Crow's Feet: Steaming Mugs and Mittens

Cain thought for a moment. He'd eaten dinner there many times, yes, but he wasn't sure if any of them were the full Thanksgiving meal that he knew Rufus would serve up. Especially lately, he'd been eating with Prudence and Bernadette, mostly.

"He's shared many a dinner with me, of that you can be certain, but I can't say it was ever a turkey-and-stuffing, the-full-nine-yards Thanksgiving dinner. Not that it needed to be! He always cooks a small feast, as I'm sure you can imagine." He laughed a bit before also placing his own napkin in his lap, being careful not to put his elbows on the table. He always got nervous when in the presence of Thanksgiving residents when it came to proper table etiquette...!

Their server arrived, and though they weren't even taller than the table, they managed to see them and converse with them while standing on a stool they likely just carried around.

"Hello, hello! Thank you for coming to Bethlehem eatery! I'll be your server today. Would you like to see a menu, or would you just like the house special?" he asked politely.

Cain spoke up, and with a sideways glance at Alice, he said, "Yes, the house special would be lovely, with an egg nog, if you could, for me. And, whatever Miss Alice would like." He turned his attention to her and the waiter nodded happily as he scribbled something down on his small notepad.

After the server nodded, thanked them and picked up his stool before trotting away, Cain, looking very amused, nodded his head toward the front counter. The man went behind it (you could just see his bobbing head) before coming back and being followed by his wife and his three tiny children who proceeded to follow him into the kitchen, all with bright smiles on their faces. At the end of the line, a little girl turned to see them and waved before trotting off into the kitchen behind her family. Cain couldn't help but chuckle, as used to the town as he was.

"Anyway," he said after a moment, "Other than read, teach and drink tea, what do you do for fun? Or is it just those three?" It had occurred to him very recently that he'd never seen her do anything other than those things...! Not that he was one to talk. He mostly just.... read, taught... and drank hot cocoa. "Not that I could blame you if it was," he amended after this thought came to him.

Cain, though momentarily perplexed, laughed in the end. He laughed again when she turned the subject on him.

"I'm afraid I don't do much else! I consider myself a bit of a baker, and I suppose I know my way around in a kitchen- One of my majors was confectionery, so once you learn how to make candy and the like you can learn savory stuff fairly easily. Beyond that, my factory and the academy I... don't do much, I'm afraid! I write a little, I suppose." He was being modest. In all honesty, he didn't consider himself much of a writer or a baker, but others would say otherwise. "I'm an open book," he admitted just before the elf returned with Cain's egg nog and Alice's coffee. Cain thanked him quietly as the man hopped off his footstool and picked it up before scurrying off again.

Cain, though overwhelmed by her barrage of questions, concentrated and attempted to answer them all. "Red, though I have a fondness for blue, especially as of late. And I'm afraid that you're right! That's most certainly one of them! Though there's a certain read I looked at very recently with flowers pressed in the pages that I'm very fond of and have read twice." He continued immediately, not giving her any time to react. "When Mr. Claus asked me to be a teacher, I ended up doing most of the work, as I tend to do, and it just sort of. Happened! I do enjoy cats, yes, but..." He looked around and leaned in closer. "I may or may not have a large... winter-type.... bear-like.... animal in my room at the Academy," he whispered before winking. "As for my name, I'm quite certain one of my ancestors picked it out. We've been long-time candy people! I majored in confectionery and education, myself. I help Scotty- my brother- in his business, but I mostly just make the hard candy occasionally and give him recipes! He's perfectly capable of running the family business on his own." He nodded and then laughed! "My family has... a thing about naming their children silly things like that to go with our last name. My sister's name is Gamora Bear Kandi- we call her gummy- and my brother, who I previously mentioned, is named Butre Scotch Kandi-- aha, you guessed it. After gummy bears and Butterscotch. My sister runs a teddy bear shop and my brother runs the family candy shop, like I mentioned. I'm the oddball, really! But yes, we all kind of ended up... embracing our names, so to say, except for my brother, who dresses quite normally considering his name and profession." He nodded, satisfied with his answers. It was at this time that their meal was brought out and their glasses refreshed.

The meal consisted of a ham- but had a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, not to mention starches, like beautifully buttered rolls, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and other things! If you'd ever seen it in a Christmas dinner, it was there! Cain decided to let Alice take it all in before reaching out for a server himself.

"Will you be needing anything else?" the elf father asked them. Cain shook his head and thanked him, and he and his family filed back into the kitchen and behind the counter, all with their stools in hand. Cain grinned crookedly at the retreating family before grinning at Alice as well.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked.

Cain laughed!! "Well, Thanksgiving and Christmas aren't too different, if you think about it! Other than the season." He nodded to himself and looked at her while she admired the spread.

"Well, go on!" he said encouragingly. "I don't know how it works in other holidays, but in Christmas Town we don't make food just so we can look at it!" He joked before grinning crookedly! He was glad that she was in awe!

Cain took note of this and made up for it by taking a little extra meat himself! He hoped she wouldn't be offended, but something told him she wasn't the type to get offended easily with things like this. Or maybe that was wishful thinking.

He paced himself to eat just as quickly (or as slowly) as Alice- an old habit of his dating back to when he was a child and didn't want to be first or last at the table.

"How is everything?" he asked between bites. To him, of course, it was delicious, but there was a reason he'd chosen to take her here, of course!

Cain: Thoroughly satisfied with her answer, he grinned crookedly and chuckled a bit! She was positively divine!

"I'm doing quite well! The more, the merrier, that's what I always say! I don't know about that, though. I do have a nephew in the University, after all! Not only that, but I've heard about some of the shenanigans the university students get into- that sounds like such fun!" He ate between sentences, but not for too long- he was here for Alice, after all.