Funny / Holidays with Holmes

• "Easter":
  • Watson comes into the sitting room in the middle of Holmes rattling the windows by yelling for Mrs. Hudson. The detective doesn't even say good morning, just asking if he's seen Mrs. Hudson.
    Watson: Good morning to you too.
    Holmes: Our landlady, Watson. Have you seen her?
    Watson: Yes, I was aware that she is our landlady. And no, I have not. Pass the coffee?
    Holmes: The pot's empty. MRS. HUDSON!
    Watson winces at "the vehemence of his caffeine-accentuated vociferations."
  • The highly-caffeinated Holmes starts explaining the features presented by the Times that morning.
    I sighed and performed my regular duty of tuning out the hour-long dissertation [on the agony column] that inevitably accompanied the emptying of a coffee-pot before I could reach the sitting room in the mornings.
  • Mrs. Hudson, having some leftover Easter eggs, used them for her lodgers' breakfast soft-boiled eggs. Holmes is utterly flummoxed, not having remembered the holiday. When Watson explains the tradition of Easter eggs "as to a small child", Holmes asks if that's the truth or another of Watson's romantic fictions.
  • After Mrs. Hudson and Watson mention the Easter Bunny in front of him, Holmes dismisses the entire day. Watson asks if he has to be so grouchy even on a holiday, and Holmes snaps, "Especially on a holiday!"
  • Watson wraps up the narrative by saying that it's equally unlikely that science will prove the existence of the Easter Rabbit or that Holmes will learn to enjoy the holidays at some point.
• "Christmas": The chapter begins with a flashback about Mycroft inviting Holmes and Watson to a Christmas party.
  • After Mycroft criticizes Sherlock for being unable to think of a gift for Watson besides cuff links, the detective shoots his older brother a Death Glare that would have turned anyone else into dust.
    Unfortunately, elder brother had been inured against that power from early adolescence.
  • When Watson challenges Mycroft to explain what made him think the cuff links were from Sherlock, the older Holmes answers that first of all, his younger brother has no originality whatever.
  • Mycroft says that Sherlock has always had trouble with fashion, and Watson, who has only ever known the fairly sharp-dressed modern Sherlock, asks him about it. Mycroft reveals that for some time, his mother was convinced Sherlock was colorblind because of how badly mismatched his clothes always were. The only thing that convinced her otherwise was Mycroft pointing out that he never had any trouble with litmus tests.
  • The way Mycroft managed to get Sherlock to a holiday party in the first place? Fraternal blackmail.
• "New Year's":
  • Describing Holmes' injuries, Watson says he received nothing but a bump on the head "that made him unconscious for fifteen minutes and irritable for two hours" and resultant bruises that produced a shriek from the Lady of their client's family "which of course helped his headache immensely."
  • When Watson finds out that "Mr. Bubbles" is the young master's bulldog puppy, Holmes comments that he hopes that it was the child and not his client who named the animal, or he suspects it will cause Sanity Slippage if they have to stay with them over a snowstorm. A bit later, Watson reminisces about having a dog like this, and Holmes asks for reassurance that he didn't name it anything so hideous.