We all learned a lot these past thirteen days. We learned about fisting, and the captioning service learned about fisting, too. We learned that Autostraddle could possibly put out a cookbook and that we have a food photographer writing for us if we wanted to do this! We’ve shared uncomfortable (and comforting) stories about gifts, figured out how to find magic together in a difficult year — and we explored some kind of magic that occurred within a butt! We learned that the TV Team are all secretly incredible fanfiction writers. And. So. Much. More!
Thank you for going on this Holigay journey with us, for being here with this team, doing this work in 2020. Thank you for finding little moments of togetherness and joy with us. Thank you, also and in advance, for everything we’re going to accomplish together in 2021. We won’t be able to do it without you!
SO CHEERS TO YOU A+ MEMBERS!
To wrap up these 13 Days with a sneaky 14th day, I just wanted to leave you with three things. One is a lightly edited transcript. It’s a teeny tiny excerpt from the 90-minute long A+ planning meeting we had during our virtual retreat in September (which was, essentially, a series of Zoom meetings). Kamala recorded the audio from all these meetings, so what follows is how we came to decide to embark on this 13-day-long journey. The second thing is an excerpt from the Holigay Cooking AMA Slack channel. Even as I type this, well into the afternoon, it still gives me the distinct bodily memory of being ultra-caffeinated first thing in the morning. The third is a moment where Sarah and Rachel contemplated their stock photo options. Now, I’m going to leave you with my favorite quote from this whole thing and hope you enjoy.
“I can talk about fisting and making gluten-free biscuits. Those are my two talents.”
-Malic during “Merry Fistmas”
September Senior Staff Virtual Shakedown
Carmen: Is there a thing we can send to A+ members from the team that’s cheap? Is that a terrible idea, maybe? I’m just brainstorming.
Riese: We could send them locks of our hair.
Carmen: [Gasps and laughs] There you go.
Nicole: One hair. And just like staple it. Because you need 5,000 hairs, so…
Riese: It grows back. I’m sure Rachel has that many on her head.*
Nicole: I was just looking at Rachel’s hair…perfect.
Riese: She has so much. Look how long it is!
[Nicole goes through the math of what it would take to send something to every A+ member (NOT hair), team concludes this is not the easiest or most cost effective option right now.]
Carmen: [Really fast.] Okay! I’m gonna say another thing and I’m gonna hate it. I’m gonna do the thing Laneia does where after I say it, we’re going to pretend I never said it, after. Okay. Ready?
[Pregnant pause]
Carmen: 12 days of A+ content for the holigays, where they get one thing of A+ content every day for 12 days.
Nicole: Wow!
Riese: Can we get 13 days?
Carmen: Well…it’s the 12 Days of Christmas.
Riese: Yeah, but that’s…Christian.
[Laughter]
Carmen: True, true.
Nicole: What’s 13 days?
Riese: Not Christian…It’s like Christian plus the Devil.
[Squeal of laughter, source unknown]
Carmen: I thought you were going to say eight days for Hanukkah, but then, same problem.
[All talking at once]
Riese: I think it’s a cute idea!
Carmen: Just a piece of content every day.
Nicole: Just like, ‘We love you, here’s some stuff.’
Riese: And a partridge in a pear tree.
*Apparently the average human head of hair contains ~100,000 hairs.
A+ Cooking AMA
nicole: Morning! AMA today is: 7am-10am PST AND 2pm-5pm PST
Post publishes in 6 minutes 
valerie:
meg: 
vanessa: 
GOOD MORNING
nicole: Good morning!! Thank you all so much for doing this!
valerie:
nicole: And we have our first q 
thanks again all for bein here
carmen: Oh my god I blinked and now there’s like 30 comments!! In a half hour!
vanessa: i am having FUN
how’s everyone DOING
i slept for 4 hours last night and just taught a high school class of brilliant geniuses THE KIDS R
ALRIGHT
let’s talk about COOKING
hahaha bet y’all are excited to hang with sleep deprived and hopped up on caffeine VANESSA
WHAT CAN’T SHE ALL-CAPS
nicole: I am strUGgling to get you all up on insta stories because my phone won’t download photos atm because apparently tech objects can have moods. But we’ll get there!! SO GLAD YOU’RE HERE VANESSA.
