Page 46 of If You Give a Grump a Christmas Tree Farm
“We have to play Mary and Joseph. You do get that, right?”
“So, we dress up and stand in a manager for a couple of hours. How bad can it be?”
I beep the lock to the truck, then yank the passenger door open for her.
Once we load up and are on the road, I feel her eyes on me.
“She said she saw our ad, JJ. A bunch of times. That means it's being seen. The social media is working. I hope it all pays off.”
By the time we get back to the farm, Rebecca receives an email with a contract for the thirty wreaths.
“Wow, that was fast.” I lean over her shoulder and read it. “Um, they want them in three days. You gonna be able to make thirty of those things in that amount of time?”
“Me?We.We’re in this together, JJ.”
I lift my palms into the air. “Becca, I have zero crafting ability. I can’t even wrap a present or make a bow.”
“I’ll teach you.”
I sigh. “Do we have all the supplies we need?”
“I picked up enough forms when I was in town the other day. I figured if I didn’t get to sell them to the town, I could use them for wreath-making classes, and we saved all the trimmings from when we shaped the trees last week.”
“How’s the wreath-making class going, by the way? Have you got many people signing up?”
“So far, no one. But I’m hoping that changes now that the ad is running.”
I follow her to the shed that she’s converted into a place to hold the classes, as well as room for the gift shop and concession area. I glance around at the empty shelving, knowing we open for business soon. “What are you going to sell, anyway?”
“Well, wreaths and arrangements to put over mailboxes, plus I’ve worked out a deal with the owner of Silver Bells Ornaments. We’re going to sell some of his stuff and split the profit, and he’s got some other décor he’s going to bring up, too. Plus, I ordered a bunch of stuffed black dogs, and these cute little tags with our logo on them. I thought we could put them on the collar. I think it’s going to be a big seller. They’re supposed to arrive next week.”
“I never would have thought of that. I’m sure he’ll be a big hit with the kiddos.”
“I hope so; otherwise, we’ll be stuck with them until next year.”
At her reference to next year, I shove my hands in my pockets, still not sure I’ll be here. I can’t get over her certainty that we will be operating next season. She’s a believer, and it’s hard not to let that be contagious.
She cocks her head, studying me. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Show me how to do this thing.” We move to the plywood table I built her, and she slides wire circular forms before us both.
“Here. You’ll need these.” She grabs two pairs of work gloves and hands me one. “We use these wire forms to attach the pine branches into shape.”
She grabs a handful of them from the big cardboard box we stored some in. She uses little snipping shears to cut them into sizes and slides me a pair. “Just cut off the ends like so, making them small enough to work with. I’ve already cut the floral wire into little pieces.” She shoves a small tray of them between us. “Just gather them into little groupings and secure the bottoms together. We’ll need a bunch of those.”
We do this until we have a good supply.
“Okay, now we need to attach them to the form, wrapping the floral wire around, then we add another bunch and twist the wire, add and twist, all the way around the frame. Get it?”
It seems easy enough, but I’m sure it’s more difficult than she’s making it out to be. “Sure.”
“We keep doing this until the entire frame is full, keeping the wire tight. Then we’ll add a red bow and some berries and pinecones, and a few of these silver and gold plastic ornaments I picked up.”
“Okay.” I try it and fail miserably at getting the first bunch of pine boughs attached.
“You need to wrap it tighter,” she informs me.
“Ya think?” It’s tricky, and I keep dropping the wire.
