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Tolys arrived at Feliks’ house after receiving a call requesting his assistance with Feliks’ Christmas decorations. He agreed as this would give him a chance to get away from getting dragged into Raivis and Eduard’s centuries-long festive conflict over the origin of Christmas trees once again. For the most part, it wasn’t too much of a hassle. Usually, they would sit and catch up over coffee, while Feliks would spend the time occupied with some craft project that would result in hundreds of mini paper ornaments. This year, Tolys managed to find Feliks still in the process of putting up his Christmas tree.
They spent the next hour or two dedicated to the task of decorating the tree and soon, their work was complete. They had finished hanging up all of the decorations that now adorn each and every branch. Feliks and Tolys stood back to admire the tree they had successfully decorated together. Feliks tilted his head to view the tree from a different angle. It looked nice but something was missing. He scanned the tree from top to bottom. Gwiazdka! They forgot the star to put on the top of the tree!
“Liet! We gotta get the star for the top of the tree!”
“I can put it up for you.” Tolys offered.
“I got it, just watch.”
Tolys watched with slight amusement as Feliks began to stretch himself attempting to reach the top of the tree. He was leaning on his tiptoes and looked as if in two seconds, he would lose balance and fall face-first into his Christmas tree. Naturally, this didn’t work. After a few more attempts, Feliks stepped back down to figure out a new plan of action.
“I can reach it If you’d like.”
“No, I got it! I just need to figure out a new plan!”
“Do you have a ladder?” Tolys asked.
“No, why would I need to own a ladder?”
Tolys began to wonder why Feliks considered it unnecessary to own a ladder. However, he decided to save that tangent for another day as he watched Feliks, who was currently trying to determine the course of action needed to overcome his predicament.
“Lift me up!”
“What?”
“Lift me up onto your shoulders, and then, I can totally reach the top of the tree. Trust me, this will work!”
Without giving Tolys a chance to respond, Feliks attempted to pounce up to his shoulders in an attempt to try to latch on to him. “Okay! Okay! Okay!” He sighed and bent down so that Feliks could get up on his shoulders. He was grateful for the fact that Feliks was quite lightweight as well as being incredibly short.
“Ooh! The tree is so sparkly from up here! Could you hand me the star please?”
Tolys somehow managed to bend down to grab the star and hand it to Feliks, who was also clinging to his shoulders at the same time.
“Mhmm, eh, nie, and there,” Feliks thought aloud as he adjusted the star. “a little more to the right, and perfect!”
Tolys stepped back so Feliks could take a moment to stare at his tree.
“Wait!” Feliks gasped, which startled Tolys, almost causing him to drop Feliks backwards and head-first onto his living room floor. “One slight fix!”
Tolys took a step forward once again so Feliks could straighten up the star.
“Good?”
“Good!” Feliks gave a thumbs up.
“Great, now you can get off my shoulders!” Tolys reminded him.
“Oh! Right, okay.”
Feliks got off Tolys’ shoulders and was now standing next to him, admiring their hard work. Strings of lights illuminated the room with their soft glow, lighting up each hand-painted glass ornament that adorned the tree. Many of the ornaments were hand-crafted by Feliks himself, utilizing a wide variety of materials and styles. It was clear just from looking at them, that Feliks had dedicated a lot of time and effort to creating each craft and he was quite successful at making each decoration one of a kind. Some were ornaments embellished with traditional paper cut patterns, some of flowers, and others depicting vibrant scenes of the nativity or traditional festivities such as the Wigilia dinner. Many were the spiky jeżyki ornaments for added flair. Others were little felt ornaments shaped like angels, hearts, and stars. Garlands of colorful tassels were draped around the tree, along with strings of glittery beads and paper chains. Above was the star of shimmering gold and sparkling silver, shining brightly, completing the stunning display.
“Thank you very much!” Feliks said with a wide grin, breaking the silence as he turned to Tolys, who responded with a light chuckle and a smile.
The two of them began to start cleaning up the mountain of boxes that remained after decorating. Suddenly, Feliks’ face lit up with excitement as he dashed to the downstairs storage room, where all of his decorations were usually packed away. The sounds of him rummaging through the storage room could be heard from the floor above. Suddenly, the sound of rustling boxes ceased. Feliks yelled out from a distance, “Hey Liet! We forgot about the podłaźniczka!”
Tolys thought to himself, why didn’t we just use a chair?