Duplicating

"So," Carly said as Sam brought down a tray of hot coco. "You two excited for your first Christmas as husband and wife?"

"Sure are," Freddie beamed as Sam set the tray down and took her seat next to Freddie. "I've hung mistletoe all over this place."

"He did," Sam laughed, wrapping her arms around him.

"Yeah, like you two have ever needed extra excuses for making out all over the place," Carly mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?" Freddie asked.

"Nothing," Carly said quickly. "Hey, where's your Christmas tree? All your other decorations are up."

"Oh, we're going to pick one out today," Sam told her.

"Yeah, I already know which kind we're gonna get," Freddie said. "I've been picturing it for the past month. We're going to get one of those huge trees that take up half the living room. I even went to the store and got a whole bunch of new ornaments for it. It's really going to make this Christmas even more special."

"Aw, that's sweet," Carly smiled, sipping her coco. "And I'll just try to block out the fact that I'll be spending the holidays alone…again."

"What about that one guy you were seeing?" Sam asked. "What was his name…Collin?"

"Eh, he turned out to be a jerk," Carly sighed.

"How?" Freddie asked.

"Well, we were at the mall the other day and he stepped right on over to that line of kids waiting to see Santa Clause and-and he kind of…he told them all Santa wasn't real," Carly said heavily.

"Seriously?" Sam frowned. "Wow, you're right. He was a major jerk. Well, don't worry, Carls. We're all having that big Christmas dinner here, so you won't be alone the whole day."
"Gee, thanks," Carly said, rolling her eyes. She looked at her phone. "Alright, well, I need to get to the mall to try and find a present for my granddad. Have fun picking out your tree, you too."

"Thanks," Freddie said.

Once she left, Freddie turned to Sam. "So, you ready to go pick out our tree?"

"In a little bit," Sam grinned, pointing up to the ceiling, where a few leaves of mistletoe hung. "We should probably attend to that first."

"I like the way you think, baby," Freddie chuckled, leaning in and kissing her deeply.

….

"This place is supposed to have some of the best trees in Seattle," Freddie said as him and Sam walked hand-in-hand up to the Christmas tree lot. "I know we're going to find our perfect tree here, Sam."

"You know, my cousin Gino once tried to open up his own Christmas tree business," Sam said as the couple began walking through the selection of trees.

"What happened?"

"He accidently ordered five hundred palm trees instead of Christmas trees," Sam said.

"Ah," Freddie nodded. "Well, Sam, this place is pretty big. Maybe we should each cover half so that we can increase our chances of finding our dream tree. Now, you know what we're looking for, right? Something that will perfectly represent our first Christmas together."

"Got it," Sam nodded. Freddie headed to the left while Sam went right.

"Alright, where are the big trees?" Freddie asked himself as he looked around. "Hmm…this one is eight feet tall…I think we can do bigger."

He stepped over to a taller tree and began carefully examining it. "Hmmm…no, not this one. It has too many bare patches. Come on, Freddie…this tree has to be perfect! It's for your first Christmas with Sam as your wife. You can't just use any old tree. It has to be-"

"Dude!" Sam suddenly cried, rushing over to him. "Dude, I found it! I found our tree!"

"Whoa, you did?" Freddie exclaimed. "That's great! Hurry, where is it?"

"Come on, I'll show you," Sam beamed as she grabbed his hand and pulled him off. She led him over towards the back of the lot. "There!" she said proudly.

"Um…where?" Freddie asked, looking around. This section seemed to be home to the discarded trees that nobody wanted. The trees were all crooked, patchy, and small. Freddie wouldn't have even classified them as Christmas trees at all.

"Right here," Sam smiled, kneeling down next to the smallest tree out there. It was barely three feet tall, and it was more branches than pine needles.

"That?" Freddie cringed. "Sam, that-that's not a Christmas tree. It's…garbage."

"No it's not!" Sam defended. "It's adorable! I was talking with the owner of this place and while he was trying to sell me some giant tree, he told me that everything back here is going to be thrown into the chopper if it's not sold at the end of the night."

"Well…yeah, that's kind of where this stuff belongs," Freddie pointed out.

"Will you stop being a jerk?" Sam snapped. "Come on, you know that all those fancy trees will be sold-"

"Obviously, they actually look like Christmas trees," Freddie scoffed.

"But these trees have basically no chance," Sam said. "Isn't that sad?"

"Since when do you care about Christmas trees being tossed into a chopper?" Freddie asked, confused. "In fact, last week I had to talk you out of renting one of those chopper things yourself!"

"Well I wasn't going to put trees in it!" Sam snapped. "I wanted to see what would happen if I put snow in it. I was going to make the world's largest Sno-Cone and make a fortune!"

"I-I still don't understand why you would want such a dinky looking Christmas tree," Freddie sighed. "We can get a real one. One that would make the whole neighborhood jealous."

"I just feel bad that people, you know, keep passing up this one, okay?" Sam told him. "Just think of how it must feel seeing everybody pick one of the other trees instead of it."

"But, um, you do realize that trees don't exactly have feelings-"

Sam glared at him.

Freddie sighed. "Alright…you-you really want to get this tree? This tree that looks like it's about to snap instead of that beautiful ten-foot tree over there?"

"Yes," Sam smiled, standing back up. She gave him a short kiss. "I can feel it, Fredbag. This is our Christmas tree."

"Well," Freddie sighed later that evening as he lugged the last of the many ornaments he had purchased back into the couple's basement. "Looks like I won't be needing these…That little tree would probably fall right over if we put these on it."

