Page 9 of Love, Lies and Sleigh Rides
But that wasn’t the whole truth. Her family had never placed an importance on celebrating Christmas with decorations. The holiday was like any other day, except there were presents set out on the coffee table, not under a tree, on Christmas morning.I don’t want a dead tree in the middle of my living room, her mother had said numerous times. Trees were messy and expensive, a commercial gimmick, she reasoned.
And the Gales also moveda lot. Her father, a recruiter for the Air Force National Guard, loved variety. Fargo, Duluth, Minneapolis, Sioux Falls, Madison, and for three years when she was ten, Albuquerque, their longest arrangement in one place. It had been her favorite place. Her grandparents were close by. And going outside without a coat in February was a novelty that hadn’t yet worn off by the time the moving truck was packed again and on its way to Wisconsin.
Her mother liked moving less so, but she never raised a fuss. Not at that point anyway. Her only form of rebellion as far as Fallon could tell was the carelessness in packing up Mitchell Gale’s shot glass collection with each subsequent move. There was the inevitable unwrapping, which Fallon didn’t mind doing because she liked to linger on the colorful logos and designs of the tiny glasses. But two or three glasses were always in pieces when Fallon unwrapped them. She hid the shards in crumpled newspaper before stuffing them into the garbage. Her father never noticed, at least he didn’t say anything, given his collection was a large one.
So celebrating Christmas in the traditional sense only added to the tedium of packing. A household on the move couldn’t be weighed down by wreaths, stockings, and glitter balls for a tree.
Elaine shrugged.
“The fuss isn’t for everyone, I guess,” she said, looking crestfallen. She pointed to the green-and-white gingham couch in the corner then swept away the wool-hooked pillows with sleighs on them before Fallon sat down.
Elaine looked around. “I’m surprised Agnes isn’t here by now. I can’t imagine the snow affected her much, just being across town.”
“I’ve tried calling her too, but she didn’t answer.”
“How about some hot cider before we start?” Elaine asked.
Fallon took a notebook from her bag. “Oh, that’s not necessary. I don’t want to—”
“Trouble me? Nonsense. It’s all set to go,” she said, nodding to the electric carafe on a white tea cart across the studio.
Fallon smiled. It was a strange sense of comfort and anxiety she felt in her chest, sitting in Elaine’s festive shop.
“Then I’d love some.”
After Elaine filled a mug with cider, she settled next to Fallon to go over the details of the Holly Days Festival, now just a little over two weeks away. During the last two months, they’d finalized the weekend schedule, which included the parade, the Holly Days Tree Auction, as well as the new-this-year ice sculpting competition in the lakefront park. There were open houses at nearly every business around town, and a craft fair at the school, but those events were not under the Chamber’s jurisdiction, thank heavens.
“After all these years of organizing this weekend,” Elaine said, “I still feel the same giddy anticipation as it gets closer.”
“And when was the first festival?” Fallon scribbled a note to herself before she forgot:approve advertising proofs. Examples of the newest ads for the Twin Cities’ papers popped into her inbox when she’d been on the phone with Bart.
Elaine looked toward the ceiling, thinking. “This is year twenty-six?” She shook her head and sighed. “And to think it started with a little open house here at the farm.”
“When did the Chamber of Commerce get involved?”
“After we’d been organizing the parade for a few years. It just became too much with the open house I also hosted at the shop, especially with the twins being toddlers. The director at the time had been a very close friend. Sadly, she passed about fifteen years ago.”
Fallon did some quick math in her head. She hadn’t met the twins, but that would put them around twenty-five years old now. Kade was way older than that. He’d already sprouted gray hairs near his temples.
“Is something wrong?”
Fallon flinched. “Sorry?”
“You were frowning.” Elaine smiled before she mimicked a frown. But even Elaine’s best attempt couldn’t mask the sparkle in her eyes.
Distracted, Fallon clicked her pen closed. “I was just thinking about your friend having passed away. How sad,” she said, realizing she’d scribbled some nonsensical notes on her pad while she’d been daydreaming.
Parade — ck # of entries.
Much older…
Kade, twins.
Kade was circled several times.What on earth?
She quickly scribbled over his name.
“So, how many entries are we up to for the parade? The plan was to get you more exposure from the ads we’d used last month in the Duluth area.” Fallon had made a note last month next to her details about the parade with “45” circled in red, the target number of entries.
