The Ugly Tree

Sharon, Shane and Oliver were gathered in Shane's home office. Sharon had a fair idea what was about to happen, but Oliver was currently completely in the dark. Shane currently had a Duke of Wellington on the eve of Waterloo look in her eyes, and both Sharon and Oliver knew that they were about to be bossed around considerably.

'Everyone, let's start with tea and gingerbread,' Shane announced.

Oliver cast Shane a sly look. 'Gingerbread we are allowed to eat? What a difference a year makes.'

A year on, Shane was able to laugh at the memory. She reminded her mother of the story.

'Oliver and Joe were in big trouble last year Mom. They destroyed my gingerbread house and all of the candy decorations!'

Sharon smiled. 'I remember you told me that story. It was part of the reason I wanted to be here for Christmas this year.'

Oliver and Shane looked puzzled.

Sharon explained, 'I saw all of your photos and heard lots of your stories. I knew that I wanted to be here this year to share in the fun!'

Oliver went over and gave Sharon a hug.

'We are so thankful you are,' he said.

Shane was thrilled to see Oliver and Sharon so happy together, and she was happy too, but really, there were so many things that needed to be accomplished today. It was time to get the Ugly Tree under way.

'Okay,' Shane interrupted, 'Welcome to Operation Ugly Tree! Mom might have suggested (Shane winked) rightly as it turns out, that sometimes you don't need everything to be perfect. In fact, too much order might have been taking a little of the fun out of things.'

Sharon and Oliver both resisted the urge to speak.

'I do love our Christmas tree, and I do love decorating it so that it is beautiful, but I also want us to have a place for those things that make us smile, or even creep us out.' Shane giggled.

'So, I give you, the Ugly Tree. A place for the mismatched, the weird and the just plain fun! A place for all of the ornaments that I made in school, for all of those ornaments we didn't use last year… anything really!'

In no time, Sharon had the scrawny tree out of its box, and Shane was busy unpacking and laughing over both her odd assortment, as well as some of those Oliver kept hidden in a box in the garage. Shane noticed that although Oliver was picking up some of the ornaments and even laughing over them, he didn't seem ready to place any of them on the tree. Shane grabbed a length of pink tinsel from the materials Sharon had shopped for yesterday and draped it around Olver's neck. She knew her husband's thoughts on tinsel and laughed at the look of absolute horror on his face.

'Come on, Oliver! You need to help decorating!'

Oliver's past experience led him to believe that this was not the case.

'This is an 'anything goes' tree! I want it to look like Christmas has vomited by the time we are finished!'

He couldn't help laughing at that description. He reached for a little Christmas elf made from a painted wooden bead head, chenille stems for the arms and a pinecone for the body. It truly was the stuff of nightmares. As he placed that, and the pink tinsel on the tree Shane remarked, 'Oh, and there is some crafting to be done when we finish with these!'

'Oh, happy day!' was the not very enthusiastic response.

The decorating continued. Oliver was making a paper chain garland, Sharon was making some little snowman ornaments from felt and buttons, and Shane was gluing paper circles cut from copied sheet music to make honeycomb ornaments.

Sharon looked up from her crafting.

'How was the Ball,' she asked.

'Oh, it was fabulous, wasn't it Oliver?'

Shane smiled at the memory. Oliver also smiled in response.

'Absolutely. Those dance classes paid off.'

Sharon was confused. Their dance classes were a while ago, surely?

Shane explained. 'We decided that we wanted to learn some new steps, so we have been going to see Ramon for lessons for a couple of months. We each got to pick a dance we wanted to learn.'

Sharon looked momentarily startled. Oh goodness! What on earth did Shane pick? Sharon hoped Shane had not been too hard on Oliver. She wouldn't put it past her daughter to choose something well outside Oliver's comfort zone just to tease him.

Almost reluctantly, Sharon asked, 'And what did you pick, daughter?'

'Mom! You sound worried! Did you think I would pick something that would freak Oliver out?'

'The thought never crossed my mind,' was the not quite believed reply.

'To be honest, I did show Oliver some Hip Hop dances just to drive him crazy.'

'Previous experience, however, meant that I didn't fall for that,' Oliver laughed.

