"Okay, just a little bit further. Almost…ow…shit Quinn!"

When the Santana side of the tree dipped down, Quinn quickly dashed from around the tree to where Santana was standing, holding her hand. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I'm so sorry!" Quinn took the hand that Santana was holding it, and kissed it.

Santana jerked her arm away. "Christ, Jesus, Q, you don't have to kiss it, I'm not a baby!" Santana hissed.

"You're my baby," Quinn returned so quickly it was like she knew Santana was going to say it. Santana rolled her eyes, but then kissed her just for good measure.

"Why'd you drop it?"

"I thought you had it, sorry."

They finished drag/tugging the tree into the apartment, and sat it up in the corner. They'd gotten a Santana sized Christmas tree. It was midway in height between Santana and Quinn, which made it the perfect height for decorating, and perfect height for Quinn's apartment because the ceilings were around 8 ft, and once you got the tree in the stand and the ornament on the top of the tree, it would probably hit right at the ceiling.

"Did you have a star or an angel on top of your tree?" Santana questioned. "I don't remember."

"A star, for the star of Bethlehem. You guys used to have an angel right?"

"She wasn't an angel, she was the blessed virgin. Have you ever heard of where the tradition of putting an angel on top of the Christmas tree comes from?"

Santana had an expectant look on her face, so Quinn decided to indulge. "No, where does the tradition come from?"

Santana smiled brightly. "Okay, so one year, Santa was getting ready for Christmas, like he always did, but this one year nothing seemed to be going right. His main elves fell sick with the flu, and the back up elves weren't producing the toys as well as the regular elves were, so Santa was behind on toy production. Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her mom was coming to visit; which stressed Father Christmas out even more. But it didn't stop there.

" When he went to check on the reindeer, two of them had disappeared, and three more were about to go into birth. When he went to load the slay he found out that the work order he put in months ago had never been completed and the sleigh wasn't in the proper shape to fly. After all of the toys were put in his special magical sack, Santa discovered that there was a hole in it, and the toys fell out and went everywhere.

"At the end of his rope, Santa went to his cupboard to pour himself a calming cup of tea with a shot of whiskey, only to find that the elves had already beaten him to it. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the coffeepot and it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw it was made of. Just then the doorbell rang and Santa cussed on his way to the door. He opened the door and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

"The angel said, very cheerfully, "Merry Christmas Santa. Isn't it just a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Isn't it just a lovely tree? Where would you like me to stick it?" And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the tree."

Quinn little snicker grew until she was holding her stomach, laughing. Santana looked proud of herself for making Quinn laugh. Once Quinn regained her composure she kissed Santana. "You are so stupid," she said, happily.

"If you were Santa, I could see it going that way."

"Santana Claus," Santana joked, chuckling. She spread the tree blanket down on the spot in the corner where they had decided to put the tree. Santana worked on putting the stand together while Quinn went about sawing off the end of the tree's trunk. When Quinn seemed to struggle with sawing through the middle Santana stopped to offer, "I read that you have to saw it because if you used a power tool to do that then you run the risk of sealing the pores with the sap, and then the tree won't be able to feed."

Quinn grit her teeth. "That is very interesting honey, but while you were reading about that, did you happen to read about any tricks to cutting through this?"

"Nope, didn't see that," she said unhelpfully.

A few minutes later the bottom ring of the tree fell off. Quinn picked it up from the ground. "What do we do with this?"

Santana shrugged her shoulders. "Knock a hole in it, run some string through it, and make a necklace?" The expression on her face changed. "Hey! We could make an ornament out of it! Like, I don't know, incase it in glass or something, and keep it for every year after this as a memento of our first Christmas."

Silence followed her suggestion.

"I like that idea."

"I have all the best ones," Santana congratulated herself. "Hand me the tree?"

Quinn lifted the tree up, and guided it into the stand. Once secured, they stood back up. "What do we think?" Quinn questioned.

"It needs to be rotated just a little more to the left."

Quinn did as Santana instructed. "I said the left!"

"That is the left!"

There was quiet for a moment or two. "Oh, the right then." Quinn grunted. She made the correction.

"Is it perfect now?"

Santana took half a minute to examine it. "Yea." She turned to the tree. "Okay, little guy. I know you weren't the biggest, and you weren't the fullest tree out there, but it's not about looks, it's about heart, and whether or not you have enough of it to make it through to Christmas. Now I don't know what anyone else has ever told you, but in order for you to go the distance it's going to take grit, it's going to take strength,"

"San, you're talking to a tree,"

"It's going to take determination. You have to believe. Do you believe?"

There was silence following her pep talk because she was talking to a tree, and trees, well they don't talk back.

A short time later they found themselves at the Copley Place, browsing. Their stated mission: to find decorations for their apartment, specifically for the Christmas tree, though they would probably end up getting most of those at like Target or Pier 1. Really the trip was just an excuse to get out of the house, to see the Christmas decorations on the mall shops, and to be out together. "This is exciting, don't you think it's exciting, San?" Quinn questioned. She was a bit taken aback by how excited she was about Christmas this year.

"I never knew that you liked Christmas so much."

Normally, she didn't. Normally she couldn't make it through the season without getting depressed. Normally, she saw all the happy faces, and excited peals of laughter from the kids, and the lovesick couples, and she found every excuse to bury herself in her work and avoid the crowds and the people in her life. "This is our first Christmas, together; our first married Christmas!"

Santana didn't hide the smile. "What gives, Q? I'm usually the one saying stuff like that."

Quinn gave her a teasing pat on the arm. "Hey don't tease me for being excited about being with you and getting to do all of these new things with you. Don't you think it's exciting?" Quinn questioned. "We're starting our very own traditions right now. I mean nothing says I'm an adult like celebrating Christmas the way you want to."

