How Green Becomes Wood

"Hey don't look at me, this is your decision. It'll probably go in the living room, so what fits it better? I will say, y'all don't have a lot of ornaments, so the bigger one will look a bit sparse, but again," He shrugged, "Dark would tower over the 6' tree and make it look small. So like, do ya want a tree that looks small a lotta the time? Ivy ain't big enough to crawl yet so we don't gotta worry about her being stuck with a pine needle."
 
"For sparse decorations, at least the tree is blue," Xander pointed out. He looked at the tree and squinted. "Well, blue-ish, I guess. It'll be its own decoration!"

"I think sparse decorations would be sad," Alec said slowly, "but it's awkward not to have a tall enough tree... Alright. Let's get the big one, and then we can add on our own homemade decorations!"

"I like that," Xander grinned. He turned to Cooger. "Ready. We'll take the blue spruce."
 
"After this we'll stop buy a store to buy a box or two baubles, and while we're here we'll stop in the Christmas store to buy a couple specific ornaments. Baby's first Christmas, cheesy shit like that." Cooger said, scratching the back of his head, "Alright. Blue Spruce."

He stretched briefly and then lay down on his side, because he had a specific Christmas tree cutting saw to make sure of a flat base, and he worked sawing the tree, occasionally swearing or grumbling, but eventually the tree fell. Then, after standing and brushing the snow and needles from himself, he flagged someone down to take it to be bundled up, and with a heavy exhale, he turned to the twins, "Alright. Let's go get some ornaments and hot chocolate before taking the damn thing back home."
 
The twins watched in complete fascination as Cooger took down the tree. Xander was a little too fascinated, and Alec hung onto the back of his coat to make certain he didn't get too close while Cooger was sawing it down. Both let out cheers when the tree fell, and soon it was bundled up and ready to go.

"Yes! Ornaments! Sparkly ones!" Alec agreed, waving a hand in the air.

"Black ones to go with the theme, and loads of hot chocolate," Xander agreed.

"Oh, black and silver would look smashing, don't you think, Cooger?" Alec asked eagerly as they followed him out. "And baby's first Christmas is a must!"
 
"It better not look smashing," Cooger snorted, leading them towards the little Christmas themed building, "Tarot already sliced her foot open once this year, if we smash the..." He frowned as the joke got away from him, "Whatever. It's your house, pick whichever colours y'all can live with. But, uh, Dark'd probably be happy with black and silver, and if you buy ones with an interesting texture it'd be good for Tarot, so she can really experience it. And yes, lotsa hot chocolate, it's freezing out here."
 
Alec stared at Cooger, suddenly sober and worried. He'd forgotten about Daizi hurting her foot on glass and that Christmas ornaments were made from glass. What if they knocked off a bauble and it broke and she hurt herself again? That would be awful!

"They make some good plastic ones," Xander said, watching Alec. "Those would likely be better than glass since they aren't used to a tree. One of them might bump it, and then there goes a perfectly good ball thingy and he has to do a bunch more scrubbing and cleaning. No good. Plastic ones have better texture, anyway, and I bet we can find some shapes."
 
"Plastic is good, yeah. But they're around a lot of breakable things, you've lived there for a year. I'm sure they'd adjust... But to be safe, with Tarot right now, especially because she's sleep deprived, plastic is good. We can get glass ones in the future." Cooger agreed, walking with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his coat. The inside of the Christmas store smelled like peppermint, fire, and a Bath and Bodyworks Christmas themed candle, and it felt sort of like the inside of Cooger's cabin (if someone had gifted him a scented candle). Right by the enterance was a little concessions stand for hot chocolate, fudge, and other simple treats and Christmas-themed foods. Near the fireplace was a man dressed as Santa with a line of kids waiting patiently or impatiently depending on their temperament---at the moment, he looked uncomfortable as he was trying to made a toddler smile, because the kid's mom was not reclaiming her screaming son and he couldn't just say 'lady get your kid.' Cooger nodded in that direction and said, "Hey, you two need to send your Christmas lists in?" before heading to the gift shop portion of the shop that was stock full of stuffed toys, Christmas decorations, ornaments, and other odds and ends.
 
