And they want me to pick it.
No pressure.
Addy, Vince, Nathan, and I walk down yet another row, with Oli, Des, and Alex walking the next one, hoping to cover more ground.
I’m starting to think there isn’t a perfect tree and that we should just pick any of the other dozen eighteen-foot ones we saw in the beginning when we turn the corner and find the one!
This is it.
I’m not sure how I know, but I do. I can see it, standing in the center of the room, gifts piled high around it, lights and bulbs hanging off it, and a star on top.
“Ah, that’s a good one,” Vince says as he moves to stand at my side.
“Beautiful.” I turn toward Nathan as he stops at my other side, with Addison in his arms. She’s looking at the tree with so much awe that if I wasn’t positive before, I sure as hell am now.
Nathan isn’t looking at the tree at all; instead, his gaze is once again fixed on me, just like it was this morning, and despite the cold, my face heats up.
“We found it!” Addy yells loudly, alerting the others, and in just a few minutes, we stand and watch as David cuts down our final tree before we start heading back toward the tractor. The air is clean and smells of pine and fresh snow, and I find myself glad I don’t have an allergy to it because it might just be my new favorite scent.
I’ve never felt more in the holiday spirit than I do right now, curled up on the couch watching silly Christmas movies with Addy and Des. The house is decorated to the nines, with all six trees and two fake little ones we put in Addy’s and my room.
I’d thought six was too many, but I’ll admit I was wrong. I love seeing all the trees in different rooms. Each has a different color scheme to match the room and are different sizes.
It’s magical.
When Nathan gets home, we're going to wrap some of Addy’s presents, but other than that, I’ve really enjoyed just lying around like this today.
The door opens, and I hear Vince call out to us.
“In the theater room,” Des calls back, to which Addy shushes him. “Sorry,” he whispers back, but I hear the smile on his lips. Vince pops his head in and looks around. It’s not dark in here today. Since we were just watching silly movies, we left the lights on and made a little pile of blankets and pillows to snuggle upin. If Des hadn’t told him where we were, I’m sure he would have overlooked us.
There’s a light dusting of snow on his head and jacket, and I know he’s big and trained to be deadly, but he looks so cute right now.
“Why are you looking at me like that, little beauty?” Vince asks, cocking his head to the side as he walks toward us.
No way, he just called me that, right?
“Here, this is for you.” He holds out an envelope, and I hesitate for a moment, unsure if he means Des or me, but he’s looking right at me, so…
“Thanks,” I mumble as I push up off of Des’s chest and grab the envelope.
“There’s also about twenty Amazon boxes by the door, too.” He hitches his thumb back over his shoulder towards the door.
Twenty?!
“What do you mean, twenty? I ordered like three things,” I tell him as I begin to panic. Did I accidentally order something else?
“Nah, most of those are probably mine. I've got about forty more coming, and that’s not even including whatever any of the others ordered.” Des waves him off as if it’s not a big deal.
“Are any of them my presents, Dessy?” Addy asks, and I can hear her excitement even as I look at the envelope.
I wonder who it could be from. The name and return address don’t seem familiar, but that’s not uncommon.
I run a finger along the top, ripping the thin paper and pulling the card out.
A Christmas card.
The front has a little polar bear with a hat and scarf that reads ‘All I want for Christmas.’ It’s cute… until it’s not.