'She did almost have me convinced she wanted to try the Bachata though, which did almost give me heart palpitations.'

'Ha! Heart palpitations! The Quickstep you convinced me to do certainly improved my cardio!'

Sharon knew that Shane and Oliver could banter almost without drawing breath, so she asked again, 'Shane?'

'Oh, I just love swing dances! I picked the Lindy Hop!'

Sharon looked over at Oliver. He seemed quite pleased with that, Sharon thought. She was certain when he continued, 'We are learning the Balboa next week.'

Eventually, the conversation turned to Sharon's dinner with Joe. Sharon described the great food and the dazzling light display. Shane did a double-take when Sharon casually added that Joe had asked her to travel with him next year. It seemed that Sharon and Joe both wanted to travel, and seeing they both got on very well, they decided that they would travel together to Italy next year. Oliver was beyond pleased and a small, not-quite devious grin flitted across his face.

Shane still looked a little taken a-back. Sharon saw her look and exasperatedly explained, 'Shane Shannon McInerney O'Toole! Whatever you are thinking, stop it. Joe and I are good friends, and we are going to travel together as friends!'

Shane had the grace to look abashed.

'Really, I mean Joe is Oliver's father! That would just be weird! What were you thinking?'

Crafting continued apace, until finally, there did not seem to be any spare branches on the tree. Shane was thrilled. Christmas did indeed seem to have overtaken the tree. Sharon declared it delightful, but rather than call it the 'ugly' tree, she described it with some amusement as the 'Franken-tree'.

Shane thought that did indeed sound better until Oliver came up with an even better suggestion.

'Do you know the story of William Shakespeare's will,' he inquired.

Shane knew there was something about a bed in it, but she wasn't completely sure of the details.

Oliver explained, 'Shakespeare apparently left his 'second-best bed' to his wife in his will. Scholars have argued over the meaning of that for years, but it is sometimes thought that he left her that bed as an act of love. The bed would in fact have been the one they shared. Therefore, I propose that we call this the 'second-best tree', made of love, joy and (Oliver suddenly rolled his eyes) tinsel.'

Shane readily agreed, hugging each of them in turn. She looked at the gaudy tree that now graced the space before her office window. It was a mix of colours and styles, and seriously overloaded with decorations, but it was truly beautiful.

'I love this tree,' Shane gushed, 'And I love us!'

Her listeners had to agree.

Christmas Eve Traditions

Shane, Oliver and Sharon had been joined by Joe. He had arrived mid-afternoon and was spending Christmas Eve and Christmas night. Dinner was finished, and the not insignificant pile of presents had been placed under the tree.

The four of them found comfortable positions on the couch and armchairs, and contentedly sipped cocoa, admiring the tree by the light from the fireplace and the strings of lights the glittered in its branches. Sharon carefully made her way to the tree and found three gifts. Everyone knew what was coming. Joe was delighted. Shane was almost bouncing with excitement. Oliver has somewhere between resignation and dread.

'Merry Christmas Eve,' Sharon cried, handing a parcel to each of the others. Shane tore into the wrapping like a child. Joe and Oliver looked on, waiting to see what she uncovered. Sharon'

Shane let out a gasp.

'Mom! You are wicked! '

Sharon's smile was beatific.

Oliver, meanwhile, had unwrapped his own present.

'What the Sam Hill?' was his response.

Alex Brighton was not surprised to hear her phone ding. Her mother had been keeping her updated about her Denver trip. Alex opened her phone, excited to see what the McInerney O'Toole's were up to now. Alex scrolled through the photos Sharon had shared. What she saw made her laugh so hard she cried. Through a series of photos, she saw her mum, Shane, Oliver and his dad wearing (just as she currently was) navy blue onesies patterned to look like ugly sweaters, posing with some Christmas photo booth props before a stunning Christmas tree. Sharon and Shane displayed the joy of children. Joe looked like the happiest of fathers. Alex's very proper brother-in-law was trying. In some of the photos, he looked to be having a fabulous time, sharing in the joy of the others. In other photos, he looked exquisitely uncomfortable, and that (in Alex's opinion) was the funniest of all.