As the months went by, the pain dulled, little by little. It never went away, but Kuwabara simply got used to having to carry it. Life went on, with or without his mother, and Kuwabara had to follow where it led.
Christmas time rolled around, and it brought a sharp increase to the pain in the Kuwabara family. Christmas wasn't a big deal to many of Kuwabara's friends, but it had been his mother's favorite holiday. She'd always gone all out for it, decorating the house from top to bottom, inside and out, infecting everyone with her Christmas spirit. Could it be Christmas without her there?
Mr. Kuwabara sat Shizuru and Kuwabara down to talk one day. "I wanted to know what you two want to do for Christmas," he said. "If you both want to celebrate it, we can, but if you'd rather ignore it, that's fine too."
"I don't care," Shizuru said. "We can do whatever Kazuma wants."
Kuwabara hesitated. It would hurt, he knew, to see the decorations up and presents around the tree knowing that his mother wasn't there to celebrate with them. But it didn't seem right to ignore something his mother had loved so very much.
"I want to celebrate," Kuwabara said. "Just a little bit. I think she'd want us to."
Mr. Kuwabara smiled. "All right then. I guess this weekend we'll need to find us a tree."
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