Christmas and Yuletide

[cahn]

Merry Christmas and happy Yuletide, two days late :)

We had a lovely Christmas. Christmas Eve we went to D's church and got to do candles for Silent Night, which E. remembered from pre-pandemic and A. didn't. A. got legos and E. got a board game which entertained them basically the whole day (E likes to play board games with other people less than she likes to read the rules and play games with herself). It turned out great that we got home two days early, as we had time to go grocery shopping before Christmas and had a proper Christmas dinner instead of sandwiches in the car, which had been our previous plan and which in retrospect was probably... not the best idea. We'd planned for D to roast a chicken, but when D got to the store, he called me and we had a conversation that went something like this (okay, I probably was not quite as vocal in real life):

D: They're out of chicken, but they have duck. Want me to get duck?
Me: ???? I don't really understand a world in which this is a question you have to ask?? OF COURSE I WANT DUCK. If I'd known they had duck I would have asked you to get duck! YAY DUCK
D: *laughs at me, gets the duck*

Anyway, D roasted the duck (he is getting good at roasting things) and it was wonderful, and we talked to my family and D's family on phone/facetime, and E was able to play Minecraft with (K/B/'s)D. And then on Sunday we had the last of our musical church performances, and they went... much better than we had any right to expect, really <3

AND I got some lovely lovely Yuletide presents and I love them! tl;dr one-line teasers:

1. 16th-C lovely arranged-marriage friendship plus murder; don't need to know canon
2. The Duke of Alba in (metaphorical) opera buffa
3. 18th-C writing my ships of everyone/music
4. Madness: Gram Tillerman is the best
5. Madness: brilliantly allusive poetry fusion of Wallace Stevens and Frederick the Great

First, my gift, in 16th C Hapsburg RPF, about the teenage Margaret of Parma and her arranged marriage to Alessandro de' Medici (a bastard and a black man and the first Duke of Florence), and his canonical murder. No canon knowledge needed, as it's explained in the story. Margaret and Alessandro are both awesomesauce, and in the story they have such a lovely (and historically plausible) friendship that it just makes me so happy. And the scenes with Margaret and Alessandro's mistress (which are much more complex and interesting than one might expect from a wife/mistress conversation) are also pure gold. Definitely worth reading even if you don't know anything about the period! <-- me, mostly

Murder in Florence (8977 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 16th Century CE Hapsburg RPF, 16th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici/Lorenzo "Lorenzino" di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici/Margherita di Parma | Margaret of Parma, Margherita di Parma | Margaret of Parma & Taddea Malaspina, Taddea Malaspina/Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici, Margherita di Parma | Margaret of Parma & Charles V Holy Roman Emperor, Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici & Ippolito de' Medici
Characters: Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici, Lorenzo "Lorenzino" di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, Taddea Malaspina, Cardinal Innocenzo Cibo, Cosimo I. de' Medici, Françoise de Lannoy, Charles V Holy Roman Emperor, Margherita di Parma | Margaret of Parma, Caterina de' Medici, Ippolito de' Medici
Additional Tags: Murder Mystery, Coming of Age, Arranged Marriage, Illegitimacy, POV Female Character, Politics, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Male-Female Friendship, Misses Clause Challenge, Chromatic Yuletide, Renaissance Era, yule be first, Yuletide, Yuletide 2021
Summary:

When Alessandro de' Medici is murdered, his teenage bride Margaret of Austria may be one of the few people sincerely mourning him - and determined to find out the truth. For the killer is one of Alessandro's closest friends, and Alessandro, the first Duke of Florence, both a bastard of uncertain parentage and a black man, had more than his share of enemies...

I also got a treat in the same fandom! Now THIS one is about Barbara Blomberg, the mother of Emperor Charles V's illegitimate heroic son Don Juan of Austria, who managed to fox both the Duke of Alba (yes, THAT Duke of Alba) and Philip II! If you are a fan of Don Carlo(s) and/or Les vêpres siciliennes, which I know a few of you are, and would be interested in a tale where the Duke of Alba is starring in an opera buffa instead of an opera seria, this is the story for you :D (The historical Don Carlos is mentioned, but only in passing, in a way where you could conceivably headcanon in the opera if you wanted.)

Bad Reputation (2778 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 16th Century CE Hapsburg RPF, 16th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Barbara Blomberg & Fernando Álvarez de Toledo III Duque de Alba, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo III Duque de Alba & Felipe II de España | Philip II of Spain
Characters: Barbara Blomberg, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo III Duque de Alba, Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens, Felipe II de España | Philip II of Spain, Juan de Austria | John of Austria
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Character Study, Dark Comedy, Winning at life
Summary:

The Duke of Alba might be King Philip's most feared general and the terror of the Netherlands, but even he is an utter loss on how to deal with one woman: Barbara Blomberg, former lover of the late Emperor Charles V., mother of Spain's latest national hero - and determined to live her life exactly the way she wants to.

