A small one” Nic warned Sam and Willa as they disappeared into a forest of trees of various shapes and sizes. Nic wound her arms around her body and hunched her shoulders against the chill of the brisk morning air. She drew in the scent of pine. A row over and three trees down, Sam plucked up a perfectly acceptable ponderosa pine from where it lay on the barren ground. He held it upright and stepped back. It stood just tall enough for Willa to put the angel on top without climbing on a chair. “That one will do nicely,” she called out. He ran his hand upward over it. The branches rustled almost indignantly. Needles rained down on the toe of his tennis shoes. Before Nic could make a comparison to the sad tree that only needed love in the Charlie Brown Christmas special, the pine toppled to the ground. Sam and Willa moved on. How had she gotten roped into this? She had only made a small concession, allowing for one small tree.
