How Green Becomes Wood

Dark paused stringing the lights, "Should we not wait to hang up the ornaments until after the garland is up? I do not want the garland to cover them."

"I really like the ones you chose," Daizi smiled, "The frog with the hat is really cute. He's just a little fellow, isn't he?"
 
"Hmm. Guess so. Didn't think about that," Xander said. He took down the few he'd already put up and held them while he talked to Daizi. "Cooger actually found that one. I think it's perfect. Took awhile to find one for Ba." He gave her the Nightmare Before Christmas themed ornament.
 
Daizi ran her fingers over it and smiled, "Is this the Spiral Hill from Nightmare Before Christmas? I love that movie... The three of us did a costume for it, once. If we did it again, we could dress the three of you up like the children who kidnap Sandy Claws."

"Stop, Tarot, you'll get that song stuck in my head again," Cooger joked.

"We should watch that movie again," Daizi sighed.

"Your version of Sally's Song is better than was in the movie," Dark said, coming to look at the ornament after finishing his portion of the lights.
 
Alec innocently started humming the song as he sorted out the silver and black garland as well as the new red one. "Da-da-da, Sandy Claws... turn out the lights..."

"Is it a Christmas movie or a Halloween one?" Xander asked. He waited until Dark was distracted and carefully placed the three kids into Daizi's hand. "Don't say what these are," he murmured quietly enough that Dark couldn't hear.
 
"It is both," Dark replied easily, helping Alec with the garland, "It can be watched any time between September and the end of December."

Daizi's face lit up when she felt the ornaments of the children, "This is absolutely perfect. I love these."
 
"That's pretty handy," Alec said, stretching with all his might to reach around the tree with the garland. It was a good thing he had help or else this never would have gotten done.

"Cooger found them and said they matched us. Not sure how to take that," Xander said dryly.
 
"It is ideal," Dark agreed with a nod, tucking the ends of the garland in before stepping back to see how it looked at a distance so he knew what adjustments were still needed.

"They do match you." Daizi grinned and lifted up the one in the devil mask, "Look, that's you."
 
"What do you think, Ba? Is it ready for the rest?" Alec asked.

Xander frowned at the figure. "I'm Lock? Cooger said I was, too. That makes Alec Stock, I guess, and I'm in charge."
 
Dark spent a few silent moments staring at the tree and then nodded, "Yes, I think we can hang the ornaments now." Opening his ornament box, Cooger's guess Dark had spent the past year making ornaments was proved correct. It wasn't overflowing, and certainly the tree would still be a bit sparse, but he had made a good few. Many were what one would expect: a flower with an eye in the center, three crows on a gnarled branch, a skeletal reindeer, Krampus, Baphomet, and a pair of bats. But there was also a horse pulling a sleigh which looked not too dissimilar from Big John, although if it was intended to be that particular horse, it was clear it was made from memory and not from a photograph. There weren't many which were explicitly Christmasy, but he did his best to make them winter themed, so there was a polar bear, a cardinal, a penguin, and a fox. He had made a few snowflakes. His aesthetic or not, they were all painted, and he did his best to use bright colours on the ones which weren't his style and on many... He even had applied glitter. It only served as an accent, but it was there. Even on a little cat he had carved.

Amongst them was the circle of wood Cooger had been sure to saw off of the tree for him (just as he had done again this year), and on it he had carefully painted a family portrait as they were last year, including Enkidu, their three rats, and Neith. It wasn't as realistic as his larger scale works, because he didn't have the space, but it was detailed enough.

"I'll be honest, I didn't know their names," Daizi confided.
 
"Lock, Stock, and Barrel, the Boogie Boys, even though one of them is a girl," Xander told her.

"Ba, these are beautiful!" Alec breathed, sorting through them carefully. "You have done amazing work! Xander! Xander, come look!"

Xander wandered over and looked at the ornaments. "Wow. Someone has been busy. He picked up the cat with glitter and gave Dark and amused look. "How hard was it to contain the glitter?"
 
"I wanted to make sure they were suitable to all of our tastes, rather than only mine and your mother's," Dark said, certainly proud and maybe a bit bashful, "I did all of the glitterwork on a lined tray to keep it contained. Various sizes of lint rollers helped with the rest."
 
"It's really cool," Xander told him sincerely. He held up the horse and the sleigh and gave a little nod, pleased with it, then picked up the skeletal reindeer and grinned. "Wicked!"

"Oh, I like these animal ones a lot," Alec said, running his fingers over the curves gently. "They are so perfect! Mama, have you gotten to see these?"
 
"I am very fond of the reindeer," Dark said with a glimmer in his eyes while Cooger came over to look at the new ornaments.

Holding up the fox, Cooger gave a low whistle, "I'm always impressed by what an artist you are, man."

"Thank you," Dark said with a little smile. With the way Cooger was, getting his compliments always meant something a bit more.

Also joining them, Daizi said, "He's shown me some of them. The one with the crows, the fox, and Baphomet were all my ideas."
 
"The crows and the fox really fit with the tree. It'll look like a scene from a kid's book," Alec smiled. He reached out and hung the first ornament carefully on a branch. "This one seems pretty tough, so it can go lower down."

Xander hung the skeletal reindeer higher. "The horns or antlers or whatever are kind of pointy, so higher for this one."
 
"I will let you all handle the lowest branches," Dark said, picking up the one he had made from last year's tree and hanging it in a prominent place. The year was painted on the back so they'd remember, but with Ivy so small in the portrait, he doubted there'd ever be a question of when it was, "Most of the wooden ones should be fine near the bottom, but I would probably leave some level of a gap. I would not want Ivy to try to yank too hard on the tree."

"Plastic near the bottom should be okay," Cooger said, "The cats don't tend to break those, I bet Ivy'll be fine with them. Ivy, you'll help your favourite Uncle hang these, won't you kitten?" Ivy cooed up at him, looking in amazement at everything going on around her.
 
Alec and Xander hung the plastic, mostly destruction-proof ones near the bottom and put most of the wooden ones that looked like they'd be alright above that where they didn't think Ivy could reach, but just in case she could, she wouldn't hurt anything. They took care to hang the ones that she could reach loose enough that if she pulled, the ornaments would come off without much effort. Better to lose an ornament or too than have the tree come crashing down.
 
Since it was such a tactile task, Daizi had no trouble helping to hang up the ornaments, and with six of them working (or mostly working, as Ivy was gradually passed around, whoever had her didn't quite pull their own weight as they had her 'help' them hang the ornaments up), the tree was fully decorated. Dark couldn't deny it was fun to do something like that with his family, and as he sat back admiring the almost finished tree (it still needed the topper), he folded his arms over his chest and said, "Had I known about this, I would have prepared cookies or something."
 
"That's alright. Maybe tomorrow we could all make cookies together," Alec suggested.

Xander sat on the floor, resting his legs. "Well, Ba? How badly do you hate the tree?" he teased.
 
"That would be nice," Daizi said, sitting on the couch with Enkidu on her lap.

Dark looked over it, resisting the urge to rearrange some of the ornaments, "It is not too bad. Better than last year's, I believe. It looks fuller."

"Well yeah," Cooger laughed, holding his awe-struck niece, "Last year we didn't have half as many ornaments."

"I am not talking about the ornaments, I am talking about the tree itself." Dark replied indignantly.
 
Alec giggled and dug out the final piece. "Uncle Cooger, it is in my opinion that you should put on the star." He held out the white and gold star with gold accents. "Any objections?"

"Nah, I think Cooger should do it," Xander nodded. "If he can reach."
 
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