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"Howdie folks, can I help you?"
"Yes; what is the biggest, tallest tree you have," Sam asked, still looking at the trees.
"How tall are you looking for?"
"Twelve feet" she said, turning to look at the man.
"Are you sure ma'am? How tall is your ceiling?"
"Fourteen feet."
"Ok, we have some that tall; how wide do you want?"
"Two meters."
"Sure; this is what one looks like" and he showed her a pamphlet and pointed to the one that would fit her needs. She could see that it came in three pieces and had a sturdy 'X' for the bottom holder.
"Jack, what do you think?" she showed him the pamphlet.
"When can you have one delivered? That is, if you deliver?"
"We have them here in their boxes; let me show you one."
He looked through his inventory until he found the one he was looking for. It was 1.5Mx60cmx40cm
"We will need some help to take it out to the wagon."
"Sure; how are you paying?"
"Cash" Sam, said
"Ok, this way please."
The salesman got two of his staff to help with the box; they used a trolley to wheel it out to Sam's wagon while Sam paid for it. Once it was paid for she waited for Jack to return since he had taken
their shopping back to her SUV.
"Do you get many buyers for these trees?"
"Yes, I started making these trees fifteen years ago and now I've got people working for me all over Colorado, Texas, Washington and California, selling them."
"Ok, what made you start making them?"
"Every tree I sell is a tree being saved. A tree like the one you bought would take twenty plus years to grow here in the states or in Canada."
"Wow, really? At least I helped save a tree."
"Yeah but you use all sorts of paper don't you?"
"I use recycled paper at home."
"What about heating?"
"Central and gas but my house is a log house and the timber came from overseas."
"Why no American timber?" Sam smiled at the old guy.
"As you said, how long it would take to grow them."
"True but it's the same all over the world."
"No, there is one country where a tree can grow to the size of the one I just bought and takes only a third of the time to grow. I did my research before deciding where the timbers would come from."
"Really? Where?"
"New Zealand."
"Really, wow!" and then Jack and the two guys returned.
"Hey, are you ready?"
"Yeah, Merry Christmas and thank you."
"Merry Christmas to you to."
Sam smiled and they walked away to continue their shopping. They stopped outside of one shop that was selling Christmas decorations. She grabbed Jack's hand and pulled him into the store.
"Sam, what are you up to now?" she stopped in one area and turned to look at Jack.
"New start Jack; after all we are going to get married one day so why not start buying things together now. After all there is the house, furniture, and the tree" Jack smiled and looked around before giving her a kiss.
"You really mean it don't you?"
"Yes, we can decide on what decorations we can get for the house."
"Including the outside?"
"Yes, including outside."
"Sweet."
They looked around before deciding on what to get. Jack went to get a trolley while Sam was looking at the different lights. When Jack came back with the trolley they chose what lights to get for both the tree and for the outside. Once they had selected the lights, they went to look at the different ornaments for the tree.
Sam spotted packets of gold hearts with 'Merry Christmas' on them; they were packs of twenty-four.
"What do you think Jack?" she showed him a pack.
"I love them; how many do you want to get Sam?"
"Four, what do you think?" Jack smiled.
"Great, what do you think of these?"
He picked up a box with eighteen 7cm round shiny blue balls.
"What other colours do they have."
"Red, gold, silver, green and blue"
"How may do you think we should get?"
"One box of each."
"Sounds good to me."
Jack put them in the trolley and then they continued looking at different decorations until Jack stopped and picked up a 35cm square gold star and he showed it to Sam. She nodded and he put it in the trolley. They put plastic candy canes, Santa Claus, reindeer, red hearts, glow in the dark stars, white snowflakes, blue, green, red, gold and silver tinsel in the trolley. Sam was walking in front of the trolley when she stopped and so did Jack. She picked a fifteen centimetre round piece of mistletoe.
"What to you think, Jack?"
"How many are there?" Sam counted them and then looked at Jack.
"Fifteen."
"Do you want to buy them all and hang them around the house?" he said, flicking his eyebrows at her.
"Sure, why not" and she put them all into the trolley. They continued through the store until Sam found some table center pieces. She picked one up and showed it to Jack.
"What do you think?"
"Great, how many do you want to get Sam?"
"Five."
"Ok."
She put five of them in the trolley and continued through the store until she came across some Christmas stockings. She picked one up and showed it to Jack.
"What so you think?"
"How many do you want to get?" Sam started thinking and then smile
"Fifteen" Jack raised an eyebrow.
"Fifteen?"
"Yes, Mark, Laura, Karen, Joan, Brian, Janet, Cassie, Sarah, Daniel, Teal'c, Jonas, General Hammond, Dad, you and me" she said smiling.
"Oy; ok it looks like we are going to be buying all sorts of goodies this year" Sam counted the fifteen and put them in the trolley.