Nicely written! I like the use of brussel sprouts as the embodiment of the emotion your protagonist is feeling.

Loss of Christmas=loss of youth/innocence

It’s a great piece, the first line though, the empty plate. It sounds as though it’s clean with just the two sprout marring the immaculate whiteness of it all.

Having the plate be dirty, make it explicit that you’ve gone through the tasty potatoes and turkey and cranberry and whatever till you’re left with the two sprouts and smears of gravy and crumbs. You’d have the plate as a metaphor of what you’d gone though, the shiny enjoyment, the fun, the wonderful flavours and experiences till all you’re left with is nothing but a dirty plate and two sprouts and the memories of what went before.

I’ll try, but I have to be conscious of my limits :)

nice advice Akheloios gave you. I hadn’t thought of the plate as a metaphor the way you had written it. The analogy with brussel sprouts is good, but it leaves me wondering if she took the sprouts upon her plate in friendship, out of duty, rather than because she ate all but two. “Everything was delicious, thanks for having me over.”