Stockings full of coal

By Pam’s second year in the office, Jim had developed a habit of gloating to himself every time Roy screwed up somehow. I would never take her to lunch on our anniversary just so I could avoid taking her to dinner and go to a football game with the guys instead. I would know what her favorite movie was. I would get her exactly what she wanted for her birthday, not something that would be ‘practical’ for both of us.

They were kind of asshole things to be gloating – even inwardly – about, but having those little things to focus on made him feel better about all the things Roy could gloat about having with Pam.

Roy had this way of almost always being at least a little off in judging what Pam wanted. So he was looking forward to the day after Christmas when Pam would come in complaining, again, that Roy had gotten her a skirt that was a few sizes too big or too small, or the DVD of the movie that he had really been wanting to watch, or a gift certificate.

It was kind of a let down when she came in all smiles with a new necklace around her neck that just shimmered against her skin, and raving that that wasn’t all he got her – he also got her a new set of charcoals, and she’d been meaning to try experimenting with charcoals again for awhile.

He knew that. He would have bought her charcoals if he hadn’t thought it would be weird. He would have bought her a necklace if she was his.

He would have done a lot of things if he’d been in Roy’s shoes, but for once Roy had done exactly what he would have done – and Jim had nothing to gloat about.

Stockings full of goodies

One year, Michael spent the entire day of the Christmas party dropping not-so-subtle hints to indicate that he had a “huge surprise” coming up for them later.

None of them was really expecting much. “I bet it’s just, like, candy canes for everyone,” Jim guessed as he reached for the dish of red and green M&Ms on Pam’s desk.

“Maybe he’s going to leave for a little while, and then come back in dressed as Santa and seriously try to convince us he’s the real deal,” Pam suggested.

“Maybe he rented actual reindeer.”

Pam made a face. “Maybe it’s Todd Packer.”

They kept throwing ideas back and forth through the rest of the morning, and Jim didn’t consider it a waste of time at all.

At five thirty, after they’d mostly finished setting up for the Christmas party, the phone rang at reception.

“Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam… Michael? Where are you calling from? … Okay? Um, okay. We’ll do that.” She hung up and looked at Jim, shrugging. “He wants us all to go up to the roof.”

They passed the word along to everyone else, and rallied them in the direction of the roof within a few minutes, despite Stanley’s grumblings about having to climb, and Angela’s about ‘unscheduled activities’.

When Jim reached the top of the step ladder to the roof, he found… a winter wonderland.

There were twinkle lights everywhere, a Christmas tree, and illuminated plastic reindeers, Santa, elves, oversized candy canes… even a nativity scene which made Angela’s frown turn into an unsure neutral expression. Even after an unseasonably warm December, with no snowfall in weeks, the ground was covered in white. Artificial, but still beautiful. The whole scene was gorgeous. Michael was standing in the middle with his arms outstretched, a huge, proud grin on his face, and for once, he had every reason to feel proud.

Jim looked over at Pam, who was gaping and then grinned at him.

Phyllis asked, “Michael, how did you even get all this up here?”

Michael’s smile wavered and he coughed uncomfortably before responding, “All a part of the magic, my friends. I can’t reveal my sources!”

As everyone started to spread out and look around, Pam grabbed Jim’s hand and pulled him a distance across the roof before she fell to the ground. “Come on, we have to make snow angels! I haven’t made one all winter.”

He rolled his eyes and called her a dork, even as he lowered to the ground next to her with a smile he didn’t even try to hide.

When they were done and sat up, he noticed that the artificial stuff was much stickier than real snow, and the entire back of her coat was covered in white. She laughed and pointed out the white on him as well before reaching over to swipe some off, and his back felt like it was on fire.

He pushed himself up to standing and she gasped. “You didn’t take the proper post-snow angel stand up procedure! Look, you messed it up!” He looked back down to where he’d been lying. She was right. He didn’t mind. “Here, take my hands so I can get up without touching mine. At least one of our angels should be preserved.”

He reached out and felt his breath speed up, even as he lifted her like she weighed nothing at all. Once standing, she took a delicate leap forward to not leave any footprints in the area and turned back around.

“Oh, yeah, wow, really. That’s some of my best work since the winter of ’89.”

“It looks perfect,” Jim added.

She looked at him and smiled. “You know, I’m really having fun. Michael actually did pretty good.”

He held her gaze for a moment, transfixed, grinning, and then shook himself out of it and pointed. “And, look, I think there’s actual presents under the tree.”

“Ooh!” she exclaimed, grabbing his hand and dragging him off again.

He’d have followed her anywhere, but the hand-holding was a definite bonus.