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He was outvoted.

They overruled him and decided on that tree.

Will got to work cutting down the tree and the rest of them wandered off to get hot chocolate. Claire and Noah walked hand in hand, Ainsley skipping along beside them. Emily and Maggie walked ahead.

Ainsley got whipped cream on her nose. Claire laughed as she wiped the whipped cream from Ainsley’s nose.

A soft camera-shutter sound came from beside her. She looked over. Noah quickly lowered his phone.

“Did you just take a picture of me?” she asked.

“Maybe.”

“Delete it.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Aunt Claire, you have to help me decorate the tree,” Ainsley declared as soon as they arrived back at Noah’s parents’ house, before they even made it inside.

“Of course.” Claire allowed Ainsley to grab her hand and lead her inside.

Will and Noah brought the tree inside, while Claire and Emily started bringing in totes full of ornaments, lights, and various Christmas decorations. Maggie organized everyone, telling them where to put things.

Ainsley once again contributed by taking Biscuit outside and playing with him.

Within minutes, the Christmas music was on, and the tree was standing. Will filled up the water basin.

Immediately, Biscuit tried to drink the Christmas tree water. He ran off when Will came back with the tree skirt.

Noah attempted to untangle the lights, but he could not manage it.

Will looked over at him and laughed. “Need some help?”

“No.” It took him far longer than it should have, but he managed.

Finally, Noah managed to get the lights around the tree. Claire and Ainsley began hanging ornaments while Maggie carefully handed them over one by one.

Claire quickly learned every ornament in the Carter family had a story.

“This was Noah’s first Christmas.”

“This one is from kindergarten.”

“Emily made this one in third grade.”

With every ornament, she learned another piece of what it had been like to grow up in the Carter family. Another piece of Noah’s childhood.

“Oh! Claire has to see this,” Maggie exclaimed. She pulled out an absolutely hideous popsicle-stick ornament. “Noah made this in pre-school.”

“Mom.” Noah groaned. Everyone laughed.

“Has anybody seen the ribbon?” Emily asked. Biscuit immediately dropped it, resulting in another round of laughter. Emily retrieved it and strung ribbon around the tree.

Claire had to teach Ainsley how to space out the ornaments because she was putting them too close together, but she got the hang of it.

Maggie disappeared briefly. She returned holding a small ornament. Nothing fancy. Just simple.

She handed it to Claire.