Author's Note: Okay, I love 'For Christmas', but I will admit that a dead starfish as a tree topper is kind of gross. I would think that Shane wouldn't be keen for one on her tree (I absolutely wouldn't). I know that coding an Arduino to illuminate LEDs is very possible, but haven't spent time considering the pain of soldering near material or wadding – well I did, but ignored it.
P.S. sorry for the typos in previous efforts. I do know better, but I generally write these when I am too tired to do much checking. One day I will fix them I promise (standard Australian English spelling are not the errors of which I speak – they are intentional)!
Operation Tannenbaum
Shane stood in her home office, tablet in hand and the attitude of a field marshal in her heart. Operation Tannenbaum was well under way. Boxes of ornaments, bought and made, sat on the floor in orderly anticipation. Another box filled with floral and berry picks and tree trims sat beside her desk. Garlands waited patiently in another, and finally, boxes of lights were in an orderly pile near the window. Item after time was checked off her list. In fact, there was only one thing missing.
And that was a problem.
Oliver had been pretty accommodating over the whole tree. Apart from vetoing tinsel (which was fine, as Shane was not really a fan either), he had been happy to leave the design to her. He had only made one request. The tree topper had to be a starfish.
When Oliver shared the story of the tree and the rock from his childhood, and how he and the stranger decorated the tree with what was found on the beach, including shells, kelp and driftwood, Shane thought the story was charming. When he told her that they had used a starfish as a tree topper, she was slightly horrified. When Oliver requested a starfish as their tree topper, Shane was a little nauseous. It wasn't that she wanted to be difficult. It wasn't even the thought that a starfish might not fit her overall aesthetic. It was a reluctance to have a dead creature in her living room.
Shane sat at her desk and once again pondered the problem. She took a notebook and pencil, and began to make notes.
Oliver wanted a starfish tree topper
She did not want a dead thing on her tree
Did it have to be a real starfish?
Could she craft a starfish for the tree?
Shane reached for her tablet, and began to search in earnest, every now and again adding a note or drawing to the notebook. An hour later, Shane stood, complete with a plan. She had to go shopping, and she had two stores in her sight – both a craft and an electronic store. She rushed from the room, down the stairs and yelled to Oliver as she reached the door.
'Oliver, I'm going shopping, shouldn't be long.'
She opened and closed the door behind her. Just as suddenly, the door reopened. Shane stuck her head inside just as Oliver made it to the vestibule.
'Love ya!'
And then she was gone. Oliver shook his head at the closed door.
Almost two hours later, Shane returned with two shopping bags. She marched to the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of kombucha, and then determinedly returned to her office. She had just arranged things on the desk to her satisfaction and found the crafting and electronic equipment from her collection that she required, when Oliver appeared in the doorway.
'Successful expedition?' he asked.
'Very,' Shane replied, not looking up.
'Need any help?'
Shane looked up at that. 'What are you doing? No, no, no, no! Go away!'
'I'm sorry?' Oliver sounded both confused and a little hurt.
Shane grinned. 'Sorry, honey. This is currently a top-secret project. I promise you will see it when I am done, but until then,' she winked, 'Go away and hurry!'
Oliver bounced, threw up his hands in surrender, and retreated.
First, Shane reached for the orange velvet fabric, skeins of embroidery thread and beads. Tutorial loaded on her tablet, she began. With some quiet curses when she missed the fabric and found her fingers, eventually a highly ornate beaded and embroidered starfish emerged. It waited to be stuffed with wadding, and after that could be called finished. But where would be the fun in that? And while the baroque looking ornament suited Oliver, it didn't quiet suit her … yet. Phase two was about to commence.
Shane grabbed the starfish, and carefully (and with some trepidation if she was honest) made twelve tiny holes in her handiwork. Next, she took up the tiniest LEDs she had been able to find (white, and not garishly coloured), a soldering iron, jumper cables and a small Arduino microcontroller and set to work. Another hour, and she was done. She was just about to reach for her phone to download the app that would control her creation, when the phone rang. She jumped, then smiled as she saw the name on the screen.
'Hi,' she answered.
The voice of her husband greeted her. 'Hi yourself.'
'Oliver, why are you calling me?' Shane stood and stretched after hours of concentrated sitting.
'I wondered if you would like to join me for dinner?'