Santana gave her 'Quinn' smile. "Yeah, babe, it's pretty cool. So what are our traditions going to be?"

Quinn gave a shrug, practically glowing. "I don't know. I liked going out to getting our tree at Thanksgiving, so if we're able to do that, every year, I want to do that."

They turned into the Hallmark store and were instantly overwhelmed. Quinn looked at the endless ornaments in front of them. There were so many to choose from, and some of them were obviously just marketing; they didn't have anything to do with Christmas. Despite all of the commercials and advertising saying otherwise, it all seemed impersonal.

"Anything catching your eye?" Quinn questioned.

Santana shook her head. "I don't like any of this stuff. I liked your dad's ornament."

"That was really nice. And surprisingly thoughtful. I bet Prudence was mostly behind it."

"Oh come on, give him a little credit, babe."

"I didn't say anything bad, I was just saying that Prudence was probably the mastermind behind it. And anyway, it doesn't matter who came up with it, because it was perfect, and beautiful, and this stuff just isn't it. I don't want to put it on our tree."

"You don't want to buy anything?"

"I don't want our tree to look like the kind I had growing up."

Santana casually shrugged. "I don't ever remember my parents buying any Christmas ornaments. I mean maybe we bought a piece here or there, fresh candy canes every year, but most of our Christmas tree ornaments were the ones that we made at school, or at home with my mami or my abuela. They all meant something. So how about we don't worry about the ornaments, and just tell all our friends and family that instead of gifts for Christmas we want them to give us ornaments."

"That's not that bad of an idea."

"I was halfway kidding."

"Still. You know if you ever actually give Rachel permission to go over the top, she will rise to the occasion."

They ended up buying non ornamental decorations for their tree, garland, holly, tinsel, and two boxes of multicolored balls. "Did we decide on whether we wanted an angel or a star?"

"Did we discuss that?"

"No."

"Oh, well then we didn't decide," Santana concluded.

On their way through the mall they passed by the Salvation Army tree, and Quinn knew what Santana was going to say before she even turned towards Quinn and said, "We should adopt an angel."

Quinn didn't even have to think about it though she was a bit surprised that Santana wanted to do it. She nodded in agreement. "We should."

Santana's face lit up instantly. "Really?"

"Yes. Girl or boy."

"Girl," was said without any hesitation.

"Do you want to do that today?"

Santana shrugged. "Why not? We don't have anything else to do today, do we?"

Quinn shook her head. So they went and adopted their angel, and spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for her. While they were looking through clothes and shoes for this unknown girl, Quinn took a moment to wonder how her daughter celebrated Christmases. She never really spent time thinking about it. She thought about Beth all the time, but she never thought about the things that made her up. She had gotten a brief glimpse of her daughter at the wedding, and that hadn't been nearly long enough, but now doing this shopping for this random nine year old girl that she never met, and never would meet, she wondered about those individual things that made up her daughter. How did she celebrate Christmas, what traditions did she and Shelby have together? What things did she like, did she like to do? What did she want for Christmas this year?

She took a brief break from shopping and Santana and found a corner to herself. After standing in the same spot for a few minutes with her phone in her hand, she highlighted Shelby's number, and gave her a call. Shelby had Quinn's contact information in case any medical emergency popped up and Shelby needed to quiz her on family history, or something, and Quinn had had Shelby's number just sitting in her phone for years. Until today, she never thought to actually call her, and she was surprised when Shelby picked up.

"Hey, Quinn, is something the matter?"

"No," Quinn said quickly, understanding why Shelby would jump to that conclusion. "Nothing's wrong, Shelby. San and I are doing the Salvation Army angel tree, and I was just thinking about Beth. Would it be alright…can I get her something for Christmas?"

There was quiet on the line for a few moments. Once Shelby told Beth that she was adopted, things had kind of been up in the air. There was probably the option of Quinn visiting from time to time, she knew Puck did, but Quinn had never asked, and Shelby had never offered. "Of course you can, Quinn," Shelby responded. "I think she'd really like that."

"Do you…do you know what she would like?"

"She collects guitar straps. Unique ones. If you could find one she would think you were pretty awesome, and if you made one yourself she'd probably think you were the coolest person on the planet."

"Guitar straps. She plays the guitar?" This was news. Pretty much everything was news. She didn't know the child that she gave birth to.

"No. She plays the drums. She just likes to collect them."

Quinn hesitated before she asked, "Does she see still see Puck?"

"Every so often. He sends her gifts for Chanukah."

"Oh, okay. Well, thanks Shelby."

"Any time, thank you for calling Quinn."

Santana gave her a speculative look when she came back. "I called Shelby. I wanted to send Beth something for Christmas this year."

"Oh." If Santana was surprised by the statement, she didn't say anything. "What are you going to get her?"

"Shelby said that she would think I was the 'coolest person on the planet' if I made her a guitar strap."

"Don't use air quotes, babe, no one likes a person who does air quotes."

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Beth plays the guitar?"

"That's the first thing I asked, but no. She plays the drums. Apparently she just wears the straps, or collects them, I don't know."

"That's pretty bad ass. You made yourself one cool kid. You sure she has your genes?"

"You know you're not half as funny as you think you are, right?"

"Bitch, I am hilarious. We should make her an ornament, too."

"What's with you and this sudden ornament kick that you're on?"

"I'm not on a kick! We're buying a house, money is tight, and making things means that you're spending time thinking about someone. And she's a rocker chick, so we can like make her an ornament from a guitar pick, or earrings. We should make her pick earrings! I'm so doing that, and I don't even care if you put your name on the gift. And I'm making something for our angel, too. It's decided."

And so it was.