"Rachel, when are you coming back?" she asked, leaving no room for a hello.
"I'm headed back now. Why? Is it snowing in Provo yet?" I worried.
"No, but I need to ask a favor of you. When you come back, can you stop back at my parents' house. They have a Christmas tree for us."
"I don't know, Bailey. My mom is pretty insistent that I book it back to Provo. She doesn't want me driving when its snowing."
I left it at that. I thanked my aunt for dinner, the shopping trip, and other ways she had succeeded in spoiling me. As I entered I-15, I began to feel guilty. They just want to decorate for Christmas. They miss home too, even if it is only 20 minutes away. A quick detour to Bluffdale won't kill me. It isn't even snowing in Provo yet.
I yanked out my phone. "Bailey, tell your mom I'm coming. I'll get the tree."
"Okay!" she shouted enthusiastically. I could hear a bunch of giddy cheers in the background. My little elves.
After successfully achieving my mission, gathering the tree, lights, and tinsel from my uncle's house, I continued my trek back to Provo. To my surprise, no one was home. I decided to go for a quick run. I guess I won't be missed.
After I completed 5 miles, I came up to the apartment, only to be attacked by my roommates.
"Can we get the tree from your car?" pleaded McKenna.
"So, you guys have been busy today," I said. "I'll get my keys."
Within an hour, I had been converted to their goal. We were going to have the "jolliest" apartment in Heritage Halls. Everything must be perfect.
After sticking cookies in the oven for our new snowman cookie jar, we delved into our work. Within the next six hours, we had turned a Charlie Brown tree into a masterpiece, hung a Santa Hat from our glowing Y, cut out dozens of paper snowflakes, hung Christmas signs on the wall, hung tinsel from the ceiling, and strung garland above our window. The later we worked, the more elaborate our plans got.
"I wish we had a fireplace," Bailey said.
"Let's make one!" exclaimed McKenna. "We can use construction paper."
After annoying our R.A., we came back with butcher paper for our task.
"We forgot the reason for the season!" Katie cried. "We need some type of nativity." We got together a list of all of our desires. In addition to the fireplace, we would add a paper snowman on the fridge, multi-color lights hanging from the entryway, and an advent calendar. After returning from a quick trip to the store, we were exhausted. Maybe we aren't quite elves after all.
We were not defeated, yet. After church the next day, we returned to our task. We finished the fireplace and many of our other goals. Our paper fireplace even had stockings with candy canes, a framed picture of the six of us, and a paper nativity made by Katie.
"We did quite a job," I said, snapping pictures of the apartment on my phone. "I don't think any other Freshman apartment looks quite like this. How much did this cost."
"Altogether?" Katie asked, raising an eyebrow.
We all looked at each other in fear. Did we go over the top?
"Between our trips to the D.I., Dollar Tree, Big Lots, and Walmart, we spent $120."
"Eh, at least we will have it all for next year," shrugged McKenna.
"I think we should leave it like this all year," Bailey said. And no one protested.
We had been listening to Christmas music since September. Of course, we had to go all out.
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