May your holiday be bright and shiny,
and your ‘verse, filled with shindigs and thrilling heroics.
- Kaylee and Jayne
——————————

Happy holidays, y’all! As I said the other day, I’ve been dying to do some holiday cosplay with Kaylee and Jayne ever since we adopted them five years ago, and this year I finally got to it! I decorated the entire tree with pirates in their honor (The crew of Serenity? Space pirates! Totally relevant to Pastafarianism, since doctrine holds that the decline in pirates is correlated with global warming – and thus in order to avert the apocalypse, we have to bring back piracy. Check and mate.), which was no small feat seeing as I made most of the ornaments by hand over a two-month period. I also hired someone to custom-make Kaylee Frye and Jayne Cobb outfits way back in August. Oh, the planning that went into this holiday card!

Unfortunately, my seamstress totally flaked (Updated to add: full story here!), leaving me to cobble together costumes from off-the-rack pieces at the last minute. Instead of a green mechanic’s jumpsuit and floral blouse, Kaylee is wearing her shindig dress – that is, a Cotton Candy Dog Dress by East Side Collection. And while Jayne isn’t sporting a trademark brown Jayne Cobb ringer tee, she does look pretty badass in a green army jacket – really an Army Green Utility Jacket by Zack & Zoey.

Of course, the Jayne hat is the star of the ensemble; I actually had three custom-made for me by two different etsians: Sam’s Crochet (that would be the adorably floppy, Rasta-style hat Jayne and Peedee are wearing) and Whitaker Knits (the smaller hats with the orange tie, as seen on Ralphie and O-Ren, below). Rounding out Jayne’s look is a Browncoats logo pin I scored on Amazon. (It’s on her chest and not clearly visible in all the photos.) I also picked up some cute ID badges on eBay, but couldn’t find a place for them in the final outfits. Instead, they became ornaments for the tree.

Here’s a little character collage I put together for my family, who are not Firefly fans (THE HORRA!) and thus didn’t get the reference. Side-by-side comparison time! How do you think I did?

All’s shiny that ends shiny, I say.

Outtakes and extras after the jump!

Here’s the message label for the back of the card; I figured out ages ago that this is way easier than writing a message by hand (BY HAND! INTERNETS, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY PENMANSHIP!?!) on the back of each card. Also: safer and less messy. No bloody bleeding ink!

I also print out my own address labels, with a new design each holiday. The “to” labels have a shiny Browncoats logo,

while the image on the return labels is from the “Can’t Stop the Serenity” charity screenings.

Last but not least, I decorated the festive red envelopes with Alliance Postal and Blue Sun stamps from Ma Cobbe’s Hat Shoppe. Yeah, I totally geeked out this year. How could I not? BEST. THEME. EVER!

Now for the “outtakes”: one per animal – including Kaylee and Jayne, ’cause their outfits were so damn nice I had to do them twice – including one in memoriam for dear Ozzy, who passed away in June. Each card features a quote from Firefly or Serenity and, where possible, the animals are wearing a Jayne hat. (Since they’re new and don’t yet know their sits and stays, it was all I could do to snap a quick pic of Mags and Finnick in front of the tree – let alone in front of the tree AND wearing silly hats. I had to hold Fin in place by the backside and crop my hand out later. That one would rather be shot in the face than have his picture taken, I tell you what!) As for the cat, he cannot be contained. I had to bribe him into place with bits of dried cranberry, which he licks until they’re good and sticky and then just bats around the house.

Also, he really can kill you with his brain.

“I aim to misbehave.”
- Mal Reynolds, Serenity
——————————

“Yes, sir, Cap’n Tightpants.”
- Kaylee Frye, episode 4, “Shindig”
——————————

“Big Damn Heroes, sir.”
- Zoe Washburne, episode five, “Safe”
——————————

“Goin’ on a year now I ain’t had nothin’ twixt my nethers weren’t run on batteries!”
- Kaylee Frye, Serenity
——————————

“She is starting to damage my calm.”
- Jayne Cobb, Serenity
——————————

“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”
- Hoban “Wash” Washburne, “Serenity” (pilot)
——————————

“This must be what going mad feels like.”
- Simon Tam, episode seven, “Jaynestown”
——————————

“I can kill you with my brain.”
- River Tam, episode eleven, “Trash”
——————————

“I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.”
- Hoban “Wash” Washburne, Serenity
——————————

* Shepherd Book, episode two, “The Train Job”

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Filed under atheism, cats, dogs, finnick, firefly, flying spaghetti monster, jayne, joss whedon, kaylee, lemmy, mags, my furkids, oren, ozzy, peedee, pirates, ralphie, xmas

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