Driving the Tesla through the winding mountain roads was fun. It hugged the turns like a sports car, but she was scared to push it too fast.
It was cold out, but the sun and blue sky made up for it. Sheput her sunglasses on, and her mind drifted back to Tucker and getting hot chocolate with him tonight.
Why was she allowing herself to get so excited over someone who lived so far from her, and yet, what was the harm in having a little fun? It was just hot chocolate, after all. She daydreamed, thinking about how fun it would be if it ended up snowing. She pictured them making snow angels in a blanketed field of fresh powder.
From the looks of the sky, there was zero chance of that tonight.
Being single at the holidays sucked. Spending Christmas here in Chestnut Ridge with Natalie was already more fun than she could’ve hoped for. She’d expected Christiansburg to be a small town, but it was actually quite populated. Not only did it have an adorable Main Street, but there was lots of brand-name shopping here, and there were plenty of restaurants.
A sushi restaurant caught her eye, so she swerved into the parking lot and treated herself to a roll and a pot of hot tea before shopping.
The store was just up the street, and luckily, she was able to find everything on the list Natalie had given her. Natalie had texted her pictures of several birdhouses she’d hand-painted for the tree as an example of colors and theme. She was such a talented artist.
Sheila sifted through boxes of wrapping paper to find something just right not only for her gifts to Natalie and Randy, but for the children’s gifts she planned to order for the Jacobs.
She couldn’t believe her luck when she found a pretty white holiday wrapping paper decorated with snowy trees filled with bright red cardinals, and that gave her an idea. She tossed tworolls of wrapping paper into the buggy and raced off for the floral section.
There are always a few spots in a real tree that are less than perfect. Sometimes even a big gaping hole. It was why she preferred an artificial tree. But rules being what they were, she should be prepared for the imperfection, and she had the perfect idea.
She could fashion an oversize bird’s nest and adorn it with a decorative ribbon to correct the problem. It could be a gorgeous solution.
Hadn’t she read somewhere that having a bird’s nest in your live tree was good luck? She typed it into the search bar on her phone.
Legend has it that prosperity will come to any home that finds a bird’s nest nestled among the branches of the family Christmas tree.
“I knew it.” She’d thought she’d read that in a magazine once. It made some sense, mostly because it seemed highly unlikely that a bird’s nest could make it all the way from the woods to the retailer and through the tree being wrapped in a net and toted home and into someone’s house, but either way, there it was in black-and-white.
Maybe it will bring us good luck.
She found some pretty holiday picks while searching the floral section, but she was just about ready to resort to hot glue and pine straw to make a nest when a woman walked over.
“Can I help you find something?” the clerk asked.
“Maybe. I was trying to find a bird’s nest, or something to make one. What do you think?”
“We actually have some really cute ones, unless you have your heart set on making one from scratch.”
“Take me to the pre-made ones.” Sheila followed her over to the table decorations. There were several of the little round ones, even some with eggs in them, but then she saw the perfect one. It was large, probably eight inches across, which could really help fill that space, and it was made with pine straw, twigs, and branches.
“This is perfect,” Sheila said. “I want to tuck it into the sparse spot in a Christmas tree to fill it up.”
“That’s a great idea. You could even maybe set it on some colorful ribbon and insert a few feathers to draw attention to it. Feathers will be over on the craft aisle. Ribbon is over that way.”
“You’re the best. This is going to be so cute. Thank you,” Sheila said.
“You’re welcome. Good luck.”
“Merry Christmas,” Sheila said as she rushed over to the craft aisle with excitement.Merry Christmas, indeed.
She walked a little straighter, gathering all the goodies she could find, then stumbled across packages of twelve four-inch birdhouses. Raw wood, they could be painted to balance the colors needed on the tree. They’d be sort of like what Natalie had made, although in miniature and probably not near as pretty; she could do something simple. A must-have.
At the checkout she added a set of paints and paintbrushes, and glitter.Is there such a thing as too much sparkle at Christmas?
An hour later, she was back at Orene’s house with all the goodies laid out across her bed. She divided everything into piles: “Mine,” “Natalie’s,” and “Projects.”
Then she sat down at the table in the corner of her room andstarted painting the birdhouses, copying the designs on the ones Natalie had sent her the pictures of.
Sheila opted for matching colors and then doing simple holly leaves and red-dot berries, with a little glitter along the edges.
