It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go.

Take a look in the five-and-ten, glistening once again

with candy canes and silver lanes aglow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Toys in every store.

But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be

on your own front door.

A pair of Hop-a-long boots and a pistol that shoots is the wish of Barney and Ben.

Dolls that will talk and will go for a walk is the hope of Janice and Jen.

And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again!

Perry Como

It had been decided the following weekend was the weekend to put up the Christmas tree. It had also been decided that since Audrey's place had more room and a fireplace all the holiday festivities would take place there. When Shawn found out that Audrey had a spare bedroom and a sofa bed, he tried to convince Jon that they should just move in for the month. When Jon said no, Shawn wished him well and told him he hoped he wouldn't get lonely at night.

In order to give Shawn the full Christmas tree experience, rather than go to a tree lot like he thought they were going to go to, Jon and Audrey surprised him with a trip out of town to Arasapha Farms in Glen Mills. For Audrey, this was a normal Christmas experience; she grew up going to the tree farms in New Jersey every year after Thanksgiving to cut down a tree with her father. But it was a new experience for Shawn and Jon.

Shawn had never picked out a Christmas tree that looked like a Christmas tree rather than one that even Charlie Brown wouldn't want. Jon had never picked out a tree of any kind nor had he had ever cut one down.

"This is so cool," Shawn commented, grinning widely as they stood at the edge of the farm where the trees began. "You know," he said, when the adults finally caught up to him, "Audrey is all I really wanted for Christmas, but this," he gestured to the trees, "this is just icin' on the gingerbread cookies."

Jon regarded him with mild concern. "Cake," he corrected. "The sayin' is 'icin' on the cake'."

Shawn looked at him in confusion. "But I don't want cake for Christmas, I want gingerbread cookies."

Jon looked to Audrey for help.

"He wants cookies for Christmas," she teased him. "What are you even talking about?"

He laughed. "I have no idea."

The tree farm was crawling with people and Shawn worried that someone else would get their tree before them. Yet he insisted on going to the ends of the farm and back and from one side to the next inspecting every tree before choosing one. The weather was chilly and growing colder as the day went on but trekking back and forth made them sweaty. Jon found himself carrying the jacket Shawn had shed as the teen ran ahead of them once again. Every dad carrying an article of their child's clothing or something else they'd brought with them gave Jon a nod of acknowledgment as if to say, "we always end up doing this don't we?"

At one point, Audrey stumbled on a low-cut stump. Jon caught her and pulled her close to him to keep her on her feet. Instinct told him to let go of her right away. As he started to pull back, he realized that absolutely no one knew them in Glen Mills. Not a single person knew that Audrey was his student teacher or that Shawn was his student; they were just one more family in the crowd. Impulsively, he hugged her closely and she looked up in surprise. A pleased look and a shy smile blushed her face and she wrapped her arm around his waist. Shawn, standing by a tree he liked, saw this and grinned.

"I think I found the one," he said, giving them a meaningful look before turning to inspect the tree in front of him.

"Great." Jon was growing tired after a nearly two-hour excursion through the farm carrying a leather jacket and saw.

"Four rows down that way." Shawn pointed into the distance and took off again.

The English teacher stared after him and set his jaw at angle. "We're gonna be trapped here forever, aren't we?" he complained with a dramatic groan.

Audrey laughed. "Oh, stop complaining. This was your idea after all."

Shawn had finally found the tree though and there was no need to keep searching. It was a beautiful full Douglas fir. Jon and Audrey were impressed with the choice and Shawn basked in their approval.

Rather than return immediately to Philadelphia, Jon wanted to stay in Glen Mills for lunch. He enjoyed being able to wander around with Audrey and Shawn and not worry about who might see them. As they ate, he listened to Shawn and Audrey discuss plans for decorating the tree at her place. Shawn wanted just about every Christmas cliché imaginable and luckily Audrey, being both resourceful and creative, knew how to go about it without breaking the bank.

After lunch was over, they headed to the local shops to round up decorating supplies. None of them had anything already for the season; Shawn and Jon never had any Christmas décor and Audrey's was all back in New York. Even so, she was strangely insistent on not buying certain things like lights and garland and bulb ornaments. Instead, she turned her attention to Shawn's wish to make ornaments.

On their way to check out, Shawn found the Hallmark ornament display with a miniature Darth Vader holding a light up Light saber.

"You are not hanging that on my tree," Audrey told him flatly.

He made a face at her, "Well, if you and Jon had gotten me the Darth Vader I wanted at FAO Schwartz, I wouldn't even think about it."

"That thing was 6 feet tall, made out of Legos, and $5000," Jon told him. Turning to Audrey, he said, "I say we get that one, hide it in the back of the tree where nobody will see it and we can stop hearin' about the Darth Vader we didn't get him."

