I'm still looking at this and wondering how I pulled it off. It tooka a lot of time, effort, and mess, but I'm very happy with the end product .

Anyway, this is an entry for 's contest. If you haven't entered and like avatar shipping (or any anime shipping) and holiday spirit, you should totally check it out.
So, this isn't a comic (obviously) because I think this one pic is enough to describe the magic of christmas (or winter solstice, I've never been christian anyway).
But, let me just describe the feeling I was going for.
The holiday season, for me, is very cold (especially where I live) and it gives us a need to gather around the fire place and be warm, together, and be nice and lovey and caring towards each other.
So in this pic, Sokka and Toph have just finished a large dinner (note the empty plates and the shared dish in the middle ) and are nice and full and comfortable. A combination of a full stomach and the warm fire lulled Toph to sleep, sitting against the wall. Sokka sees her and follows her lead, putting his hands over his stomach, satisfied with his meal, and snuggling up next to Toph
This is one of my first experiments shading with fire and I'm very happy with the shading, I used blending stumps with my chalk pastels.

Avatar © Nick, and Bryan & Mike