This was a man who knew his woman, Sheila thought.
“I have these metal prongs like they use on the yard signs so that we can push it down from the top and then wire-tie it in a few places so it sits steady.”
“What a great idea.”
“Natalie, I thought you could make those big airy bows like you do so well, to kind of make it look like it’s in a blanket of snow or clouds. I brought ribbon.”
“Definitely. This is amazing. Okay, guys, let’s get this tree topper up and get these nice folks their ladder back.”
They went straight to work, and it took some time, but finally, twenty minutes later, they had the birdhouse perfectly attached to the top of their tree. The height of the topper made for a dramatic and eye-catching display.
While they fussed with that, Natalie and Amanda worked on the ribbons that would tuck in from the four sides, overlapping them just so.
Even the snowman team was cheering. It looked so good.
“Okay. Guys, you have outdone yourself. Eli and Randy, you are excused for holly duty. But before you go, we have all week to get this done. We can do it all tonight, or work on it a little each day,” Natalie said.
Amanda said, “I’m just going to tell you from experience that it’s sometimes best to stick to the plan and get in and out, otherwise you’ll keep tweaking as you see all the other amazing trees come together, and sometimes less is more. You can really get twisted up and make it a chore instead of a joy.” She shrugged. “We have a really awesome idea. I think we will give them a run for their money if we don’t get sidetracked.”
“Great advice,” Sheila said. “I’m with her. I’m fine with getting it done as quickly as possible. I have some other things I’d like to get done this week too. Like help the Jacob family.”
They all nodded in agreement.
“It’ll be an all-nighter then. Here we go.” Natalie turned and hugged Randy.
“I’ll bring snacks,” he said.
Amanda spread out a blanket by the tree, and all three gals sat cross-legged to work on the rest of the ornaments.
“I figured we could start assembling the aromatherapy portion of our tree, and each take turns hanging the birdhouses to get up and stretch.”
“Sounds good. So what do we do?”
Natalie opened a large plastic container. Zesty orange filled the air.
“That smells so good. It makes me want a mimosa,” Sheila teased.
Next, Natalie opened a clear jug of cinnamon sticks and cut lengths of gold cording. “We’ll thread the gold cord through the center of the round orange slice, gently tie it on the cinnamon stick, and then do a simple overhand loop knot.” She demonstrated as she walked through the steps again. “I spray-painted a bunch of green pine needle bunches gold. I figured we could bind them with a cinnamon stick and the gold cording too. Like this.” She laid the natural tassel next to the orange ornament. “Cute, right?”
“It is, and they smell amazing.” Amanda picked up a dried orange slice and completed an ornament, laying it next to Natalie’s. “Identical twins. Very cute, and easy.” Amanda picked up the ornament and reached behind her to hang it on the tree. “Look how pretty the orange looks against the tree.”
“I’ll hang my third of the birdhouses first. You girls go ahead.” Sheila got up and nudged the heavy red tub closer to the tree, then started hanging the colorful birdhouses around the tree—scattering them and making sure they were perfectly not perfect, with just enough asymmetry to make it interesting.
After stepping back, she repositioned two of them, knowing they still had a bunch more to hang. “Thoughts?”
“Incredible,” someone from the snowman team exclaimed.“Where did you buy those birdhouses? I have to get one for my grandmother.”
Sheila pointed toward Natalie. “Talk to that gal. Natalie hand-painted them.”
“You’re kidding. Can I get you to paint one for me?”
“I’ll do you one better. You pick out the one you want and you can take it after the judging is complete.”
“You’ve got a deal.” The woman stepped closer. “This is really innovative. Look at all this stuff you’ve made.”
Amanda and Natalie kept creating the orange ornaments while Sheila pulled the bag of feathers from their heap of supplies and tucked them into the tree one at a time, then paired a gold tassel with each feather. “Okay, I’m done here. Your turn, Amanda.”
Sheila took Amanda’s spot on the blanket and worked on putting the final touches on the gold pine needle bundles. She’d just finished the last one when her phone rang out. Her heart leapt. She reached for it in her back pocket and looked at the message, hitching a breath as she read it again.
