“It’s time, Indigo,” I said, as I picked up the dishes and set them in the sink. This morning I’d kept breakfast simple. I’d just microwaved frozen pancakes that I had made a few weeks ago. We have great maple syrup and some sliced bananas to spruce them up.

“It’s time to decorate the living room, and the tree!”

I didn't know where Betty had gotten the tree. The small blue spruce magically grew from the floorboards and filled the living room with that strong pine scent. The fireplace provided a pleasant warmth, even without the flames and smoke.

The boxes had arrived late yesterday from the online shopping store that everyone used. They’d had everything I wanted, and of course it was all delivered, which made my life easier.

I climbed the stairs with Indigo going on ahead. I carefully carried my mug and the Cat's teacup. Once upstairs in the living room, I set both on the coffee table in front of the couch.

The beautiful tree stood in front of the windows, but first my focus was on my coffee. I needed more caffeine to do this without thinking too hard about my family.

“So, what are we doing today?” asked the Cat, following his teacup with his eyes.

“Decorating for the Solstice. We have the tree, then I need to wrap presents for my family and bake some cookies.”

“And you need my help because…”

I glared at him. “It will be fun. All you need to do is drink your coffee with cream and sit on the couch.”

The Cat glanced away from my look, moving closer to his coffee.

The first box I opened had all sorts of ornaments in it, but not the lights. Two boxes later, I found the lights, all the wrapping paper, and ribbons. The last two boxes held surprises for later.

I grabbed my phone and turned on some classical music. The sounds of a string quartet filled the space, and somehow it started snowing outside the windows.

“Lights,” chirped Indigo as she flew about, only getting slightly tangled in a string of them she latched onto in the box.

“If you fly the end up to the top, we can wrap them in the branches. They will look pretty once they’re on.”

It took a few tries, but Indigo figured out what I meant and dropped the correct socket near the tip of the tree while I held the rest of the cord of lights.

My eyes widened as the tree suddenly began to turn in place. It made putting the lights on as easy as could be. We just needed to slowly lower the mess of them to get an acceptable distance between each row.

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“Next we have ornaments.” I held up one of the glittering snowflakes in a bright white.

Indigo dived at my hand, grabbing the hook and flying high in the air. Glitter drifted through the room from the cheap ornament. These were harder for her to put on the branches, and she accidentally dropped one, but it didn’t break. It only left a pile of the sparkles behind.

”Try again!” She flew down to the floor and scooped it back up her claws, covered in white glitter.

Glitter flew everywhere, but I didn’t mind. Instead, I grabbed a few round balls in various colors. I used them to fill in gaps in the natural tree, focusing on places Indigo wasn’t putting the snowflakes.

A box of golden oak leaves sat in the bottom and I pulled them out, setting the open container off to one side in view of the Cat perched on the back of the couch.

I didn’t say anything, and instead went back to putting the metallic balls in various open spots on the tree.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the Cat putting a golden oak leaf on a lower branch. Yet, when I casually glanced at the couch, he was back in his perch, just watching us.

I chuckled to myself, but didn’t say anything. Instead, I hummed with the music, just relaxing into the fun activity. Back home when we decorated the tree, things were different. Everyone got one section to decorate, and when we were done, it looked like stripes on the poor plant. You could always tell who did what section. This tree wasn’t like that, and I reminded myself that was okay.

A few more oak leaves appeared on the trees in various places, following flashes of black fur.

Between the three of us, the tree slowly filled in with the silver snowflakes, plastic metallic balls, and the golden oak leaves. I needed to move a few things here or there, to balance them out, but it looked good.

“No more snow?” asked Indigo, perched near the box she had slowly emptied.

I pulled out one big golden star I’d kept off to one side.

“What about this?” I asked with a smile.

Indigo's eyes grew big looking at the star. It was half the size of her.

“Do you think you can place this up on the tiptop of the tree?”

“Yes!” She nodded her head and jumped up on my shoulder before launching herself in the air. She flew around the top of the tree, looking at where the star needed to go, before flying to the star in my outstretched hand.

Indigo hovered over the top with her wings beating carefully before settling it in place.

Seconds after she flew back toward me, I hit the floor button for the lights and they flickered on. Soft white lights made the colorful ornaments glow and the snowflakes sparkle.

“Ohhhh, it’s so pretty,” whispered Indigo as she settled on my shoulder. She stared at the tree with her eyes wide. “Magic tree.”

I nodded. “My world has some magic, you just need to know where to look.”

I took a step back to grab my coffee, and she fluttered over to the back of the couch next to the Cat, not looking away from the tree.

The last of my warm latte tasted perfect as I watched the two of them. The Cat's green eyes didn't leave the tree either. Hopefully, he wasn’t like a normal Cat who liked to climb trees and knock things off them.

I sent my intent to Betty and one of the boxes sunk into the floor without either of them noticing.

“I'm going to get started on cookies, I'll be back soon….”

Still, the two of them watched the tree in awe.

“Betty, you are fantastic at creating magical moments,” I whispered as I left the room and headed down the balcony.

A warmth rushed through the floorboards and up my socks.

It made me smile, as I focused on only thinking about the good today, and not the fact that we had less than a week and a half ‘till the solstice.