"Oh, boy, it smells in here," Xander grumbled, shaking off the snow as he walked in. Automatically, one hand reached out for the salt bowl. He caught himself and tried to disguise the motion as brushing off his sleeve quickly.

Alec took a deep breath and let out a sigh of happiness. "It smells like heaven! Or similar, I think. I don't know. Cookies!"

Xander snorted then looked at Cooger in confusion. "Christmas lists? Why would we send in a Christmas list?" He paused and looked around the gift shop critically before angling for the corner that seemed to have the most ornaments.

"We haven't believed in Santa since we were six, but it's nice to see the kids having fun, and the stories are all greatly enjoying," Alec told Cooger happily, reaching out to pet the fuzzy garlands hanging from a hook. "They're like feather boas! But shiny!"
 
"You really don't wanna sit on Santa's lap? And if you don't send a list, how's he gonna know what you want for Christmas?" He teased, turning the rack of name ornaments around to try to find the twins' names, "What if we got this one that said Alexander and put a line to indicate a break? I don't think they're gonna have Xander. Has that been a common problem for you? I used to drive myself crazy as a teenager 'cause since for a long time Dark wouldn't tell me what his initials meant, I couldn't ever bring him back something with his name on it. 'Course, he's got an Arabic name, so even had I known it, I wouldn't have been able to. And Tarot's is impossible, too. I mean, her real name, not her nickname. Thank god they named their kid Ivy-Qadira, Ivy is a name you can find. But it'll be a little bit before she's fun at Christmas." He sighed and then laughed, "I gotta tell y'all, babies are boring as hell. Kid needs to hurry up and get fun. I mean, I love her to death, but..."

He shrugged his shoulders as he sifted through ornaments, really keeping an eye open for anything that seemed like it'd have an important meaning at the household. He did find one of the Sphinx, which he thought was a good one to have. Despite his complaints about how boring Ivy was, he had been stopping by semi-regularly, roughly about once a week or so, to spend a few hours at the house, and he'd always make time to hold the baby. However, despite the fact Cooger would talk to Ivy and play with her as much as anyone could, he was really only there to visit with Dark. Daizi, too, but he was worried Dark was neglecting himself, and he knew his friend needed time where he wasn't just being a dad.
 
"Oh!" Alec blurted suddenly. "What if we got a string of ivy to put around the tree? Or maybe on the mantles? I'm not sure what a mantle is, but if we do that, we can include her in the decorating! Because you're right, she is kind of boring despite being far cuter now than when she was first born." He held up several strands of garland in various shades of grey, white, and silver draped over his shoulders and arms. "I demand we got at least one of these! They are so fluffy! Daizi will love the texture differences!"

Xander snickered as he stood sifting through the various "themed" decorations shaped like tractors, reindeer, and other holiday or completely random shapes. "You demand? You never demand anything. You must be in love with those."

Alec blushed deeply. "Sorry, Cooger."

"I guess we could go the Alexander route," Xander said, hanging an ornament the shape of a pair of shoes back on the rack. "Lots of people make that joke already, and we are twins, so... Oh, here's a spider. That's a good one. And here's an owl. I think it's a Harry Potter owl, but we can repaint."
 
"Ivy might blend into the tree, but we can get some for the mantle, I guess. Get some holly to add to it, then it's the sort of real classy stuff Dark goes nuts for." He looked between Alec and the garland, "Yeah, you can get a whole bunch of that. Enough to fully wrap the tree. You're smart, I'm glad, if you chose tinsel I'd have to shame you, 'cause animals eat tinsel and then die. Especially cats, but I think wild animals do it too. And dogs, it's just not smart."

He came around to look at the ornaments Xander had found, "Why do you want an owl?"
 
Alec looked momentarily horrified. "Animals eat tinsel?? I didn't know that! I just thought the garlands looked good." He started sifting through them and trying to pick out the perfect color.

"Because that's what they call Alec. At least," Xander frowned, "I'm pretty sure that's what they say. It has something to do with a bird. Pretty sure it's an owl." He carefully pulled out an orange and striped cat sitting with a Santa hat on its head. "Okay, random, but here's one for you. Haven't found anything for anyone else yet."
 
