Callie POV
I touched the tip of the evergreen and looked it up and down. It was approximately half of my height, not too branch and wide. Tilting my head a little to my left, I noticed that it was a little loop sided, but not too much to be noticed the second, when looking at it. The price was more than acceptable, it cost less than 15 dollars. According to my criteria, this was the perfect tree.
"What about this one?" I asked as I continued to look at the evergreen admiring it
Markus didn't exactly tell me what price is acceptable or what height of tree we are looking for. I can only assume the goal was to get a small and cheap tree, because they are usually thrown out of burn after the holiday is over. No need to spend much money on it, right?
When I didn't hear an answer from him I turned around looking for him. At the first glance, I didn't seen Markus anywhere. Only when I walked down the isle between the trees, I noticed Markus standing at the complete other side of the Christmas tree fair. It was the expensive side, it was the side where the big trees stood.
I walked up next to him and looked to the three that stood in front of him. It was definitely much taller than the tree that I was looking at before, looked to be a little taller Markus. The tree was wide and with a lot of branches. Curiously I reached for the price tag that was added to the tree. My mouth dropped, when I saw the price tag on it.
"What do you think?" Markus asked me, while I was still shocked by the price. In the corner of my eye, I saw how he looked down to me as he waited for an answer.
I glanced up to Markus, still stunned by the price "Isn't it too big?"
Markus screwed up his face in confusion "Too big for what?"
"The house," I said causing Markus to chuckle
"This isn't big!" Markus explained gesturing to the tree, when he stopped laughing "You didn't see the tree we had 2 years back!"
"How big was it?" I asked getting kind of curious and intrigued
Markus looked around the fair "Something like that!" he pointed to the tree that to me looked at least the length of a car "Grandma was speechless, when dad and I brought it home! We could barely get it in the house!" Markus laughed to himself quietly "Oh, man, those were fun times!"
"Why would you get a tree that big?"
"All the extended family was coming to celebrate Christmas with us that year. Grandparents, moms brother's family. We needed a tree big enough that could fit all the presents underneath and all the decorations!"
"Isn't it a bit too...pricey?" I asked warily, when I once again reached for the price tag
"This?" Markus took the price tag out of my hand and let it fall back down to the tree "This is not expensive. Trust me. 40 dollars for a real tree is a normal price!" he assured me
I looked back at the tree in front of us "Does it even fit in the car?" I wondered out loud
Markus laughed again, apparently I was saying very funny things today, while being unaware about the fact myself "It's not going in the car!" he said and then simply turned and walked away to locate the sells-man
"Where does it go then?" I called after him confused, while throwing my arms up a little
"Catch!" Markus said from the other side of the car as he threw the rope over the tree
I caught the rope and pulled on it, tightening the tree to the car. I wrapped the rope around the holders on the rood and then tossed the rope back to Markus, yelling the same exact phrase as he did "Catch!"
"Okay, I think we are good!" Markus said, when I walked to the end of the car to watch, how he tied the rope to the holder last 3 times. Once he was done with tying the tree, he opened the back doors and took something out from the back seat.
"Stand at the side!" Markus said as he walked my direction with a camera in his hands
"Why?"
"We always take photos with the tree once we have put it on the car. I will show you, when we get home. Come on, we will switch afterward!" Markus nudged me to take a pose. I walked to the end bumper and faced him.
"Back up a bit," Markus waved me to move backwards, while looking through the camera objective. I took a small step back and then glanced briefly to the tree up on the tree
"Okay, that's good!" Markus called, when I had stopped moving backwards. I waited for the next typical order – to smile, as I looked towards him. Usually, people would tell you to pretend to be happy.
"Got it!" Markus announced suddenly. He walked towards me with his hand extended towards me "Take my photo now!"
I took the camera from his hand and walk to the spot he stood, while he took the exact same spot, where I had stood. When I raise the camera up, Markus shows both thumbs up and a huge, genuine smile appears on his lips. I pressed the button multiple times, hoping that at least one of the photos would be in good quality.
"Wait, few more!" He said, when I lowered the camera down thinking we were done with the photos
Markus left arm was no extended fully towards the tree, his index finger pointing. While his right hand was bent in elbow, but the right index finger was pointed to the tree as well. He was bent a little in his knees. The huge grin never left his smile. He looked genuinely happy, also silly. I took few more of shots of Markus in his current pose.
"That should do it!" Markus said as he walked up to me and took the camera out of my hands a moment later "Let's go home!"
We were home some 20 minutes later. Aaron had finished hanging the lights in front of the house, but the stairs now stood at the side of the house. Once we arrived, Aaron climbed down from the roof and Amy walked out of the house, still with apron around her waist. Markus and I started to open the ropes that kept the tree on the roof, when we got out of the car.
