It's summertime when they finally take the cross-country road trip to Los Angeles to start their lives together.
Beca wants to fly the long distance, but Jesse has his car. He knows it's old and it won't last them much longer, but he rationalizes with her that it's best they have some form of transportation in the big city, even if it is only for a little while.
It's hot and sticky and there's not nearly enough room for them and all of their stuff in Jesse's small car, but they manage to make it work.
It's a thirty-one hour drive from Atlanta to the City of Angels and Beca's pretty sure she's not going to survive the duration, but Jesse manages to stop plenty throughout the trip. They even stop twice at random hotels to spend the night at in Oklahoma and Arizona to break up the driving times which Beca appreciates.
Jesse stops every few hours at various highway rest stops, too, to allow them to stretch our their muscles. He takes her through the gift shops at their stops in every state, insisting they buy something from each state they visit as a souvenir, as a memory. They have no room in their car for anything that large, so he decides on buying Christmas tree ornaments that represent each of the states they visit. Beca thinks it's stupid that he's buying decorations for a holiday that's 6 months away, but he still finds one from the nine states they travel through.
He picks out an orange peach shaped one in Georgia and a Crimson Tide 'Roll Tide' trinket in Alabama even though neither of them watch college football. In Mississippi he grabs a white magnolia ornament. In Arkansas, a mockingbird decoration and in Oklahoma, one that looks like a cowboy hat. In Texas, they pick up a wooden ornament in the shape of a pair of cowboy boots. In New Mexico and Arizona, they grab a plastic hot air balloon and a cactus ornament. They finally make it to the city, their city, and he's sure to grab an ornament that mimics a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at their final stop before settling into their new apartment together.
When December approaches them quickly after arriving on the West Coast, Beca can't help but laugh at how ridiculous their decorated apartment looks.
They barely have money to afford rent each week, barely have enough to buy themselves decent groceries, but they did manage to buy a tiny table top tree that they set on top of their kitchen island. It's pre-lit with an assortment of different colored lights and covered with the random ornaments from their drive across the country.
It's not exactly Christmasy, nothing about Jesse's ornament selections represent the traditional holiday items, but they don't mind.
It didn't represent the holiday season, but it represented them.