"Tinsel, yeah. They chew on garland too, but it's not dangerous, because they can't swallow long pieces of it since, ya know," he ruffled it between his fingers, "There aren't long pieces." Then he stepped back, taking the cat from Xander and turning it over in his hands, "It's cute. I should look to see if there's one that looks like Hank. I wouldn't worry about finding one for everyone, though. How long do you think it'll take your dad, realistically, to see this tree before he starts hand carving ornaments for it? Shoot."
 
"Two seconds," Xander said promptly. He continued sorting through the rows and rows of random little ornaments. "I want to try to find some, even if they aren't an exact match." It would show he'd tried, that he wasn't favoring one over another. A spider ornament for Daizi certainly fit even if or perhaps especially if it didn't exactly match the Christmas typical decor. But he wasn't sure what to do for Dark. Nothing he was finding seemed right, and he wasn't sure what to get for either himself or Ivy. Maybe a fire for himself? There were a couple of variations on the theme of a fire in a fireplace. For Ivy, there were no hummingbirds or ivy leaves. Then he spotted it. Triumphantly, he selected a tiny mouse figurine. Perfect.

Meanwhile, still covered in garland - black and silver in equal measure - Alec was sorting through the baubles. He found a whole selection of cheap plastic balls that looked halfway decent and was trying to find a nice selection. They came in boxes of ten each for a reasonable price, but they mostly looked the same other than color variations. He held up a package of white balls and one of black, considering. Maye Xander's figurines would give it enough personality and enough textural interest?
 
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"Honestly our gift to him is giving him a new project," Cooger mused, "by next year, we won't be able to see the branches of the tree. But you search on, Gladiator. Trees are no fun unless they look eclectic, it'd be boring if all the ornaments were made by him." He paused and laughed loudly and suddenly, not minding the looks he got for it. "Do you think it's occurred to him even a little bit he's making himself into Santa Claus? Wait a decade for his hair and beard to go white, then we've got a man who sits in his shed making ornaments and wooden toys."
 
"But he's not chubby. There's no belly like a bowlful of jelly," Alec pointed out as he pulled out a box of yellow ornaments. "Hmm, yellow and black."

"That would make the tree look like a bumblebee," Xander pointed out. "And he's Santa after a diet and a strict exercise regime. He's... Russian Santa from that one movie! Something about Guardians. Of the Galaxy?"

"No, that's the Marvel movie. I think you mean Rise of the Guardians," Alec told him with a grin, putting back the yellow ornaments.

"Right, that one. He's crazy big Santa with muscles, but no swords," Xander grinned.
 
"He became a dad this year, give it some time," Cooger stretched, "Dark's not going to like yellow. When's the last time he's got excited about a bright colour? But we gotta hurry up, we still have to get home in time to get it all set up before they get home from the pediatrician. Dark was whining about how many vaccines she has to get today so that's probably going to buy us some time while they sit in the doctor's office and try to calm her back down after being jabbed with needles, but we still don't have all day."
 
"I have mine all picked out!" Alec said, holding up the cases of sheer black balls and silvery garland. "Black and silver! It'll look amazing. Plus, I found some ivy garland and mistletoe. What about you, Xander?"

"Spider for Daizi, Mouse for Ivy, Cat for Cooger, owl for Alec, fireplace for me, and..." Xander grinned and reached back. "Got it! This one for Dark!" He held up a simple disc that had the words, "New Daddy's First Christmas" engraved along with the silhouette of a sleeping baby on the bottom. "There. That's everyone."

"Good choices," Alec said, though he gave the fireplace a doubtful look. Perhaps they could switch that out later. "Okay, Cooger, let's go decorate!"
 
"Perfect," Cooger said, heading towards the checkout, really just trusting the teens were trailing behind him. He was proud, he had only slightly made a face at thinking of literally any person or inanimate object referring to Dark as 'daddy,' but he had turned as he did so.

As he put everything on the counter and took out his wallet he asked, "Why did you choose a fireplace for yourself?" but notably, did not question the mouse for Ivy.
 
Xander glanced at the figurine as he added it to the pile on the counter and shrugged. "Hot, firey, but contained and useful for making food."

"Also warm and cozy and comforting," Alec said happily, waiting until there was more room on the counter before adding his pile.

Xander made a face at him. "It was the closest I could find."
 
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