The Great Christmas...Cactus?

We had a big problem I didn't even consider when we got here…

So, remember how Indena was melting snow? Well, because we kinda got a little lazy with keeping that up, some of the melting snow turned to ice and completely covered the streets overnight. In the morning, we were all slipping and sliding on our bellies and backs like penguins with horrible balance.

Crash!

Indena slid right into a giant crate! The whole thing fell apart and splintered everywhere, lunching christmas decorations all over.

She was okay, but not very happy…I mean, she's usually upset about something, but this time it was justified.

“Fudge off, stupid box! Stupid fudging ice!”

But she didn't say fudge! She said the mother of all swear words! Out loud and very proud.

“Mama…” a little girl turned to her mother. “What does fudge mean?”

“If you ever say that again, Santa Claus will never visit you!” The mother covered her daughter's ears and they slid away.

Wait, was that true? Good thing I don’t swear.

Durring that commotion, Yamin had became curious about the items now scattering across the road. “Hey, look at this…” she pulled up parts of a fake Christmas tree from the crate Indena slammed into. “Anyone want to set these up? They might look pretty.”

“Whatever..." Indena calmed down. "How about we first figure out this ice problem?”

While she took initiative to start melting some of the ice, a few children were skating by. Their shoes somehow had ice skates.

Before long, quite a few people were happily skating around with the children. There was a small learning curve, but people were adapting quickly.

“Where are these skates coming from?” Marek asked.

Yamin pointed to the priest in front of the cathedral. “I think he's our culprit.”

He was growing stardust on people's shoes, turning them into skates. Now that I thought about it, I wanted to skate around too!

I joined in on the fun by growing stardust on my own soles, gliding along with the other children and adults.

Before long, everyone had gotten in on the motion like a fad. Even Indena put aside her distaste for the cold and joined in.

The only ones not here were Uncle and the mayor. Uncle was still doing some work on the power grid, and the mayor was just busy in his office.

I noticed the mayors son was sitting at the steps of the church, watching us all play. Why wasn't he joining in?

I skated over to him and requested he join, but he just gave me a scowl.

"I'd just rather be alone." He stomped off, carful not to slip on the...

Fwish!

Oopps...he fell on his butt. Now he was just trying to slid away without looking silly.

"I did that on purpose to look cool!" He shouted back at me.

"Okay?" I shrugged. He was just like Indena...

~☆☆☆~

What’s Christmas without a big tree to celebrate? You get to trim it, decorate it with lots of lights and a big star on the top!

Although Yamin found those fake trees,  none of them were extravagantly big. With permission from the towns people, Uncle and Marek shoved off into the wilds to go and chop down the perfect tree for the very center plaza. With both their combined strength, I’m sure they’d get a really big one! Probably bigger than a house!

“¡Ellas estan aqui!” A little girl with a big smile came running through the crowd of people to me. “¡Santa Arcángel Yalda! Ven rápido y mira.”

-Translating Sapain-

“They’re here! Saint Archangel Yalda, come quick and see!”

Looks like Uncle and Marek were back with a tree!

They made it to the plaza, but boy were we all surprised to see them carrying a giant cactus...

The thing was tall, they didn’t just cut the cactus down either, they literally uprooted and replanted it in a big container behind the water fountain.

“Why did you guys dig up a cactus?” I was baffled at this decision. “It looks really silly here!”

As big as it was, it would be impossible to hide gifts and hang ornaments on it.

“We both agreed it would fit right in with the rest of the town, no?” Marek sounded really proud of their choice.

The silence of everyone’s shock was broken by laughter and cheers. Little did these two know how much the towns people would absolutely love the giant Christmas cactus. All the children began immediately decorating it with lights and an eight star tree topper at the very tip. I had the honours of placing that last part.

It looked really dinky, but for some reason everyone loved it. Myself included.