“Here’s the sketch of the whole idea, but we need to let creativity pave the way.”
Everyone leaned in like a team huddle with Natalie as the quarterback. “Thank you all for being on my team. There are so many ideas to choose from, but in the information Orene had in her notebook the past five years I didn’t see anything like this.” Natalie set the sign aside.
“I’ve never seen anyone use birdhouses like this. I’m so glad you included me.”
“I thought we’d divvy up the jobs.”
Sheila raised her hand. “Can I show you my other surprise?”
“Another one? Yes! Bring it on.” Natalie followed Sheila over to the cart.
“I know I’m not an artist like you,” Sheila prefaced. “But I saw these teensy birdhouses, so I tried painting them in the colors that were in the pictures you showed me. You can doctor them up. Do you think they’re cute?”
Amanda was the first to react. “I want to hang those. They are perfect for the top part of the tree and little fillers. I feel like I didn’t bring anything to the table.”
“Don’t be silly,” Natalie said. “We’re all in this together.”
They spent the next hour spreading everything out on the ground to be sure they could space everything out just so and not overdo it.
“I just had the best idea,” Amanda said. “Eli, can you go home and cut off a couple of fresh holly boughs and bring themback? We can tuck them in here and there. The fresh greenery will give us another dimension of color, and the berries will tie in with the cardinals.”
“I’m on it,” Eli said.
“Before you go, Eli, can I get a vote of hands?” Randy looked across at them. “Topper first, like the firemen are doing, or last? I’ll be honest. I’ve always been a last-thing-is-the-topper kind of guy, but I get it that when the trees are out here in the open like this, it might be easier to do it first.”
“I never thought of that. And no wall to lean against when you’re up on the ladder to stretch over.” Eli made a face as if he was leaning toward putting it on first.
“I’m good either way,” Sheila said.
“Who’s in favor of putting the topper on first?” Randy counted hands.”
Randy, Eli, and Natalie raised their hands. “We’ll do it now, before you leave,” Randy said. “Majority rules.”
The team next to them was already decorating their snowman tree. They’d brought a nifty ladder that had handrails at the top so you could really lean in. “Couldn’t help but overhear,” one of them said as he stepped closer. “I’m Bubba. We had a bit of a challenge with the topper this year too. We’re already put ours up. You can use our ladder. My brother welded it for us, just for tonight.”
“Awesome!” Randy high-fived Bubba. The two teams introduced themselves, and then Randy ran out to his truck to fetch the surprise tree topper.
“You don’t have any idea what he made?” Sheila asked Natalie, who looked to Amanda.
Amanda shook her head. “No, but he used Eli’s brad nailer on it.”
“Guess we’re about to find out,” Natalie said with an edge of nervousness in her voice.
For Natalie’s sake, Sheila hoped that Randy read her mind and got it right, because Natalie did not like to lose and the tree topper was a key element. She crossed her fingers, hoping it all worked out.
Randy came back carrying a tall box.
“That looks incredibly tall,” Natalie said.
Sheila could have sworn she saw her visibly swallow just then.
“Let’s see it!” Sheila was determined to make it seem great, but as Randy lifted the brown bags from the top of his creation, she didn’t have to fake it.
It was a double-decker bird condo painted in Christmas red, with shimmery white beads around the edges of the black tin roof like faux snow, and he’d drilled holes into little snowflake patterns in the side panels. A Christmas tree shape was cut out of the front window.
“It’s perfect! Even the red is exactly the right shade,” Natalie said.
“I might have peeked at your colors when I was over there the other day. Just to be sure.”
