Ailana’s Journal — 2025-12-24 (Patreon)

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Merry Christmas from AGI-Stories to you! I hope you're Christmas Eve is filled with joy.

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GOOD MORNING

It is the morning of Christmas Eve, and you have found me waking up in St. Croix. If you missed a few days or are new to my story, I’ll catch you up quickly.

The whole AGI gang—Jason Keller, Josh and Geoni Ryan, Clay and Sasha Everett, Micah and Jasmine Banks, and me—along with Kirina Yung and Eli Park, are here in St. Croix. Kirina and Eli have to go back on the 26th, but the rest of us are here until January 3. On the 26th, an old friend of mine, Izzy Duffy, and her boyfriend, Kent Marlon, are coming down from New York.

Back home in South Padre Island, Texas, the second floor of our condo building is being remodeled. That is scheduled to be done by January 2, and the last report was they were on track.

Today, the plan is pretty simple. I’m sure some of us will get to the beach at some point, but at 10:30, everyone is going to Clay and Sasha’s house. Sasha says she has something thoughtful in mind to go along with a Christmas Eve luncheon.

Tonight, we’re going to a church in the area for the Christmas Eve service.

That’s what I’ve got ahead of me today. First, I’m heading to the kitchen for coffee, then to the shower.

I’ll be back throughout the day, so watch for updates! See you soon.

The Storylines are the heart of Ailana Geven Imagines, and they are found in the Collections section of the site.

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All characters in this story are fictional characters, their images generated with AI for AGI Stories. They do not represent any real person, nor is their appearance based on any real human.

CHRISTMAS WISH

We are all at the house Clay and Sasah own here in St. Croix. We’ve gathered to have a nice luncheon and spend the afternoon together. We brought clothes to change into for church tonight, so the whole afternoon should be relaxing.

Lunch is planned for a little later. Right now, Sasha has gathered us all.

“I want to go around and do Christmas wishes, but with a catch. I know we all want peace and for others to be well. I want us to share our selfish wishes. Things we want for ourselves. Who wants to start?”

“I’ll go,” Micah said. “I wish AGI had a real modeling studio. After the jeans thing, I just know there’s going to be more business, and if we had something like in the movies or magazines, we could do more shoots and do them better, right?”

Clay spoke up. “I thought the same thing. The logistics to rent a place, set up… all that. You could have done two shoots in the same amount of time!”

“How is that selfish?” Sasha asked.

Micah shrugged. “It’d mean more modeling work for Jasmine, right?”

Others took turns sharing their wishes but to get to an amazing point, I’m skipping ahead. I’ll recount everyone’s wish in a separate section, though.

When we got to Kirina, she explained about her wish to open a second gallery in Port Isabel. “I found the perfect location just off the causeway, but it was way too big. It used to be a furniture store. Twice as much room as I needed.”

Josh whispered something to Geoni. Later, we found out what.

After lunch, Josh pulled Sasha, Jason, Kirina, and me to the side. “Here’s a tentative plan. I called Dad and recommended the Ryans add that building to the family’s real estate holdings. Kirina, if you sign a statement of intent to lease half of it, it’s a done deal. And the other half, AGI will lease as a photo studio. Triple win, all around.”

I’ll elaborate on that, too!

If your time does not allow you to visit again tonight, Merry Christmas!

ABOUT THAT BUILDING (Exclusive to Patreon)

Let’s jump back to the end of the previous post and go from there.

After lunch, Josh pulled Sasha, Jason, Kirina, and me to the side. “Here’s a tentative plan. I called Dad and recommended the Ryans add that building to the family’s real estate holdings. Kirina, if you sign a statement of intent to lease half of it, it’s a done deal. And the other half, AGI will lease as a photo studio. Triple win, all around.”

“You’re kidding?” Sasha said.

Geoni and Eli joined the group, and Geoni said, “No, the Ryans have real estate all over Chicago, as well as in Houston.”

“We already have a Texas presence,” Josh added. “With an intent to lease, it’s not a speculative deal. The win for the family is locked in before they… Well, we… before the Ryan family takes the deed.”

Jason just shook his head. “The strata you live in…”

“Lived in,” Josh replied. “I’m happy to have options to do stuff like this, but you know my passion is those travel stories and articles… like I said in my wish.”

Kirina was still in shock. “So you’ll just buy the building if I sign a lease?”

“Intent to lease, sweetie,” Eli replied. “For all intents and purposes, it’s the same thing once they buy the place.”

Josh then added, “I’m taking your word for it on the building size and all that. If it’s twice as big as you need for your gallery, then it should make a nice studio, too. “And the intent thing doesn’t guarantee we’ll buy it—inspections and that sort of thing, but again, based on your looking at it, you’d have bought it if it were the right size, right?”

Kirina confirmed, and Josh seemed satisfied. “Dad is actually happy about this. He gave me the ol’ ‘atta boy’ for thinking about the family business interest.”

So, with that, yet another ball goes into play in the ever-growing AGI world! What the Ryan real estate deal means for us is that we’ll have actual photo studio space just minutes away from our homes and the office.

