#giftgiving

Gift Giving - Neve Gallus (romanced)

DIY Christmas Gifts: A Heartfelt and Personal Touch

Christmas is a time for giving, and there's nothing quite like the joy of giving a handmade gift. Creating your own Christmas gifts adds a personal touch that store-bought items simply can't match. Whether you're crafty or just starting, here are some simple and heartfelt DIY gift ideas that can make this holiday season extra special.

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Part 3 of Mike Duarte’s Four Christmases Series

Part One: Mike Duarte’s First Christmas - Mike hates Christmas.

Part Two: Cabin in the Woods (NSFW) - Mike and you spend Christmas together in a cabin.

For @storiesofsvu​ bingo square: Gift Giving

Tagging: @nessamc​   @xmoonknightlyx​   @jayblackpanther​   @crazy4chickennuggets​   @annetje​   @mysoulisasunflower​    @202rosebudd   @littleone65

The third year you decide to spend Christmas in the city. You can’t book the time off together without it looking suspicious and there have been too many close calls already. The two of you are already planning a future together, one that would see you transfer out of the unit once you passed the Sergeant’s exam. You’d already talked about going public with your relationship, Mike’s sick of hiding it and it’s driving him crazy because he knows you deserve better than to be somebody’s secret.

Mike looks forward to Christmas this year. He knows you’ve been stressed studying for the Sergeant’s exam, he’s spent enough nights on the couch, one eye on the game and another on you as tapping away on your laptop at the kitchen table, to know that you are dedicated to this course of action. It’s an investment in your relationship and your career and there is nothing on this earth that will stop you achieving your goals. You’re fierce and driven, it’s one of the things he loves most about you. You couldn’t deem Mike a romantic, he’d not the type but he does know you, your needs, your desires, he knows it’s the thought that counts and not the big-ticket items.

On the first of December he gifts you with an advent calendar, a hand-crafted wooden affair that comes with small pull-out drawers, each one embossed with the number of the day, containing a small gift. Each one is an act of love, a tiny token of his adoration for you. He can never put it in words, he feels as though they aren’t adequate enough to describe the depth of his emotions.

It starts with chocolates, the decadent ones that you only treat yourself to when you’re celebrating because they are so stupidly expensive. He follows up with a bath oil he knows you love, using it to draw you a bath after your shoulders cramp up from hunching over the table for so long studying. It continues with a love note, his handwriting as neat as he can make it as he tells you how much you mean to him, how proud he is of you.

Each week ends with a date, something to get you out of the apartment and take your mind off the pending examination. He takes you to the ice rink and discovers he hates ice skating just as much as he thought he would. He’s fucking Bambi, only getting the hang of it as your session comes to an end, his fingers laced tightly in yours. It was worth it though, to see you smile like that, to have you cuddle up next to him in the aftermath, hands cupped around a mug of hot chocolate.

The next week he cooks for you, a Cuban recipe his mother passed down before she got sick. It’s rare for him to be so domesticated. He can’t help but consider how things have changed since you’ve stepped into his life. He’s not just looking after himself anymore, he has someone else to care about now and he finds he enjoys it. He imagines your life together moving forward, evenings like this with good food and an excellent company. When he holds you in his arms that night, he feels contented, like everything is right where it’s supposed to be.

By the time you reach Christmas Day Mike is both anxious and excited. You’re late getting up after pulling a double, covering for one of the other asshole detectives in the unit that partied a little hard. You look like a beautiful disaster, with bedhead and mascara smeared under your eyes because you were far too tired to take off your make up before crawling into bed beside him. You’re wearing one of his jumpers and sweats from his days back in the academy. Seeing you in his clothes, sends a savage thrill through his body, it sates a possessive primal urge deep inside of him. You’re his and only his.

He can’t help but smile when you remove the black velvet box from the final drawer. There’s butterflies in his chest and he’s nervous because out of everything he has ever done in his life this is the important one. This is the thing he wants more than anything.

“Mi vida.” He says, clasping your hand in his before he gets down on one knee. “Marry me."

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Sportacus - would give you two presents. One that he knows you need and one he knows you wished for (but is still good for your health somehow) 

Examples: Sport/yoga equipment, nature candy, weight blanket/plushies, heating pads, nail mat, smartwatch or other helpful technology, gym card, activaty experiance for 2

Robbie Rotten - would analyse what you acually want even if you don’t know it youreslf. He would give a gift no matter how greedy, unhealty or unessisery it might seem. 

Happy November! It's time to start getting those holiday gifts ordered. All of my sketchbooks are currently in stock and make great, unique gifts for art lovers!