meg: i am on like my 5th cup of coffee and am also exhausted so i SEE YOU vanessa
big day for all caps
let’s GOOOOOOOO
vanessa: ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME
i’m rly on one! blowing up this channel! it’s not even 9am! WHAT WILL TODAY HOLD.
valerie: i need to catch up re: coffee but I’M HERE I’M QUEER I’M ANSWERIN’ QUESTIONS I’M NOT REALLY QUALIFIED TO ANSWER
nicole: That is the spirit!!!
vanessa: VALERIE I FEEL LIKE THAT IS MY LIFE ON THE INTERNET
nicole: I’m two french presses in, gonna go make more.
vanessa: FOR THE PAST 10 YRS LOL
valerie: ahaha fake it til we make it!!
rachel: morning!
carmen: This is really cuuuuute and fun!!! I love talking about food
vanessa: me too!!!
i put it in a comment but just incase everyone wants to ponder about this for real…
haha this is such a cute outcome, i feel like by the end of the day we’re gonna need to compile a cookbook from this post
…omg an autostraddle cookbook as a future A+ item, @nicole am i a genius or?!?!
nicole: You all are doing amazing!!
We could do something like that IF we had original recipes, I think!
I’m not 100% up on my cookbook intellectual property law 
But I do love this 
vanessa: haha ok well it’s a project to think about for the future!! maybe!!
or maybe i’m just HIGH ON THIS AMA
meg: um a cookbook would be delightful
also ahem you already have at least one food photographer / person with recipe testing and food styling experience
rachel: everyone’s answers are so thorough i am loving the energy
vanessa: meg i am OBSESSED with your job
like certifiably one of the coolest people i know
nicole: OH MY GOD MEG
You’re right. Wow.
I love this for us / this talented team.
meg: ahh thank you, i have like 20 ridiculous jobs lol
also @carmen this cashew shrimp stir fry recipe looks SO GOOD
valerie:i also could hook us all up with OXO tools
also i agree that meg is the coolest person ever
meanwhile i’m shouting I LOVE SOUP at her in the comments of the ama
Bingo
Sarah Sarwar [5:35 PM]:
what do you think?
[5:39 PM] could also do something like this
Rachel Kincaid [5:39 PM]
ahahaha
Sarah Sarwar [5:40 PM]
might be more fun lolol
Rachel Kincaid [5:40 PM]
i think let’s do the first one!
Sarah Sarwar [5:40 PM]
ok cool
Rachel Kincaid [5:40 PM]
to let people know more clearly that it’s a real bingo game they can play
Sarah Sarwar [5:40 PM]
haha perfect
Rachel Kincaid [5:40 PM]
but secretly i will always enjoy the second one more
Sarah Sarwar [5:40 PM]
lolll
[5:40 PM] same
Sarah Sarwar [5:49 PM]
rachel.
[5:49 PM]
[5:49 PM] for the gift roundtable lmao
[5:49 PM]
[5:50 PM] lol what is happening in this photoshoot
Rachel Kincaid [7:09 PM]
omg
Wow thank you for this gift and also the whole gift of 13 days of A+. I love knowing that the 13 stands for Christianity + the devil
Thanks for helping me find my personal brand: “Christian plus the Devil.” 😅
You really thought about sending us all gifts 🥺💚 (I’m glad you decided not to but awww)
this entire series was delightful!!! im dead over the conversation that conceptualized this idea, CARMEN IT WAS A GOOD IDEA. also nicole i also learned the fact about average hairs on a human head this month too! woo! love y’all happy new yearrrr
Oh, I meant to say that I did get around to making those almond flour and coconut flour spiced cookies (gluten free and vegan…though I can now happily report that my family bought a couple bags of real flour! yay!). They came out well, and were indeed chewy, as the recipe promised. Thank you all for the suggestions!
I used slightly less sugar than the recipe called for, mostly because my family’s brown sugar was hard as a rock, stuck to a plastic container that may or may not have been microwavable. (I got tired of pounding away at it with a fork and then butter knife.)