12 Days of Christmas

Day 9

"Elena, I get that you want to find the perfect tree, but I don't understand what's been so wrong about the ones we've been looking at," Damon said. They had been at a lot, looking for a Christmas tree for almost an hour and he was getting cold. When Elena had said they should get out and choose a tree and cut it themselves, he had been all for it. Having an actual live tree was a tradition from when he was a kid and somehow, having a Christmas tree made out of plastic seemed wrong. He hadn't imagined it could take this long to find the perfect one, though.

"Don't worry, I think we're almost there!" Elena said, excitedly. As with all of the Christmas activities they'd been up to, she looked more than just cute. She had been so focused, right from the time they'd gotten to the tree lot.

"Okay then," Damon chuckled, following her through the forest. A lot of the trees they had passed really were not worth a second glance - others seemed just fine to him, but apparently, Elena saw something he didn't.

"Oooh, here it is!" she said and pointed to a tree, "This one is perfect!" The tree she had found was tall and slender with a few missing patches here and there. To Damon, it seemed far from perfect.

"Really? I mean, it's missing branches here and stuff..." Damon said, pointing to it.

"Yeah, that's what makes it perfect. It has its flaws and its scars, but it's still standing strong and tall. It's perfect," Elena said, taking a photo with her phone. Damon smiled at her, moving to the bottom of the tree with the saw they'd brought.

"That's a good point. I like that," he said, starting the work of cutting down the tree.

***

After Damon spent a good fifteen minutes cutting down the tree and they had gotten it wrapped and attached to the top of Elena's car, they decided to peek inside the little cottage attached to the place. As they entered, it seemed as though they had transformed a house into a little café and shop. The shop seemed to have all kinds of homemade Christmas decorations , and the café served pastries and hot drinks. Deciding their tree hunt had left them hungrier than they thought, they visited the café first, where Damon bought them two danishes and a steaming cup of homemade apple cider each. They sat down on the wooden benches that looked as homemade as the rest of the interior.

"I can't believe we've never noticed this place before," Elena said, looking around. Cozy was the perfect way to describe the cottage - everything felt very home-y.

"Yeah, me either. I wonder how long it's been here for," Damon added. In all his years of coming back to Mystic Falls, he'd never seen it before, and it wasn't as if he and Stefan hadn't spent a good amount of time in the woods.

"I don't know... We rarely did the whole 'cut down your own Christmas tree' thing," Elena said, taking a sip of the apple cider. The warm liquid coated her throat so nicely and seemed to warm her up instantly. It was the best she had ever had.

"You didn't? I'm surprised. I would've thought this had been part of your childhood too," Damon gestured to the cottage.

"No... Most years we had a plastic tree. It was more about decorating it, than actually picking out the tree. Looking back now, I wish we would've done this more," Elena sighed. There was no changing the past and nobody knew that better than her.

"Well, we'll just have to make it our tradition, then," Damon said and put his hand on her thigh and gave it a squeeze, "The first of many."

***

Forty-five minutes later they were home, with their new Christmas tree standing proud in the parlor. After drinking cider and finishing their danishes, they had gone around the little shop and picked out a few decorations for their tree. The homemade decorations just seemed so much nicer than the stuff they had bought at various stores earlier. At first, they had gone just to find a blanket and foot for the tree, but they had realized that they would be needing decorations as well. They had picked up a bunch of stuff - including an outrageous amount of tree lights, but they all seemed to fade a little, compared to the handmade ones. Before they had gotten started on decorating, Elena had handed Damon a box that looked a lot like the one the snow flakes had been in. She told him the artist made them in smaller versions too, and she felt like they belonged on their tree. Once again, Damon had felt a gratitude towards Elena that he had no way of sharing with her in words, but it seemed like she understood anyway.

Elena had even gotten them spiked egg-nog and they both enjoyed it, while decorating their very first Christmas tree. The order of the decorations seemed to become more and more random, the more egg-nog they had, but just like the tree, the flaws were what made it perfect when they were done.