"Wow, it looks like you did great job, guys!" Aaron praised us while looking at the tree on the roof
"How much did it cost?" Amy asked as she stood next to Aaron
"Same as last year," Markus answered without much hesitation and tossed the rope to my side again
"Markus and I will get it in and secure it!" Aaron said walking up to the car and taking over for me. I stepped back allowing Aaron to continue what I had started.
"Callie, follow me!" Amy said happily as she waved to follow her
"Where are we going?" I questioned as I followed her few steps behind her
Amy stopped at the garage doors and as she opened them, she explained "To get the Christmas tree decorations!"
When we walked in the garage it was dark and I barely saw two feet in front of me. The air was a little bit stuffy as well. Amy switched on the lights. When the lights were on I saw how packed the garage was. There was dust everywhere! It looked like no one had cleaned it for years. Also, they certainly weren't using garage to park their car in.
"Sorry about the mess. We haven't cleaned it out in years," Amy told me as she scratched the back of her head "Probably should do it sometime. So much junk! We could clear out some space by throwing out half of the useless junk we have here," Amy said as she walked towards where the boxes where piled
Boxes filled most of the garage. There were also many cabinets, that were probably full of different kind of stuff. I saw few shelves around the garage as well, with toolboxes, cans of paint and plastic bags with screws and nails on them. Like Amy said, there was a lot of junk.
I took two steps deeper inside and looked around. The first thing that I noticed when setting my eyes on the car garage doors, were the three adult bikes pressed to the garage car doors. There was also an older looking bike for kids. Next to it stood the smalls wheels you can add to the rear wheel to help steady the bike for smaller kids. Markus most likely learned how to ride a bike with that thing.
I walked to the middle of the garage and run my finger over the dusty wood table. It looked to be some sort of game table. At the first sight it reminded me of billiard, but it didn't have the soft surface and it also it was in the form of square. When I dragged my finger over the middle of the table, it felt very slippery. At each corner there was a hole, which had a fabric bag attached underneath it.
I reached in the sack and pulled out some sort of black wood dice, that was in the shape of circle and it had a hole in the middle. After examining the objects for few seconds I decided to try and slide it across the table. Just by a light thrust, the little object glided all the way across the table and, after hitting a side, it bounced back and glided till it stopped at this marked region at one of the sides.
"Have you ever played?" Amy asked me as she was lifting some boxes around, trying to find the right one, which contained the Christmas decorations
"No," I replied reaching in the corner hole and pulling out another one of dices. This time it was red, instead of black, like the last one. I guess the dices came in two colors - black and red.
"What is this game?" I asked when I slide the object across the table again. It was kind of fun.
"Novus," Amy answered as she set a box down on the ground
"How do you play it?" I asked when I noticed that there are two sizes of the dices
"It's kind of similar to billiard. You need to try and get the opposite players dices in the sacks. The first person to do that, wins."
"By sliding them with hands?" I asked curiously
"There are cues underneath the table," Amy nodded "You need to use them, same as billiard,"
I crouched down and pulled one out one of the cues "You need to use the big dice to hit the smaller ones!" Amy explained as she continued to move boxes around
"I got the decorations!" Amy announced as she lifted a box up. I quickly put everything that I had touched away where it stood and followed Amy out of the garage.
"Turn off the light please and close the doors,"
Minute later we were in the living room. Aaron and Markus were still securing the tree, so that it doesn't fall. The tree was at one of the far corners of the room. Amy set the box down on the coffee, that stood in the middle of the room.
"Are you almost done?" Amy asked walking over to the boys and looking over them
"Keeps…leaning to one side..." Aaron said in slightly frustrated tone. He was kneeled down, his head was somewhere behind or even under the tree. For now Markus was holding the tree straight, while Aaron was trying to secure it.
"Okay...try now!" Aaron said as he leaned out form underneath/behind the tree. Markus let go of the tree and everyone watched if it would lean to one side. When it remained still for some 20 seconds, everyone smiled and breathed out relieved.
"Perfect!" Amy said happily and then simply walked out. Markus walked to the box, that Amy had carried over here, and opened it. He pulled out some Christmas lights that were all tangled up in a ball.
"Oh, great!" He sighed holding the tangled up lights and looking down to them like he had already given up on untangling them
"Hey, if I remember correctly, you put them away!" Aaron laughed as he walked pass his son and patted his shoulder
"Do you wanna-?" Markus extended his arm, handing me the lights. I shook my head and took a small step away, making Aaron laugh out loud and Markus dipping his head down. I remember how my dad always used to sit for hour to try and open the Christmas lights that had been simply tangled up in ball from the previous year. As far as I knew, it was not something I wanted to do.
"It's your mess...you open them up!" Aaron told Markus with a laughter as he walked out, following Amy
"This is going to take forever!" Markus pouted as she slumped down in the armchair and started to try and open the lights up "It takes me forever just to open my earphones! This is a nightmare..."
