For James, Christmas meant running around like a maniac all throughout Diagon Alley, trying to pick out the perfect gift for Lily. It was to be their first Christmas together, and James wanted everything to be flawless. His parents had re-decorated their house in rich reds and creams with holly and mistletoe everywhere, an elegant twelve-foot tree, a warm, crackling fire constantly burning in every fireplace, and numerous white candlesticks in shiny silver candleholders in every room by the time James and Lily got there, and they had festive classical music playing in the background at all times. It was quite picturesque, James thought, and he had been so delighted that not only had his parents allowed him to invite Lily home for the holidays, but that she had said yes. Now that Christmas was actually upon him, though, he was a nervous wreck. What if he got her the wrong thing? What if his normally-pretty-cool parents decided to share embarrassing stories about his childhood over a nice, sweet ham? What if his grandmother pretended to be senile again and whacked him in the shins with her cane, going on and on about how he was too skinny and asking him 'slyly' if he and Lily made each other happy, in the dirtiest sense. Of course, he doubted nothing could have been as bad as last year, when his grandmother, who was not actually senile, told him and Sirius (who had been staying with the Potters at the time) that she was perfectly okay with her grandson's homosexuality and that they shouldn't feel like they had to hide their relationship to please her. Luckily, Sirius was Sirius, and so he took it in stride. Christmas was Lily helping his mother make pies in the kitchen and his dad whispering over a game of chess what a lovely girl she was; that she was 'a real keeper'. Christmas was Lily walking him to the mistletoe just so she could kiss him, and Christmas was the first time they said I love you. For the record, she said it first.