29. Bailey
Rockin Around the Christmas Tree
"Alright girls, go pick us out a tree." Pa said getting some saws, we all bundled up before going out into the woods to find us a Christmas tree. Lacey mostly picked the tree, it was her first time so I let her have all the fun. She would go from holding Johnny's hand to running up to a tree saying it was the one, then she's see one even better.
She finally decided that this one was the one, it was 6 feet tall and about 3 feet wide. It was full and beautiful, she did amazing finding the perfect one. Johnny and Zack cut down the tree and carried it the whole way back to the house, they knocked off all the snow before bringing it inside.
When we went inside Ma had already had the Beach Boy's christmas CD playing, cookies were fresh and she was scurrying around to get all the stuff out. Ma put a Mickey Mouse Christmas tree skirt under the tree while Zack and I started to try to untangle the lights and see which ones worked, somehow I managed to get tangled in them and he was laughing too hard to really help me out of them.
"How." He laughed. "If there is something that can go wrong, or you can get stuck in – you will."
I pouted but he kissed me on the nose before pulling the lights off of me and put them on the tree, flexing after showing the finished product.
"Gold star." Ma laughed. "Now here, this is all bulbs and ornaments... this one is tinsel and icicles ..."
When we finished decorating the tree Ma had us all take a photo infront of it, Zack put his arm around me and shined the brightest smile. This was the happiest moment of my life to date, I was sure.
"I have presents for everyone, so you're not done." Ma said. "John, Bailey you already have one but Zack – Lacey... We'd like you to hang yours onto the tree too."
Ma pulled out a small box, I knew what the box was – it was the box that held the ornaments that she had made out of old shirts, old flannel pieces or blankets and stitched our names into them. Mine was a light red and white flannel with thick black lettering that said Bailey on it, on the other side it had a horse on it. it was a horse blanket that I had had, but ended up getting tarnished. She could only save a small piece and got the idea to make us ornaments out of it.
John's was black and almost looked like leather. It was a piece of his first car's interior, it was his favorite car. It was a 1973 Chevy Caprice Classic Convertible, it was bright red and the apple of Johnny's eye. He got 4 months before his 16th birthday because he always talked about wanting that car and I'll be damned if there wasn't one for sale in town one day... Pa tried to hide it in a shed but Johnny ended up finding it.
Then one winter Johnny wrapped it around a tree, he was devastated. When we pulled up to the scene he was just sitting one of the tires that had come off, staring at it. he was bleeding but he didn't care he refused treatment.
