'twas the nigh before christmas and all of the staff

[Professor Elvera Le Fey]

'twas the night before christmas and all through the school
the students were sleeping dreaming of yule
the professors and school staff were heading down stairs
in the hopes that some firewhysky would burn away their cares​

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the yule ball was a big event on the school calendar but for the professors whilst it was fun it wasn't really a chance to unwind. elvera and a few of the other professors had been talking about this one day over lunch and had come to the conclusion that they should hold their own christmas party. tonight was christmas eve. the yule ball had been conducted a few days ago to let the students go home for christmas and now with significantly less people in the school it was time for the staff to let their hair down. she had put a notice up on the noticebord. and stied to spread the word as best she could in the hopes there would be a good turn out but only ime would tell. it was up to the staff if they wanted to come or if they had things to do at home. she was lucky her girls were young and were already in bed.
at her request the house elves had put up some decorations up in the staff common room. not as fancy or glamorous as those at the ball but more the red and green homely sort. there was also a christmas tree on the corner which was required for the room to feel quintessentially christmasy. under the tree there was a selection of small silly presents all wrapped but not with names marked on them for a game later. and on the table which usually contained a copy of the days newspaper, and someones pile of essays to mark was instead a selection of christmasy food, including mince pies, trifle, pigs in blankets, mini sausage rolls and other wonderful goodies. and on the counter there was a selection of drinks including wine, punch, mulled wine, fire whisky, and butter beer. she had also set the music up playing a selection of both muggle and magic Christmas songs. this would be a fun evening.

 

[Professor Misha Haden]

Misha's household had never been christmas-y in the way that he recognised it to be here in New Zealand, rather it was a strangely family affair filled with old traditions from both sides of his family, or well, it had, Misha no longer returned home to his family, they had grown apart in the years and he only went back if he really needed to, it made the holidays a somewhat lonely affair but after the term which had just passed he was almost glad for the fact that the holidays would just be quiet. He'd spent the time in the castle mostly with Jon, they'd somehow become friends and he found himself in the other man's office with a drink in hand and a piece of cake in the other, he was dozing off slightly, feeling the weight of the long term drain on him, making him feel pretty lethargic, but he remembered the notice in the Professor's common room with a start, "The Professor party," he said, tapping Jon on the arm, "Come on," he put down the drink but finished off the cake and then left for the common room, not even looking back to see if Jon was following. Eventually he hit the room, and entered with a smile, dancing a little to the music before heading to where he had spotted the fire whisky and pour himself a healthy amount, "Great spread! Say, you wouldn't happen to have those muffins, like at the Professor meeting at the start of the semester?"
​

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

Glad that the party was in the evening, Professor Kingsley posted the day with her sons. It had taken a while to get them to sleep with how excited they were for a certain red suited man, but finally they had both fallen asleep. Cyndi had been tempted to not attend the party and pass the evening with her husband instead, but he had urged her to attend. With great reluctance, the woman had apparated near the castle and made her way inside. The room was beautifully decorated, though she expected no less considering who it was who had decorated. "It looks beautiful, Elvera" Cyndi stated as she made her way over and gave the deputy a hug. It'd been a few days since they had last seen each other, the professor leaving the day after the Yule Ball to spend time with family. She greeted the other professors as she neared the table. With a glance, she quickly moved away from the food, the smells overwhelming her. The professor stared hungrily at some goblin made wine before settling on some Apple cider. Finding a seat, the professor spotted the gifts under the tree. "Ooh...presents!" she stated happily.

 

[Jon Phillips]

Jonathon had no ill feelings towards Christmas, or any other holiday of the year. The reason he was sitting in his office instead of being with his family was because the last thing he wanted was to return to to his busy, chaotic household and wake up with no more than five hours sleep because his house mates would not keep it down. If Dan and Corey weren't being loud at all hours of the night, Samuel was awake, cleaning or rearranging the furniture and Jon had no patience to deal with any of these things when work had already spread him far too thin. He bit into the piece of cake in his hand, and sipped from his drink as he let his body lean into his chair and unwind from the stress of the day. He felt so relaxed, comfortable and glad he had no other responsibilities for the night until Misha piped up and mentioned the professor party. Caught up in relaxing, he had entirely forgotten the party was due to begin so he nodded at Misha and left his cake and drink on the desk before following him out of his office and to the party, pulling on a blazer as he walked out. When he arrived at the Professor's common room, he smiled. The decorations were festive and the Christmas tree in the corner added a nice touch. He appeared next to Misha at the snacks table and picked up a drink of butter beer which he began to sip. "Oh I remember those muffins." He mused as he picked up a mini sausage roll with his free hand and popped it into his mouth, speaking to himself more than anyone. "They were so good."
​

 

[Sloane Halliwell]

Sloane often stayed at the school over the Christmas break. She lived with her brother when she wasn't at the school and with all of those animals all over the place it was sometimes hard to get any time to herself. Elvera's party gave Sloane more excuses not to spend the time with her brother or other members of her family, not that she was trying to avoid them. She just found family awkward sometimes as their personalities were vastly different to her own. Elvera and many of the Professor's seemed to have more of an affinity for her personality than others, so that was also good. Sloane made her way from her new office in the Hufflepuff common room, where she would spend most of her time now and headed down the stairs to the ground floor and into the Professor's common room. She'd known even before she arrived that it would be lovely, Elvera seemed to have an incredible knack for this sort of thing. "Elvera, I do believe you could make a good career out of interior design, or party planning if you ever decided to quit teaching." She said as she walked into the room and looked around. Where normally Sloane would have brought her own fire whisky, she'd made a promise to herself not to do so for this party as her last experience with the beverage had not gone quite as planned and she would have rather remained sober this evening. "Oh, I just adore Christmas. My siblings and I would always wake up super early and ravage the presents even before our parents were up."
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[Professor Elvera Le Fey]

Elvera smiled as people satarted to arrive. she loved holiday festivities. the first people to arrive were misha and johnathan. she was glad someone had turned up. she didn't want to be as biger flop as her thirtieth. "Good evening" she said as they headed over to the rinks and poured fire whysky, as she took a glass of the non alcoholic punch. she chuckled slightly as they asked after the muffins she had made for the staff meeting. "Unfortunatly things were so busy i haventhad chance to make them. I will remember next semester to bring some down for you" she said. she always had some in her classroom for her students. and there were often heaps left after class. she could bring them down here easily if anyone wanted them. the next person into the room was cyndi. She gave her friend a hug and greeted her. she had a feeling cyndi's day tomorrow would be a lot like hers. making the day magical for her children. "Thank you. It is good to see you" she said as the lady complimented her decoration. before she coudl say anything else slone arrived. she once again had to chuckle as slone said she would be able to make a career out of design or party planning. thinking about it she was right. everywhere from the eye to her classroom had a unique touch to it. "Thank you. it is a shame i love my classes then" she said. giving the lady a hug. "congratulations on the promotion." she said whilst still hugging her co worker. "ah yes. the presents. they are just silly things for a game we have later." she said as both her co workers commented on them. she had spent the last few days shopping. she had the twins christmas and birthday presents to get and the silly things for tonight. she hoped they would all go down well. in the morning heliana would be getting an new toy broom and selene would have a book of fairytales that would read to her. she listened as slone spoke about her christmas' and smiled. she hadn't really had siblings when she was a kid. she also hadn't really celebrated christmas until she had moved to new zealand, they had instead celebrated yule with morgaus's circle which now she organised on top of everything else.