2012

"What about this one?" Troy asked. "The white is pretty cool. Like a white Christmas."

Gabriella circled the display tree, examining the branches. "Nope. Don't like the white."

Troy rubbed his eyes blearily. They'd been walking around in the store for more than forty five minutes, looking at tree after tree that looked pretty much identical. Troy had grown up with having a live tree in his house but Gabriella felt quite strongly about Christmas tree farms being bad for the environment, plus she tended to sneeze around live trees, so he was happy to adapt to the artificial tree for their first time being grown ups and having their very own tree.

He had been happy, at least. After forty five minutes of examining identical green plastic trees, his patience was wearing thin.

"Babe, once we cover it in tinsel and ornaments and lights, whichever one you pick is gonna be gorgeous. We've got so much to do today, can we just pick one so we can move onto the decorations?" he asked imploringly.

She rolled her eyes. "I wanted to leave an hour earlier, but you were too busy playing video games."

"Is this what living together is all about? You telling me 'I told you so'?"

They'd moved in together six months earlier, just as Gabriella was about to start law school in the evenings, while working as an assistant in a law office during the day. Troy was working as research assistant for a local news station in the sports division. Their combined salary was just enough to allow them to move into a shabby one bedroom apartment in Palo Alto – a nice area, but in a fairly run down apartment block right near the train tracks. It meant she was close to work and school, and for him, he was close to the Caltrain station where he would commute into San Francisco each day.

In October, Gabriella started putting some money away each week from their budget to prepare for holiday expenses. Troy thought it was a little impractical – they weren't actually going to be there for the holiday itself, so spending money on a lavish tree and decorations seemed somewhat redundant. However he knew that Gabriella loved the holidays and so, he caved, and was there with her for the adventure.

"This one," Gabriella declared, standing in front of a tree that looked pretty much identical to the last twelve they'd examined.

"That one looks amazing," Troy said, mustering as much enthusiasm as he could.

"Wait no..." He gave her a look, and she sighed. "Okay, yes, this one."

He couldn't resist but make a small fist pump. "Perfect. Let's make this happen."

He quickly located the box that matched the display tree before she could change her mind, and hauled it into their shopping cart.

"Now, let's go look at tinsel."

Gabriella wrinkled up her nose. "I hate tinsel."

Troy closed his eyes wearily. He sensed it was going to be a very long afternoon.

Eight very long hours later, Troy and Gabriella were curled up together on the small two seater couch they'd picked up second hand from Craigslist, the product of the shopping madness and following hard work. Half empty glasses of eggnog were lying on the coffee table, and Miracle on 34th Street was playing on television. It was Gabriella's favourite holiday movie – the 90's version, she would emphasise to anyone who was mistaken, because she felt like she'd grown up with Mara Wilson. Troy couldn't help but pander to her love of the holidays – the contented smile on her face made it all worthwhile.

"You're watching me instead of the movie," she murmured.

He grinned. "Busted."

He turned to look at the television, managing to pay attention for the remaining fifteen minutes. When the end credits were rolling, he turned back to look at her, seeing a glint of a happy tear in her eye, and he held back a laugh.

"You're so adorable. How many times have you seen this now?"

She smiled, contemplating the question. "At least fifteen times. One year I remember watching it every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day."

The credits of the DVD had finished rolling, with the DVD main title screen shining on the screen. Gabriella reached out to flip the television off.

"Thank you for watching it with me. I thought after made you watch it with me in senior year that you'd never do it again," she giggled.

"Well, you know, I figure you sit through enough basketball for me, it's the least I can do to return the favour."

She smiled, and glanced around the room. "We did an awesome job today. I love our tree, and all the ornaments. They were pretty cheap though, I bet they won't last long."

"It's an excuse for you to buy more next year," Troy pointed out with a smile.

"This is true."

"You know my parents have Christmas ornaments from before I was born," he revealed. "Not many, but there's a handful kicking around in that old assorted box."

"Really?"

"Really. I love our tree at home. It's kind of randomly mismatched in places, but that's because my mom can't let go of old ornaments. She'll keep all the ones that she gets given over the years. She only likes to put even numbers on the tree – so if there were six silver baubles and one breaks, she'll only put up four. So over the years, as they break and go missing, she'll buy new ones, but keep the old ones, and so it goes on. But it all tells a story."

"Maybe we'll do that?"

"Maybe. I can just imagine you're going to need a real Christmas closet," Troy joked.

"Hey!" she pretended to be offended, thwacking him on the arm gently.

"Hey now, you know that I love how much you love the holidays."

"Don't you love them too?"

"I do, but not like you. This has been kinda cool, watching you today, running around like a kid in a candy store."

"Aha!" she declared triumphantly. "I knew you loved today."

"Parts," he conceded. "In between the nightmare, there were redeeming moments."

"When we found the last remaining packet of decent looking silver baubles hidden behind the tacky gold ones?"

He laughed, and then turned serious. "That was one of them, not because I so badly wanted silver baubles, but because you did, and you were happy when we found them."

She blushed a little. "I can't help it, this year I'm even more excited about the holidays than usual."

"I still don't quite get why," he admitted.

"It's not just our first grown up Christmas with our own tree and everything... but it's our first Christmas, with you and I doing this together. We bought this stuff together, from the joint account. This isn't just our Christmas tree, but it's the tree that we'll have next year, and the year after, and probably the year after that. When we're untangling those lights next year, we'll think about buying them this year. And then the year after that, we'll think about how we spent two hours untangling them the year before so why didn't we make sure they got wrapped up neatly?"

He smiled at this, and chuckled. At some point during senior year of college, they'd started talking about the future with an ease that didn't terrify him the way that plenty of young men would be. They weren't yet talking about rings and white dresses, but there was something implied about the future that lay ahead, and it was a future he couldn't imagine any other way.

"When you put it like that... maybe December is my favourite month too."