5th December

Again the girls had beaten Vince with waking up. He could hear them screaming and giggling on the floor while he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He already was half out of his bed when the girls stormed in. "Good morning!" they greeted him and Vince mumbled a "Morning" Back.

"Hurry up. We have to depart soon." Tracy urged him and he looked into her eager eyes in surprise. "Where are we going?" he asked and like they anticipated the question both bolted out "Deciding on the Christmas tree!"

Vince had heart from his class mates that they had trees for Christmas but he never experienced having one himself. His parents normally were not at home around Christmas and did not care about getting a tree. His uncle, where he spent some Christmas Eves, was not Christian and therefore also did not follow this custom. He had seen Christmas trees in the arcade or through the windows in some apartments but seeing the first one in a home for real in his life had him excited directly. He changed into his day clothes in no time. He noticed that they started to smell a bit because he did not change them for three days but still he felt hesitant to ask Stacy to wash them. Even though he got a lot of less shy around them already, something that never happened this fast in such a short time, he still was embarrassed about asking her to wash his clothes. Over his own clothes he wore the old clothes of Stacy's late husband and soon they went through the gnarling snow towards the woods with Brad.

They walked forty minutes until they reached a part of the wood where there were smaller trees. "Not this one." Squeeked Tracy and they went to the next one. The Purrington kids were with them because they also wanted to select a tree and Brad would cut both and bring them back. Their father was away until new year and Brad offered to help with the tree for them.

It took them over two hours to finally select a tree for each family. At the start Vince has been very curious about what the other kids said but later he got bored by their talk about how the tree did not look right because of a bent branch or so. He was not sure what a Christmas tree for a home would look like. The only ones he had seen were the big ones at the market. He looked at the old and big trees around and found quite a few that looked exactly like them. Just that they did not have so many colored lights on them.

Brad took his axe and cut down the trees. Then they helped to put them on the big sled, that barely was big enough for both of them, and Brad pulled the sled with the trees while the children jumped around and laughed. Vince walked next to Brad and the old snow leopard started a conversation with him.

"Is this your first time selecting a Christmas tree in the woods?" - "Yes... we never really celebrated Christmas." Brad looked at him like he pitied him. "You will like it." - "Why did you already cut the tree now? Isn't Christmas in about 3 weeks?" The question was out before he could stop it. He wondered about it the whole day.

"Well," the old man chuckled. "We like to have a tree the whole Christmas time and after all tomorrow is Saint Nicolas Day, right?" - "What is Saint Nicolas day?" The interest of Vince was triggered. "You are not Christian, right? Well Saint Nicolas day is a holy day before Christmas at the 6. December. For Christians it is celebrated by singing songs and Saint Nicolas will either come himself to bring presents for the children or they put their shoes in front of their room and he will put something into them." He looked the other kids. "They are already excited about it." Vince also looked at the other kids and could see the excitement and happiness in their faces.

"We never celebrated Christmas." He said with a whisper to not let the other kids hear it. He was a bit embarrassed that he did not know about this. On his way home he went very silent and Brad did not pressure the issue.

The sun began to set when they finally arrived. The way back had been far longer because Brad had to drag the sled with the trees. He first went to the Purringtons and Sarah, their mother, to put the tree in the middle of their living room. After that they went to Stacy and put the tree up in their living room as well. Vince helped as much as he was capable off and when it became dark outside Stacy had a warm meal ready for them. Brad joined them for dinner and the Softpaws chatted while Vince still was in a silent mood and just listend to them talking about how to decorate the tree. When Vince got to bed this evening he still pondered about this Saint Nicolas Day that would be tomorrow.