I also was pleased to get a treat in 18th C Frederician RPF, which is about the first meeting of Frederick the Great (back when he was just Prince Friedrich and his lover/best friend Katte had just been executed by his father) and his life partner/valet Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf. The most lovely thing about this story, for me, and which I think will appeal to some of you as well, is the lovely lovely descriptions of music and how both Fritz and Fredersdorf feel about music, and how they start to form a bond because of the shared way they feel about it. (Also, Fredersdorf is greeeeeat and this story leans into that.) I don't think you need to know canon except what I've just said.

A Prussian Christmas Tale (7430 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF, 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf/Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Hans Hermann von Katte
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, Curt Christoph von Schwerin
Additional Tags: First Meetings, Grief/Mourning, Character Study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Christmas, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Having survived a year of imprisonment and haunted by the death of Katte, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia is determined to focus on nothing but ambition, and shut out all sentiment. But the Christmas of 1731 has a surprise in store for him: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf...

Then, two treats in Madness! The first is a small treat about Gram Tillerman, whom I love very much, and I was so happy to get something that centered on her, especially since the books are more centered on the kids, and she's such a fascinating character.

I know who you are (439 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Tillerman Cycle - Cynthia Voigt
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Abigail "Gram" Tillerman
Additional Tags: Character Study
Summary:

A brief reflection on Abigail Tillerman as her grandchildren invade her life.

The second is a riff on Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird applied to Frederick the Great, Voltaire, and Frederick's brother Prince Henry, and his friend/friend-with-benefits Lehndorff, and I totally did not expect this cracky, touching, allusive brilliance. Unfortunately I think it might be pretty hard to follow if you didn't already know something about the canon. (Though if you've read some of the Frederician fics, that might be enough for some of it -- e.g. if you've read the Voltaire fics in the fandom, that would probably be enough to follow the Voltaire parts.) But it's still lovely even if you don't get all the references :D

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Frederick (781 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Voltaire (Writer), Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802), Ernst Ahasverus von Lehndorff
Additional Tags: Poetry
Summary:

I was of three minds.

Comments

[seekingferret]

Hapsburg names are so confusing, it took me about five minutes to googling to confirm that Margaret of Parma is not one of the Hapsburg Margarets I'm familiar with. (For Pirate Rabbi reasons, I'm much more familiar with the court of Philip III than Philip II)

[cahn]

Now that I am apparently in the fandom of historical RPF, I join everyone else in the fandom in thinking it is SO ANNOYING that people in history are ALL NAMED THE SAME THING. I understand they wanted to name people after each other, but why didn't they think of future generations who would want to write and read fic about them?? (even more confusingly, googling tells me there are TWO Margarets of Austria, one of which I think is the one you're thinking of? whom I didn't know about because not really a history person, the other of which is the one I'm very slightly familiar with)

[seekingferret]

There were two different Hapsburg Margarets at Philip III's court: Queen Margaret of Austria, and Margaret of the Cross.

[seekingferret]

$#!%#!$#!$@#!&^(*^%

[cahn]

IT IS THE WORST

[mildred_of_midgard]

It can always get worse.

The House of Reuss practises a unique system of naming and numbering the male members of the family, every one of whom for centuries has borne the name "Heinrich", followed by a Roman numeral. While most royal and noble houses assign a regnal number only to the ruling head of the house, and that in the sequential order of their reigns, the Reuss Junior Line ("Reuss, J.L.") used a numbering sequence for all male family members which began afresh with the first son born in each century. The male children within a single nuclear family need not bear sequential numbers, as all members of the larger family share the common numbering system. For example, the sons of Prince Heinrich LXVII Reuss of Schleiz, in order of their births, were named Heinrich V, Heinrich VIII, Heinrich XI, Heinrich XIV, and Heinrich XVI, with their male-line kinsmen holding the numerals in between according to the order of their births.

[cahn]

THIS IS JUST LAME :P

[thistleingrey]

Yay, the music things came right! I'm glad.

[cahn]

:) <3 Me too! I would have really wanted it to go well in any case, since my job, but particularly this year since we just didn't get to do a lot last year.

[thistleingrey]

Yes, that definitely feels like part of the gift :)

[primeideal]

(E likes to play board games with other people less than she likes to read the rules and play games with herself).

Considering how many board games have been purchased but not played during the pandemic, I think a lot of gamers (myself included) would find that a useful trait to develop! ;)

[cahn]

haha, that's a good point! :) In any case, she is starting to see the benefits of playing games with other people (not least that sometimes they have different fun games to play!) so that's good too!

[umadoshi]

I am here to say YAY, DUCK!!! *^^*

[cahn]

Duck is soooo great!! :D I am having some leftover gravy on rice for lunch and it is SO GOOD.

[mildred_of_midgard]

I need to try duck again! The only time I had it, it was candied duck, and I'm noooot a fan of sweet-and-savory, so my reaction when I tried it was, "There's probably good meat under here, but all I can taste is this stupid glaze, ugh." <-- Resident carnivore without a notable sweet tooth.

[cahn]

I adore sweet-and-savory :P :D Well, sometimes -- I can go back and forth about sweet glazes (sometimes I really like them, sometimes not so much), and for this first go-round we just used a basic savory roasting recipe which worked great. Duck is basically a darker, fattier, more delicious version of turkey or chicken :D