“You didn’t hold me back. You comforted me when I was suffering. You’re the best friend I could ever ask for. Don’t ever doubt that.”
Sheila hugged her. “You’re the best. I’m just going to try to be as good as you are.”
Amanda walked over, breaking up the moment. “There’s still some time before they announce the winners. Relax,” she said, and blew out a long slow breath. She looked like she might need the reminder to relax more than any of them. “Are y’all okay? Sheila, are you crying?”
“I’m just excited. Aren’t we all?”
Natalie hugged her from the side. “We are!”
A tall woman in all red walked up to Natalie. “Well done. We are excited to have new teams this year. Thank you for joining us. Here is your scorecard. You’re welcome to open it, but please do not discuss your results with anyone until after the announcements.” The judge handed Natalie the envelope and moved to the next tree.
“Yes, ma’am.” Natalie stood there clinging to that envelope with the name of their tree written on the front.
As soon as the judge was out of sight, the team gathered around Natalie, who opened the envelope in hushed squeals of anticipation.
“We put our heart and soul into every detail of this tree,” Natalie said. “I wouldn’t change a thing.” Natalie wiggled in excitement. “Let’s hope it was enough to win.”
“What’s it say?” Sheila peered over her shoulder.
“Do we even know what a winning score is?” Randy asked.
Amanda shook her head. “Not really. The highest score possible is one hundred. So you know, it depends on how the judges score, but if you think of it like getting an A plus, then that’s a pretty good chance.”
Natalie closed her eyes, then opened the card and read the score. Her eyes flashed up.
“What? Is it good?”
“Very.” She turned the card around. “Shhh.”
“Oh my gosh. We’ve got a great chance of winning.”
“I think so too.”
“I’m dying to find out.” Natalie nudged Sheila when she noticed the people across the way watching them. “We better be quiet about this. No sharing. You heard what she said. I’d hate to lose from a forfeit for breaking the rules.”
“No kidding.” Sheila turned and looked toward the top of the stadium as jingle bells sounded. “What is that?”
“Look!” Amanda pointed to a section of the bleachers on the far right. One at a time, colored lights began to come on between the jingle of sleigh bells, and then all at once it was the outline of a Christmas tree, and then like a choir of angels the children holding the lights began to sing, and the lights in their hands swayed with the melody.
With the final note from that song, across on the visitors’ side, another group formed the shape of a bell out of white lights as they began singing “Silver Bells.”
And one right after the other, they volleyed carol after carol from side to side. Ten songs in all.
“That was fantastic.” Natalie clapped, and Randy stood behind her with his arms around her, clapping too. “But I’m going to die of anticipation if they don’t announce the winners soon.”
The stadium lights came back on, and the kids filed out of the stands like little soldiers marching through the Christmas Tree Stroll lanes singing “A Holly Jolly Christmas.”
Everyone joined in the festive moment.
Bringing up the rear, none other than Santa himself, with a procession of elves handing out candy canes.
“This is an amazing night.” Sheila turned, expecting to see Natalie, but instead Tucker was there. “Oops. When did you get back?”
He claimed her arms and squeezed her shoulders sweetly. “I didn’t want to miss you seeing all of this for the first time. I see it every year, but to see it all through your eyes for the first time is really exciting.”
“No one could have prepared me for this. I can’t even explain it after seeing it myself.” She turned back. “And I think you make it even more special.”
“I think you’re pretty special.”