'Oh, really? I mean sure, but I have a few things to finish…'
'Shane, it is almost seven, you've been missing in action for hours.' There could have been a tone in that.
'Seven!' she shrieked. 'I'm coming right down.'
She threw the phone onto the desk, ensured that everything that could potentially catch fire was not plugged in, then ran from the room down to the kitchen.
Oliver was standing at the counter, serving vegetables from a roasting pan. Shane ran to him and almost tackled him in her enthusiasm to hug him. He gave a small gasp of laughter and turned to her. They stood, foreheads touching and arms securely around each other.
Oliver pulled back only a little. 'Missed you,' he said.
Shane looked a little bashful. 'Sorry,' she began, 'I sometimes get a little … focused.' Her lips twisted in a rueful smile.
'I think I got that,' Oliver replied with a smile of his own. 'Present or decoration?'
'Decoration,' she replied. Hopefully, the best one yet!'
'Am I allowed to know anything about it at the moment?'
'No. You have to get the full effect.'
'Fair enough, but first, dinner.'
It was almost ten o'clock before Shane emerged from what Oliver was beginning to mentally refer to as her laboratory. Oliver was seated on the lounge, Dickens his reading of choice – not 'A Christmas Carol' as they were reading that together, but rather 'Our Mutual Friend'. He put down the tome and looked at his wife. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, a pencil securing it to her head, and looked as if she had fully embraced her 'mad scientist' mode. At some point she had added sheepskin slippers and her winter dressing gown to the jeans and sweater she had worn throughout the day. Oliver knew that she would not appreciate any comments on her appearance, but he thought she looked unbearably cute. She plopped down onto the couch beside him, carefully placing a box and her phone on the coffee table.
'Does this mean I get my wife back?' he asked mildly.
'Possibly,' she replied, smiling at the start of surprise that greeted her response. 'That might depend on your reaction to my … creation.'
With that, Shane reached for the box and placed it in his hands.
'Any instructions?'
'No,' she began, 'but something in the way of an explanation.'
Oliver looked at her questioningly.
Shane took a deep breath and began. 'I guess I need to start with a confession. I love your story about the tree and the rock, and the decorating the tree with flotsam and jetsam'.
Oliver looked about to embark on an explanation of the difference between flotsam, jetsam and the results of beachcombing when Shane interrupted.
'I mean I like a lot of the story, just not the starfish.'
'You don't like starfish?'
'I like starfish swimming in the ocean, or in a fish tank. I just don't like them, well, dead.'
'Oh,' he began, 'I can see how that might be unappetizing.'
'So,' she continued, 'I thought I should come up with a compromise option.' She nodded, gesturing towards the box. 'See what you think.'
Oliver opened the box carefully (which did nothing to calm the growing feeling of apprehension that was inhabiting her stomach) and took the tree topper from the box. He carefully ran his hands over the beading.
'Shane,' he began 'just when I think I have seen the extent of your talents, you surprise me.'
'That doesn't mean you like it,' she interrupted.
Oliver carefully put down the ornament, then dragged Shane to him, sitting her on his lap. He kissed her cheek, then her neck. 'I love it.'
She giggled, then reached for the starfish, then stretched for her phone. Oliver was certain she would have fallen if he had not held on. Finally, she had the ornament and the phone in her possession. She turned to Oliver, a hopeful expression on her face. 'Do you think it is ... well … you?'
'Absolutely,' Oliver was quick to agree.
'So do I,' Shane explained. 'It was not, however, completely me.'
Oliver waited, interested to hear where her mind had gone.
'So, I thought, as this was going to hopefully be our tree topper for some time, it should be a bit me as well as a bit you.' She passed the starfish to Oliver, then unlocked her phone. She scrolled until she found the app she wanted. She made a couple of selections, and Oliver was surprised to see the starfish light up in his hand. She tapped again, and then the pattern changed somewhat.
'So, say something.'
'George Eliot said, 'Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.' I struggle to put into words how blessed I know I am because of you, Shane. We are so different. I love things of the past, books, words, and quietude. You love the new, the technological, as well as the beautiful and aesthetic. We are different, and yet, somehow, we work, just as this decoration works. Something of me and my past, matched with something you and the modern. It's perfect. You're perfect.'
Shane laughed. 'Good answer. I'm going to remind you that you called me perfect at some point in your future!'