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“Paul” she exclaimed, “pass it over here”
“Oh, okay” Paul sighs with a nod, passing around the silver coloured tinsel holding on to one of the ends to keep it in place.
Once she has a hold of it Emma weaves it around her end of the tree, passing it back round to Paul slightly lower than he passed it to her.
Gently Paul takes it back from her preparing to do another loop, but just as he is beginning to pull it, the end he had just been holding snakes away from him.
“Ahhh no!” he exclaims as he realises what is happening.
Giggles fill the air at his flimsy attempt at dressing the tree, and for a moment he dismisses it thinking it Emma who was laughing at him, just as she normally would in these situations. But as the giggles continue he realises the noise is coming from behind him.
“Do you find this funny?” He asks the smaller girl sitting on her bottom looking up at him with a cheeky grin.
At his question Eloise giggles harder.
The noise making his heart glow with joy, something inside of him wanting to swoop down and pick her up, and of course that part wins.
As his arms wrap around her tiny frame, her small hands come up to wrap around his neck, “dada!” She exclaims with a grin.
“Eloise!” He replies back in the same tone.
At his voice she giggles brightly again. “Dada silly” she states, burying her head into his chest.
Paul gasps dramatically “Oh I’m so silly huh? You decorate the tree then”
“She’ll probably be better than you at it” Emma counters with a smile.
Paul turns to her, a dramatically shocked expression on his face, though Emma can see the joy in his eyes.
“Let’s do it all together then”
And so they do, same as before Paul passes the bundle of tinsel around the tree, this time the end being held by Eloise.
She giggles brightly as Paul passes the bundle around the tree, Emma taking it from him and passing it back round to Eloise, who promptly returns it to Paul.
They repeat this process all the way until the last of the tinsel has been wrapped around the tree, leaving the green tree covered in the silver shiny stuff.
“We’ll that was much harder” Paul sighs as he places Eloise back down on her spot on the floor.
Eloise crawling over to the box of ornaments she had been playing with before, holding and inspecting all of the different colours and shapes.
Emma just laughs in response to Paul’s statement, patting him on the back jokingly on her way to grab another handful of baubles.
Smiling Paul joins her, taking a few baubles with him also.
Together they place the colourful baubles high and low all around the tree, spreading them all out until most of the branches were decorated.
He’s just finished laughing at a joke Emma’s said when he turns around to the box of decorations, planning on getting more of the personal and more delicate decorations out of it, when he spots Eloise.
She’s standing up with help from the big box, pulling some of the spare baubles out of it and onto the floor.
“What are you doing?” Paul Laughs accusingly.
At the sound of his voice Eloise looks up at him, smiling her toothy grin up at him, “dada” she exclaims.
Shaking his head with a playful smile Paul swoops In to lift her up into his arms.
Pressing a quick kiss to her head he places her back down in her claimed spot, telling her she can play with the few she has picked out; thankfully the plastic non-breakable kind.
With them right in front of her again she goes right back to inspecting them, shaking them in her hands this time.
Then With Eloise sorted Paul resumes decorating the tree, finding a few of their special decorations to put on.
Carefully he places them on the tree, intentionally putting them up high this year.
It’s officially Eloise’s second Christmas this year, but last year she had only been a couple of months old, hence she couldn’t really enjoy it as much as she can this year, especially being able to walk, and speak some words this time around.
But of course they also had a cat, who took enjoyment out of knocking lower hanging decorations off the tree; so hanging the delicate ones up higher, out of both of their reach was the way to go.
Once again he’s about to grab more, when the sight of Eloise interrupts him again.
“Elle don’t do that” he sighs, reaching out to take the pulled apart baubles out of her tiny grasp.
She’s pulled apart nearly all of them, throwing the tiny string attachments away, while keeping the main ball part in a pile next to her.
Hastily, before they lose any of the parts, Paul sets out to join them all back together again.
“Do you want to put them on the tree?” Paul asks finally.
Eloise wordlessly points to her pile of baubles.
“Yeah those ones, do you want to put them on the tree?” Paul asks again, pointing over to the tree this time. Eloise nods shyly, following her father who guides her over to the tree.
With encouragement from Paul she eventually manages to slide one on, clapping excitedly as both Paul and Emma praise her for her work.
She grins as Paul offers her another one, taking it from him she places it on a nearby branch, sliding this one on with slightly more ease.
She claps to herself again, reaching for another and repeating the same thing again.
Paul and Emma smile to themselves, silently admiring their baby, who’s grown so much in the past year.
Once again with Eloise now settled back to her task, Paul and Emma manage to finish decorating fairly quickly, leaving only the star at the top of the tree to be done.
He’s about to go grab it when he feels something hit his leg, looking down to find out what it is he notices all of the baubles on the ground, significantly less of them now on the lower branches.
“Eloise!” he exclaims, his tone still playful though he is annoyed. “You’re supposed to put them on the tree, not take them off”
Eloise laughs, going back to take another one off.
“No you don’t” Paul swoops in to lift her up again.
“No!” Eloise cries, laughing again as Paul begins to tickle her sides playfully.
“No?” Paul counters in a similar tone, tickling her sides harder.
“‘Top daddy ‘top!”
Paul laughs seizing his tickling. “I can’t help it, your sides are just so cute”
“Alright lets put these back on the tree okay, then we can put the star on together”
“Okay!” Eloise exclaims.
Together they put back on the decorations, quickly finishing off once again.
“Alright now the star” Emma announces, bringing over the shiny golden topper for Eloise to put on.
She takes it hastily, reaching over to place it on the top while Paul holds her up.
They all watch on excitedly as it slides into place, finishing the decorating once and for all.