garnigal | X-posting the 4 most recent OC Advent Drabbles

I'm way behind - these prompts are for the 11th through the 14th.

Snowflake
It starts off small, like a single snowflake triggering an avalanche:
A job lost, a scary angry man, a battered and shattered woman, two frightened little boys.
Dangers compound, like scattered flurries:
Red and blue lights, a man becomes a criminal, a woman indulges in vice, two boys try and withstand.
The winds pick up and life becomes a blizzard:
A car packed with belongings, a woman finds new men, two boys take new paths.
Nothing is visible in the whiteout:
Screeching brakes, more addict than woman, one boy follows his father’s footsteps, the other boy…
Gets a second chance.

Scrooge
“Sir? You asked to see me?”
“Sit down, Bob. You know we’ve had some tough times lately, and we’ve all been working hard to keep things together. I’m sorry, but the time has come that we need to make some cuts.”
“You’re firing me? On Christmas Eve? You son of a… This is like something from a movie.”
“I’m not firing you, Bob, just right-sizing for our economic realities. Dylan, can you, uh, ‘help’ Bob gather up his things?
“I won’t forget this, Atwood. I’ll never forgive this!”
Ryan put his head on his desk. How had he become Scrooge?

Punch
It felt like he’d been sick for a week.
Mostly because he had been.
His head throbbed, his body ached, he couldn’t even think about food. His fever was so high he started to shiver. He was too miserable to sleep, but too weak to leave his bed. Noise and light made it worse, so Seth’s attempts to entertain him with television, video games and chatter were quickly aborted.
So it was no wonder that, punchy from illness, Ryan whispered a heartfelt “I love you” every time Kirsten brought him juice.
And every time, she whispered “I love you, too”.

Pudding
Pudding was a powder that came in a box. You added milk, stirred it up to try and make most of the powder dissolve, and ate it with a spoon.
Pudding was not cake. Pudding was not filled with fruit and alcohol (though if Mom could have made pudding with vodka, she might have had it more often). Pudding was not set on fire. Pudding was not served in cut glass bowls with a warm, rich sauce that was nothing but sugar and even more alcohol.
Pudding was delicious.
Pudding was not an acquired taste, no matter what Sandy said.