorable times of each day.
There were some traditions they were not able to complete due to Charlie's past eating habits. It's true that Charlie doesn't really struggle with food nowadays, but in the Czech Republic it's a tradition for them to not eat during Christmas day till dinner and it's for them to be able to see the golden pig. This could cause Charlie to relapse in his anorexia, so they have decided to just ignore this part. Not many Czech people actually do this anyway.
The tree ornaments were found and now there was the second most important task to complete with them and that was to untangle the lights and tree chains. When the curly man was done his husband has already got home, and was watching him with adoration in his eyes while leaning onto the wall. Charlie hasn't even noticed and Daisy was already running his way jumping on him and taking him down once more. Nick couldn't handle it and started laughing out loud at his husband.
That did not take long because there was so many things to do and the first thing was to set up the tree. Nick is the one to do it, because Charlie always compliments his rugby arms even though he knows it's just for fun. In Charlie's point of view, he says that because he does not want to be the one to work his ass off just for the tree to stand, and he knows that Nick likes when he flirts. Once the tree was up the older man has told his husband about other things he's bought. One of those things was bunch of apples, and candles which was weird because he was supposed to buy pouring lead set. That was apparently not sold anywhere nearby. The apples were for after dinner and the lead for fortune telling. When you pour lead into cold water it's gonna make some sort of shape and depending on what you see in it, it's supposed to be your future.
Apparently Nick thought candles would do just fine because they're used sometimes as well, which he was not wrong about, so there was no reason to complain. Without any more delay their main focus now was the tree. Every time anybody came over they were surprised by the missing spot in the corner of the living room and were curious about the Christmas tree's whereabouts. The answers the guests were always given were never the same, because the young married couple never wanted to spoil the surprise of which country they are celebrating the Christmas day for.
So the bland spot had to go and finally give it some decorations. Charlie put the holiday playlist on and they both got into decorating the tree right away, sometimes getting distracted by the music and dancing together as if they were the main attention at the dance floor. Laughing, giggling, silly arguments and maybe some flirty comments were heard from the living room. Daisy watching them sleepily from the couch. The time went on, and it was lunch time already. They have some soup they prepared for today's dinner and left-over pasta which was still delicious but a tiny bit dry.
After lunch they ended up trying the fortune telling. Nick lit the candle and after a while he poured the burning wax into a bowl with cold water, waited for a bit before grabbing the weird creature that was now shaped. To Nick it looked a tiny bit like a dragon while Charlie was barely breathing in between those laughs he was letting out. To him it all looked a bit silly. At least until it was his round and his creature looked a bit too much like a human being. Little human being. A baby.
They both were just looking at it as if this petite piece of wax was something really precious to them. Maybe this weird fortune thing was some sort of sign to finally talk about it. Talk about their future as possible parents. They did not talk about that day, though. Instead of that they have chosen to finally get to preparing for dinner. Traditional Christmas meal in the Czech Republic is very modest and it consists of some soup and then fried carp with potato salad. To Charlie it sounded nice, but for Nick as a picky eater it may not have suited his taste buds since Nick isn't really a fish person. Unless it's served as fish and chips.
There was nothing to worry about, because the carp can be easily replaced with chicken and just make chicken schnitzel which is very acceptable to do there as well.
The potato salad has been chilling in their fridge since the previous day and making that thing was an absolute chaos. Now it's for them to try it just to make sure they like it, so if they don't, they can make a replacement side dish. Thankfully they both agreed it's great and moved on back to the fish. The fact that Nick does not like fish hasn't stopped Charlie from actually committing to this traditional meal and bought the carp two days ago. Normally it's known to let the carp live in a bath tub before preparing to eat it, but to Charlie it seemed inhuman, so it was way better decision to get an already prepared one with also having a special request which was to leave a few fish scales from the carp for him. It may sound weird, but it's an important part.
The dinner preparation was well spent with their synced rhythm in the kitchen and team work. The very silent taps on the tiles were like a music to their ears, the quick dance moves and glances, fake excuses to go to the loo, but actually always leaving a little something under the tree instead. The domestic feeling was just something they could never get rid off. It was something the husbands were used to and a day without that feeling was like a day without oxygen.
When dinner was done the curly man started setting the table while the man with growing beard went for a quick walk with Daisy and once he got back, the very nostalgic but at the same time unknown smell was catching his attention. The sight of Charlie not being around caught his his eyes and so he walked the the cupboards and took out the needed cutlery which was still missing on the the table along with the advent wreath Charlie just walked into the kitchen with, setting it on the table and then kneeling down to give Daisy a hug and praising her of how she's such a good girl.
The table was set and so was the sun. Now they were just waiting for the first star to appear on the sky which would indicate that it's time to eat. Charlie lit up the candles once he saw the first star and Nick started serving them both. Firstly with the soup and then the main course. They were both enjoying they meals and were talking out loud about memories from the year or Charlie telling Nick about the book he was editing right now, Nick saying something funny that had happened at school. As a primary school teacher he has crossed some really funny and unfunny incidents.
Being done with the meal meant another thing. There's a tradition Nick had no idea about, so Charlie just casually reminded Nick to lift his plate up after he's done. Once he did he noticed one fish scale. You're supposed to keep it in the wallet for the following year for luck and wealth.
Then it was time for the apples. Another thing about luck for next year and that is cutting the apple in half and see a star from the seeds. Star means health for the next year, but there's also a cross which defines death or illness. A bit drastic but still really interesting. They both got a star, but Nick on the second try, just because he cut it the wrong way on the first time which made them both laugh. They take a photo of the two apples with visible stars for them to then post it on the instagram story after the day is over. It was very peculiar and interesting in their opinion that in the Czech Republic the one giving presents is baby Jesus instead of Father Christmas or Santa.
It's finally time for the presents. They both on accident ended up buying more presents for Daisy than each other, but Charlie did end up with concert tickets to some indie rock band he's been listening to lately along with some books he's been talking about wanting for the past few months. Nick on the other hand ended up with some new button ups because he keeps ruining his in art class with the kids, not one, but three oreo chocolate bars, new pair of rugby shoes in his favourite colour and last but not least. A photo album which is supposed to be just for their photos and written stories for their Christmas tradition so they can write down all of the memories. Nick made a tiny remark on how sappy Charlie is which resulted in Charlie answering with a quick reminder of Nick's sappiest moment.
This was not the end, though. The last part of the day is for them to enjoy the culture with a movie, which was chosen randomly. The movie they ended up watching was called cosy dens, and the Czech families usually watch together. There were prepared snack in the form of mostly gingerbread men and some traditional Christmas sweets.
The movie was fortunately on Netflix, but what they did not expect was for the movie to be actually quite sad. The comedy parts were on top, but that did not change the fact that the main character was clearly depressed and over all clearly troubled, It did not really seem like a Christmas movie apart from it mostly happening during winter time. It wasn't really Nick's cup of the, but it ended up being really interesting to Charlie who noted in his mind to mention the movie to Tao because he's sure he would actually absolutely love this one. They also watched the 1973's acted version of Cinderella. Which is Czechoslovak and German. They both absolutely loved it.
After all they did today they could mark this year as successful, they really enjoyed it and could not wait to tell everybody about it. Not to mention the fact that thanks to it being celebrated on the 24th they could go visit their families on the England's Christmas day. It was a great experience to try and now they can only wish merry Christmas to everybody.
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