He still couldn't believe that his wife had passed up the chance to get the perfect Christmas tree just to bring home that tiny set of twigs. But, well, when Sam wanted something, she had a way of talking him into going along with it.

"Alright, I cleaned up all the decorations that we won't be using on that tree," Freddie told Sam as he came back downstairs.

"Cool," Sam said happily, looking up from the tree that she was attending to. "Sorry, but I couldn't wait to start decorating."

"Don't worry," Freddie chuckled. He sat down next to his wife. "Can this thing even hold ornaments?"

"Sure, as long as they're not heavy, I guess," Sam shrugged. "Alright, go put on the Christmas music while I go get the cookies and hot chocolate."

"Huh?"

"I thought you wanted to spend the night decorating the tree," Sam said. "You know, with the Christmas music blaring while we sipped hot coco and ate Christmas cookies. It was in your plan."

"Well, yeah," Freddie chuckled. "But, um, do we need a whole night to decorate this tree? It looks like it will take ten minutes. Tops. I know, we'll wrap up this decorating and then we can settle down by the fire and cheesy Christmas movies. That wasn't supposed to be until tomorrow night, but hey, I can be flexible."

"You can't decorate a tree in ten minutes!" Sam exclaimed. "Are you nuts?"

"You can when the tree looks like it belongs in a dollhouse," Freddie scoffed.

"Ugh, are you still hating on the tree?" Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not hating on it," Freddie said. "I just don't see what more we can do with it. We'll hang a few ornaments, maybe a string of lights, and then we're done."

"I thought you were going to spend hours on our tree," Sam said.

"Yeah, when we were actually getting a tree," Freddie chuckled.

"Fine, you know what?" Sam said, turning back to the tree. "I'll just decorate this tree myself if you're gonna be a nub about it."

"Oh come on, don't get mad," Freddie sighed.

"I'm not mad," Sam said simply.

"Yeah, like I'm stupid enough to believe that," Freddie mumbled under his breath.

"Look, just…go play with your trains or watch T.V. or something," Sam said. "Your negativity is making the tree start to wilt."

"Yup…that's the reason it's wilting," Freddie said. He looked back down at the tree. He had been with Sam long enough to know that she was past the point of trying to argue with her. "Alright, well, um, you-you do what you can with this tree. I guess I'll go out front and hang some more Christmas lights."

"You do that," Sam said. "Make sure you hang the biggest, most obnoxious lights you can find."

"Ha, ha," Freddie said dryly.

A few hours later, Freddie stepped back into the house, hanging up his coat by the door. He had gone all out with the decorations in the front; he had even run out to the store to pick up more, almost as if he could compensate for having such a disappointing Christmas tree.

"Well, baby, our front yard is officially the best on the block," Freddie said. "We've got more lights than you could even imagine, a snowman village, and this hilarious inflatable Santa Clause riding a motorcycle. Aw man…Spence will get a kick out of it."

But as Freddie walked into the living room, he discovered that his wife wasn't there.

"Sam?" Freddie frowned, looking around. "Sam, where are-Oh my God…"

His eyes fell onto the Christmas tree. Only now he barely recognized it…

It was beautiful.

Silver strings of garland were wrapped around it, covering the bare patches. Sparkling ornaments hung from the branches; all placed perfectly so that they didn't seem overwhelming. Stunning, golden lights were draped long the branches (which Sam had even taken the time to carefully trim), making the tree seem to glow even more.

"Whoa…" Freddie whispered softly.

Had he not seen the tree before, Freddie would never had guessed its prior state. Sam really had done an amazing job with it…

He felt a small smile creep onto his face as he continued to stare at the tree as he suddenly realized that this tree defined his and Sam's relationship more perfectly than any of the other trees at the lot would have. For though it had looked rough and broken at first glance, with a little care and attention, it had become something truly special.

"You like?"

Freddie spun around to see Sam coming downstairs carrying a small box.

"Sam, this-this is incredible," Freddie said, stepping over to her. "You-I can't believe you did all this. Actually…I can. You-You've always had a knack for finding the beauty in anything."

"What Christmas special did that come from?" Sam smirked.

Freddie chuckled. "Um, listen, I-I'm sorry I gave you a hard time about the tree. You were right; this tree is so much better than any of those big, fancy ones. I guess…I guess I was just trying way too hard to make sure our first Christmas together was perfect."

"Is that why it looks like the North Pole exploded on our lawn?" Sam chuckled.

"Er, yeah, I-I might have gotten a little carried away out there," Freddie admitted. He turned back to the tree. "But seriously, this-this looks amazing."
"Thanks, but it's not done yet," Sam told him, opening up the box and pulling out a small, yet magnificent, gold star. "This still has to go on top…You know, I-I did do all the decorating. You want the honor of putting it on top?"

"Me? No, Sam, you deserve to," Freddie said. "After all, you're the one who took the time to do all this."

"Well…why don't we do it together?" Sam suggested, her eyes sparkling. "It can be our first Christmas tradition."

"You wanna?" Freddie grinned.

"Yeah, come on," Sam said, holding out the star. "Let's do it."

So, with each of them holding half the star, the couple set the final decoration onto their first Christmas tree.

"There," Sam said, smiling fondly at the tree. "Now it's perfect."

"Sure is," Freddie agreed, putting an arm around her. "Merry Christmas, Sam."

"Merry Christmas, Freddie."