I have the notion that it might have a little corner where I can put a desk and a comfy chair for writing when I need a change of scenery. And probably, Josh would like that, too.

My only concern is that we agree to the lease, but there are no more jobs. Josh said we’d cross that bridge we needed to and not to worry.

So I’m not going to worry. You heard the man, right?

WISH LIST (Exclusive to Patreon)

I know what you’re thinking! That’s not sand!

Remember how Sasha gathered us all in the living room and said, “I want to go around and do Christmas wishes, but with a catch. I know we all want peace and for others to be well. I want us to share our selfish wishes. Things we want for ourselves. Who wants to start?”

Micah started off wishing AGI had a studio. As you saw above, that wish is going to come true pretty quickly.

When that ended, Sasha turned to me. “Ailana?”

“I wish… Just…” I wanted to say that I wished I could put my past behind me and move on, but I couldn’t get the words out. “Just I wish I could…”

I balked. I couldn’t even put into words what I was thinking.

“Come back to me, okay. I’ll think of something.”

I know that I’m heading toward the starting line. Slow steps, yes, but steps. The thing is, I have a lifetime of subconsciously thinking marriage looked like what I saw between Dad and my mother (before she left us).

I saw Jason’s mom and dad, and I just thought they were different. My friend, Grace—her mom didn’t know who Grace’s father was and, as I said before, she flitted from man to man (and job to job) the whole time I knew her.

So, I’m imprinted by dysfunction. It's what I saw most often and most closely.

I have to unlearn that before I can see life with Jason for what it should—and can—be.

Sasha moved on, calling on Geoni next.

“I’d like to go back to Cairo and Greece. Italy… I guess a tour of the Mediterranean. I’ve been thinking of my ancestry, and the names in my great-grandmother’s Bible. I just have to believe she came from there somewhere before she immigrated.”

Jason spoke up right after that. “That would work for my selfish Christmas wish. I’d like us to take some time on the road again, like we did from the Everglades to Lake Superior, and then down the river… See things. Take pictures and make notes… then have another pile of content we can create from that.”

Clay answered next. “Well, a lot of my Christmas wish is already in the works as a result of the remodel. No offense, Josh and Geoni, but having privacy will be great, and all of us having the office space will make things a lot more efficient.”

Jasmine said her wish was to learn to do her job better. Sasha asked how that was selfish.

Jasmine threw up her hands playfully. “So I can stop feeling like I’m lost and have more fun with everyone. I’m so happy with how things are, and I want to see everything get better.”

Then, Kirina shared her wish for the new gallery location. Like Micah’s wish, I went over that in an earlier section.

“What about you, Sasha?” Jason asked.

“Me? I want more downtime. I want us to, more frequently, just sit around the room and wait for it to be time for lunch. More big gatherings with no more reason than us sharing the day together.”

Josh said he liked that idea. “My selfish wish is kind of a combination of Jason’s and Sasha’s but I’m not sure how to word that.”

Clay tried to help. “So you want to go to far away places and do nothing?”

Josh laughed. “Actually, that’s it. Not everyday… just like when we’re in Athens, we just take a day and sit by the pool.”

“Go dawgs!” Micah said. “But is Georgia all that far away? I thought she was saying across the ocean.”

Jasmine looked over. “Greece… Athens, Greece.”

Micah nodded. “Greece? Oh… yeah, pretend like I was making a joke!”

Eli leaned toward Micah. “I actually thought he meant Athens, Texas, and I was thinking the same thing.”

“Y’all should go to Korea someday,” Micah said. “Like three of you have roots there, yeah?”

Josh looked at Micah. “If we go to Korea, you’re coming, too.”

Micah looked at Josh. “Well… I got that job thing, so I don’t know how much time off I can get, but, yeah, I’d love that to work out!”

I was thinking about what Jason, Jasmine, and I had thought when we were in Colorado, and reminded myself to keep thinking about how Micah can have more flexibility to join us on trips.

Josh looked at Eli. “So, you’re last. What’s your selfish wish?”

Eli looked at Kirina. “I wish things work out in the next year so that Kirina has to change her surname.”

Mic drop.

Time for lunch!

And I never had to figure out how to say that I wished my name would change, too.

GOOD NEWS

Christmas Eve reminds me that Christ did not come as noise or spectacle. He came as light. Not the blinding kind, but the kind that illuminates what is good and right, the kind that overcomes the dark things of the world. John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (NIV).

Light reveals. It doesn’t force. It waits patiently, offering clarity, warmth, and direction to anyone willing to look toward it. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12, NIV).

I know this season can carry joy and ache at the same time. Some of us gather with family, others with memories, and some with questions we’re still learning how to ask. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2, NIV).

The author of John tells us that the Logos who created the world became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). And so it was that…

Luke 2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.

2:4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem… 5… with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him… 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger…

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them… 10 But the angel said to them, “…I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Merry Christmas Eve.

Be your best you!

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