Page 11 of Snowbound Hearts
I was glad I found it when I did, or I was going to have this activity outside using one of the live trees. “Can I have everyone’s attention please?” I watch Flo elbow Gladys to wake up. “Remember that little project I gave you all to do before coming out here to Aspen Peaks Ski Lodge?” I look around the room and everyone’s nodding but the bride and groom. They look confused. They should. I didn’t tell them about this activity.
“Great. I’m going to put this Christmas tree together while you all go to your rooms and grab that project and bring it back here. But don’t say anything about it. It’s still a secret to Kris and Sarah.”
Everyone has a conspiratorial smile as they all file out to their rooms in search of their projects.
“Here. Make yourselves useful and help me put this tree together.” I say to Kris and Sarah.
“What’s the surprise, Sydney?” Sarah asks.
I only shake my head and tap my temple.
“It’s a surprise, honey. She can’t tell you,” Kris chastises her.
“But I wanna know.” She whines as she holds the tree steady as Kris plugs in the attached lights.
“You’ve always hated surprises.” He kisses her nose just as the power comes back on in the entire lodge. I can hear the heater kick on and it’s a welcome sound. Seems like Mason and Emily got the generator working.
As everyone comes back into the living room, they’re all talking about the power being back on and each of them have a little box or bag with their project inside.
“Sarah, Kris – please sit over here by the Christmas tree… just like that. Great.” I turn to the rest of the group and in walk Mason and Emily.
“We’re all set for the next twenty-four hours at least. Then we’ll have to figure out what to do about fuel. Hopefully the power will be back on fully by then,” Mason says as he wipes grease from his hands.
“What’s going on here? Oh, you got the tree up.” Her eyes get bright. “Is this where I get to do the thing you told me I get to do?” Emily asks excitedly.
I nod. “Yep. Why don’t you both go get washed up and join us? We’ll wait for you.”
“We’ll be right back.” Emily drags Mason from the room, but he looks over at me and I can’t tell if he’s smiling or smirking at me.
“Who wants another coffee? Fresh off the gas stove,” Chef Franco singsongs while holding up the pot.
As everyone gets their mugs topped off and settled back into their seats, Mason and Emily come in and drag two more seats from the dining room.
“Okay. So,” I turn to Sarah and Kris, “since this will be your first Christmas together, we realized you probably don’t have very many ornaments. So, each one of us,” I wave across the room, “either brought one that was special to them and they want to pass it along to you, or they brought a homemade ornament that they made specifically for the two of you.”
Sarah starts tearing up. “That’s such a nice thought. And you’re right, Sydney, we don’t have any ornaments except the basic round red and green glass ones.”
I turn to the room. “Okay, who wants to go first?”
“I do!” Gladys says as she stands up and brings the small box over to Sarah and Kris.
“Gladys, tell us if you made this or is it part of your collection and if so, why you wanted to donate it.”
We watch Gladys gently hand the well-worn blue box to Sarah. “My Harold gave me this on our first Christmas Eve for our first tree. It’s hung on every tree we had. Until the year he died.” She wipes away a tear. “I couldn’t put it up anymore without him.” She swallows hard, “It’s time for this special ornament to find a new happy home to belong; to see new memories being created; and maybe someday be passed on to future generations. It’s time for my grandson and his new bride to cherish this ornament, now.”
Everyone in the room is crying. For someone that can come across as so abrasive sometimes, it’s easy to forget that Gladys has been a widow for almost ten years now and you can definitely see how much she loves and misses her husband.
“Thank you, Gladys. We will cherish this forever,” Kris says as he hangs it on the tree next to them.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, “Okay. Who’s next?”
The best man stands up, I can’t remember his name. “I’ll go. But I don’t have anything sentimental.” He looks over at Gladys. “I made this one.”
“Great. What does it represent to you?”
He immediately starts laughing, “Fertility. I’m hoping you guys get knocked up fast and have lots of babies.”
Sarah takes the phallic looking ‘ornament’ and hangs it on the tree, but far away from the ornament from Gladys. I have the feeling Sarah’s not too keen on this ornament, but Kris and his best man are in hysterics. At least it lightened the mood.
