“It’s just how I’d pictured it.” Natalie admired the height and fullness of the tree. “Exactly what I requested. Six foot, since that’s the size most people can fit in their home and this tree will be delivered to a family, and I went with the Fraser fir.”
Sheila walked around the tree, pulling some of the tangled branches and fluffing it as she went. “We’ve got one big naked spot on this side.”
“No worries,” Natalie said. “I read a whole article about tree fillers. We’ll work with it. There’s no such thing as a perfect tree. Even the fake ones have some open spots.”
“You’re right, we’ll fill the gap with something adorable. A statement piece.” Sheila pushed her hand in the awkwardly empty hole in the tree, trying to get an idea of the size they’d be working with, and hoping the cool bird’s nest would work.
Natalie had been carrying a big flat Christmas package in gold foil with a red velvet ribbon. “I brought this to kick everything off. Are you all ready?”
“What is it?” Amanda clapped her hands. “What do we do?”
“This is our theme sign. I’ve been working all week on it,” Natalie said.
“She’s telling the truth.” Randy playfully pouted. “I got stood up for our TuesdayandThursday dates this week.”
“I did not stand you up,” Natalie defended herself. “You knew good and well where I was, and what I was working on.”
“I’m still pouting.”
“Anyway.” She shot him a playful glance. “Are y’all ready?”
“Yes!”
“Each of you get over here and grab hold of one of the wrapping-paper tails,” said Natalie.
“Oh goodness gracious. You’ve been on Pinterest again, haven’t you?” Randy shook his head.
Sheila noticed that Natalie had wrapped the flattish box as pretty as a picture, but she’d left six three-inch tabs around the edges that she’d doctored up with extra tape. “I see what you mean. These paper tails.” Sheila pointed them out.
Each of them grabbed a tab, and then Natalie said, “Three, two, one…pull!”
They pulled their tabs, and the paper pulled away. Natalie dragged the rest away to hold up the theme sign for their team Christmas tree.
“It’s perfect!” Amanda danced, and Eli reached up and took her hand and gave her a twirl.
The sign was painted on canvas, and unlike most holiday decor in bright reds and greens, this one was a soft, glittery neutral background that made the tree branch and berries stand out like they were three-dimensional. Brightly colored birds dipped their beaks in the snow, and one flew toward a birdhouse in the background carrying a ribbon in its beak, trailing like a jet stream behind it, that readHOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS.
“Really well done,” Eli said.
Sheila said, “To further excite this little party, I made something, and I was worried it might not work on the tree, but now that I know we have that big gaping hole over there, I think it’s going to be perfect.” She dug through all her bags and then handed the box to Natalie. “Open this one.”
“What is it?” Natalie opened the box and pulled a bird’s nest out. “This is great. How did you even know?”
“When you texted me the pictures of your birdhouses before I went shopping, I remembered hearing somewhere that having a live Christmas tree with a bird’s nest in it is good luck. What do you think?”
“Did you make this?” Natalie asked.
“Well, I bought the bird’s nest, but I added the birds and feathers,” Sheila admitted. “Isn’t it charming?”
“It couldn’t be more perfect. Yes! Tuck it into that spot right now. We’ll work everything else around it to set it off.”
Sheila carefully settled the nest right into the branches. It fit snugly and was just cozy enough that the soft red and white feathers set it off.
“I hope the nest brings us good luck.”
“We don’t need luck.” Amanda started taking birdhouses out of the big red tub. “Look at these. You hand-painted every single one?”
“I did.”