Shawn rolled his eyes and Audrey laughed.

"Can I get an ornament?" he asked. He was still holding Darth Vader, but he was looking at something else.

Jon and Audrey exchanged looks. Jon shrugged. "Sure. One."

Shawn put down the ornament in his hand and waved them on. "I'll be there in just a minute."

"Hurry up," Audrey told him as she started to push the cart toward the checkout lane.

Shawn rejoined them just a few minutes later and quickly put his ornament on the checkout counter.

"What'd you get?" Jon asked him.

"I'll show you later. It's not Star Wars, I promise."

After loading the truck and re-securing the tree, Jon was still reluctant to return home.

"Why don't you want to go back?" Audrey asked as they got into the truck.

"I dunno," he shrugged. He didn't know if he should say anything to her about how stressful it was on him to do things in Philadelphia for fear of people noticing them. "It's nice bein' out of the city."

"We need to get back," Audrey said. "We've still got a lot to do."

"We don't have to do everything today. We still have tomorrow."

"I know. But I need to get back."

"Why?"

"Just because I do," she insisted.

They made it back to Audrey's place around 3. It turned out, however, that they had all underestimated the size of the tree and the size of the space it was going into. There was hardly any trunk left as so much had to be cut off so that the tree wasn't touching the ceiling. Shawn was adamant that a star had to go on top.

Just as the tree was put up, the doorbell rang. Instinctively, Jon froze and began to look for back exits in the event that he and Shawn needed to disappear for a while.

Audrey didn't think twice about answering the door. Her face lit up in a delighted grin. "Uncle Alex! You made it!"

"Of course, I did, my dear girl. I told you would and here I am!"

Jon had not been able to move from his place in the kitchen. The voice sounded incredibly familiar. But Uncle Alex? He'd never heard of an Uncle Alex. As far as he knew, her father's family was in California and her mother's in England.

"Jon! Shawn!" Audrey called to them. "C'mere!"

Shawn jumped the couch at her call and was by her side in a flash. Jon was more cautious in his arrival. He was stunned to see that Uncle Alex was Audrey's teaching advisor, Alexander Kessington.

"Hello, Jonathan," the older man greeted him jovially. "It's good to see you again."

"Good to see you too, sir," he stammered unsure of what to make of the man's presence.

"Alex, please. This is a social call." Turning to the teen whom he treated as a younger relative, he said, "Shawn, be a good lad and help me bring in the boxes from the car."

As soon as they left the house, Jon pulled Audrey over to him with concern. This man was in frequent contact with Mr. Feeny regarding the student teacher's progress at John Adams High.

"Audrey, what is goin' on?"

"Jon, it's okay. He knows and he's fine with everything. Don't worry."

"But why's he here?"

"He was coming to town to visit some friends and said he wanted to drop by. I asked if he would mind bringing my Christmas boxes from home."

Jon looked at her in surprise. "So that's why you didn't want to buy much today."

"Yes!" Her eyes were ablaze with an excited glow. "I wanted to surprise you and Shawn."

Her grin was contagious, and he couldn't help but to smile back at her.

Once Jon saw how much Christmas décor the boxes from New York contained he understood why they didn't need to buy much. Six large boxes contained more than enough to decorate Audrey's place from top to bottom with decorations to spare.

Professor Kessington stayed long enough to help unpack the decorations, have some coffee, and regal Shawn with stories of Christmases spent abroad. After he left, Jon pulled Audrey to the side again and they watched Shawn, with the exuberance of a young child, go through the boxes and begin to organize them in a way Jon had never seen him organize anything ever.

"You know," he said, putting his arm around her. It occurred to him that he was getting a little too comfortable with doing that, but he ignored the concern that presented itself to him in Mr. Feeny's voice. "I'm glad your advisor came by."

"Oh, yeah?" she smiled up at him. She always thought the two would get along very well.

"Yeah," he said, giving her a squeeze. "I know George regrets makin' me your cooperatin' teacher due to what he believes is a conflict of interest. And maybe I don't have any business being your cooperatin' teacher. But…"

"Uh-huh?"

"I feel a lot better knowin' that Professor Kessington has no business bein' your advisor. There is a definite conflict of interest there!"

Audrey gave a short laugh and grabbed a fistful of his shirt, pulling him down so they were nose to nose. "You gonna tell?"

He laughed. "Not me. I don't know nothin'!"

An abrupt call for help to untangle the lights from Shawn interrupted the moment between them.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go.

Now there's a tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well-

the sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Soon the bells will start.

And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing

right within your heart.

Thank you for reading! I hope you're enjoying the story. Comments, etc. always appreciated. No comment too small.