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"Oh árbol de navidad! You aren't even dead!" Mac Allister danced around the spruce tree, knocking a clump of snow from the branch. He had seen many surprises upon his move to the Merseyside, but the biggest one had to be when Nunez had shown him the spruce tree in a clearing in the nearby woods. “I can't believe we don't chop down Christmas trees around here.”
“I was shocked too. And a little disappointed, too—I was looking forward to hacking down a few trees." Nunez carried a giant load of silver and gold tinsel, sneezing as the decorations tickled his nose. “But we've had this guy since Suarez was here. He told me about the lucky spruce.”
Mac Allister raised an eyebrow, leaning against the tree. “How can a Christmas tree be lucky?”
"You know what? I have no idea.” Nunez dumped the tinsel onto a stump and leaned against the tree. He pressed his nose to the needles and inhaled deeply. "But man, does it smell good. All spruce-y and Christmassy.”
"I'm pretty sure those aren't words," Mac Allister laughed, brushing back his hair and checking his reflection in a particularly shiny silver ball. "I hope Martin's impressed by this. He's coming all the way from London for the day to see how we celebrate Christmas, and I can't disappoint him.”
Nunez put down the two coils of fairy lights he was carrying and wrapped Mac Allister in a big hug. “Macca, Martin loves you, not whatever you do to impress him. I mean, you can do that fancy stuff, but he'll appreciate the authenticity.”
Mac Allister smiled and nodded, hugging Nunez back. "You're right. Let's get this tree decorated.”
The two set to work, opening boxes of decorations. Nunez climbed a ladder he’d brought with him and strung the fairy lights from the top of the tree, but it didn't take long before the lights ended up strung around him. Mac Allister tried to help, but he couldn't reach as high as Nunez could. So he begrudgingly set to clipping LED candle lights onto the tree's branches while Nunez untangled himself from his fairy light net.
The tinsel and the popcorn garlands were next. At least, the tinsel was next; the popcorn had somehow managed to get all eaten before it even made it onto the string.
Nunez chuckled, shaking his head at the empty tub of popcorn. "I wondered why it was so light. Guess somebody was hungry."
"More like Robbo was hungry." Mac Allister held up a box of paper snowflakes, smiling when he saw the tiny reindeer inked on one. "Did Arwen make these?”
Nunez nodded, stringing the snowflakes on a piece of yarn. "Yeah, she made them in class and taught Florrie and Kairo to make them. The other kids are too young to use scissors, but Moana did want to try and color. That's how we ended up with a blue and orange snowflake.”
Mac Allister found the aforementioned snowflake and took it out of the box. The bright orange and navy blue scribbles clashed heavily with the red, silver, and gold theme, but Mac Allister didn't have the heart to leave out a two-year-old's contribution to the tree. He carefully placed it on the tree next to some gold balls and stepped back to admire its uniqueness.
"You done down there, Lexi?" Nunez hopped off the ladder, one hand hidden behind his back. "I'm done with the upper half, we just need to get the star on top.”
"All done." Mac Allister opened the final and smallest box of the lot. Inside was a twelve-pointed, gold Christmas star topper, sprinkled with tiny lights.
“Actually…” Nunez smirked, taking his hand out from behind his back. Laid across Nunez’s palm was a tiny paper cutout of himself wheeling away in celebration. “I thought we could put the actual star on top of the tree. Isn’t it pretty?”
Mac Allister eyed the paper cutout with more than a hint of suspicion. “Are you sure that the regular star isn’t enough?”
“Wait! There’s more.” Nunez pressed the button on the paper cutout’s cleat. "Uptown Funk" began to play, and a tiny sparkler shot up from the cutout.
Mac Allister's eyes widened in disbelief. "It's a touch of magic!"
Nunez flashed him that sly smirk of his. "Magical enough to put on the tree?"
"Nah, let's stick with the star." Mac Allister took the paper cutout and set it aside. "This is definitely going on top of the Advent calendar in our room, though."
"Fine." Nunez lifted Mac Allister so the Argentine could fix the star on top of the tree. "There, it's finished!”
Both surveyed their handiwork. The two-and-a-half-meter tall spruce tree was decorated in silver and gold tinsel, red ribbon and what must’ve been hundreds of sparkling lights. It would’ve stuck out in all its decorated glory, but they hadn’t hung some lights and ornaments on the other four pines in the clearing.
Mac Allister somehow resisted the urge to hug the tree right then and there. The decorations and chilly wind reminded him of Christmases back in Argentina. “It's perfect, isn't it?”
“Yeah, I told you it would be. Now let's get these boxes put away before your darling Martino arrives."