I took a step back to the coffee table, curious to see what kind of decorations they had in the box. We used to have a lot of decorative Christmas balls that you could hang in the tree and these silver strings. Jude and I use to put them around our necks and pretend that they were fancy scarfs. It was fun. At the top of the tree we always used to put a star. I wondered if the Scott's had the same Christmas ornaments as we used to.
"Callie," I heard Amy's voice and quickly took my hands away from the box, thinking that I was in trouble for touching it. No one did tell me that I could touch it.
When I looked at the doorway, I saw Amy and Aaron stand next to one another. Both were smiling at me. Aaron had put his hand on Amy's far shoulder. Amy had a small box in her hand, that was wrapped in a red Christmas paper, with many little snowmen on top.
"This is for you!" Amy handed me the wrapped up gift as she took few steps closer to me. In the corner of my eye I saw how Markus stopped untangling the lights.
I looked from the box up to them, then back to the box. Usually I never got Christmas presents from foster parents. The only gift I would get was from the CPS that sends a gift to each foster kid, each year. They were un-personalized and useless. Either I ended up throwing them out or my foster parents would end up taking it.
"Open it," Aaron urged me, when I had been holding the gift in my hands for few seconds only staring down to it
"We thought about putting it under the tree, but timing-wise we needed you to have it sooner, so that…you can use it," Amy explained, but was careful not to give away what the gift was
I lifted the small box up to my ear and shook it once "Don't do that!" Amy called out in slight panic, reaching for it, making me stop with the shaking. I looked between them, wondering if they will take it away from me.
"It's fragile!" she explained as she took a step back to be next to Aaron
"Oh," I breathed out and started to open the wrapped gift "Sorry,"
"You can rip the paper," Aaron informed me, when I was trying to open it neatly, by not ripping the paper
I dug my finger in the paper and ripped the paper "Now we are talking! That's the spirit!" Markus joked, when I got right to it
Once the paper was off, I was left with a small carton box in my hand. I looked to my foster parents, before I reached for the box to open it and see what is inside.
It seemed to be some sort of ball. Carefully I took it out of the box, by the little hook thing that was on top of it. When I pulled it out, I realized that I was holding a Christmas decoration, the ball that you can hang up in the tree. The main color of the decoration was dark blue. But all the drawings -the house, the stars in the night sky-, were made in white color. I turned the ball around, 360, to have a full look at the scenery that was drawn on the ball. My mouth dropped a little and my eye grew wider, when I saw that it had my name written on it as well, in white letters.
"We all have one with out name on," Amy explained as she walked to the carton box on the coffee table. A moment later she pulled out a similar decoration with her name on. She pulled out one for Markus and Aaron. She handed them to her family accordingly. Before giving it to them, she showed the decoration to me first. They all were of similar design, some sort of winter/Christmas scenery on and a name written on it, personalizing the Christmas ornament.
I tossed the carton box on the coffee table and held the decoration in my hands carefully as I continued to examine it. It still amazed me in how much detail the scenery was made. There was a little house, a snowy evergreen, snowman on the other side of the house, stars. Whoever made this, had an eye for detail, because everything looked made to the smallest detail. The snowman even had eyes and carrot nose, black buttons on his stomach.
"We wanted you to have one as well," Amy nodded at Christmas decoration in my hands and smiled "Because you are part of our family now!"
"Don't worry, it's not your only gift," Aaron reassured me as he winked at me, when I had looked up to him
"Go on and hang it up," Amy urged me as she walked around the table to the tree. I walked to stand next to Amy, facing the tree.
"Where do I hang it?" I asked looking at the tree in front of me. No branch seemed steady enough for my gift. I didn't want it to fall and shatter.
"How about there? "Amy pointed to a branch my eye height.
I reached up and hang the Christmas decoration so that my name would be seen. Once I made sure that it won't fall and shatter, I took a step back to admire it. My Christmas decoration ball was the first one up on their Christmas tree.
I had never been asked to help decor the Christmas tree before, while in foster care, so this truly meant a lot me. The fact that I got my own, personalized decoration, that matched this families, and it was the first one up, was like the best thing ever.
"Doesn't that look perfect?" Amy asked looking up to it
"It does!" Aaron agreed, from standing somewhere behind me
Markus came up to the tree and string up his Christmas decoration. Amy was next. Aaron put up his decoration last. Once he was done, he stood next to Amy and wrapped his arm around her waistline, they shared a small, quick kiss with each other.
We all stood around the tree looking at the 4 small decorations on for few seconds, just to admire it. They managed to turn a simple Christmas tree decoration into a personal gift, that actually meant something. I felt goosebumps appear on my skin as I looked at it. I would have never guessed that a small, silly Christmas decoration would me feel like I was part of a family. Tears whelmed up in my eyes as for the first time in a long time, I felt like belonging.
AN: This is most likely the last update before Christmas for this story, so I just wanted to wish you all Happy Holiday! Have a wonderful (hopefully snowy) Christmas! :)