Emotions infused together: excitement, anticipation, confusion, they were all dripping with such, the confusion coming from Rocky who looked at the tree in all of its green glory, wide eyed as he would lift his head up and back and then trail down when he noticed Vincent prancing underneath it, familiar with the sight from last year, already opening up his mouth while he tried to bite into the branches, foolishly assuming there were toys for him sticking out at every turn. Ezra quickly shot him down while Rocky extended a tiny hand forward to try and touch the needles, groaning out of frustration while Rose bounced him against her hip a few inches from where he was able to take grasp of a branch himself. "We went through this before," Ezra playfully scolded the pup who would pounce backwards and then forwards onto his paws with his rear up in the air, perfect downward facing dog like Ezra was playing with him and he would eventually break off a branch for him, though unfortunately the truth was that wasn't about to happen. The never ending saga of Vincent versus the Christmas Tree was only getting started.

It was strange, to say the least, to be dancing amongst the silence in front of their Christmas tree without a single colored bulb or accented with an ornament, but that wasn't the strange part, they had danced to the beating of their own hearts and the humming coming between the thin line of Ezra's lips before, the strange aspect was that this was Ezra's first Christmas in a warm December climate, and truthfully, it had been her first in at least two years, a staple that once remained when she was a child, spending Christmas Eve and Day on the beach with her brother while her sisters helped her parents prepare a laid back meal. Although it was different, sure, neither of them seemed to noticed with everything else falling into place perfectly so, save for Rocky who was sitting upon the couch, his tiny features scrunching up, ready to cry while his parents had a moment of their own. It was interrupted fast and soon after Rose shot Ezra a telling glance, letting him know that she was appreciative, that she was pleased he went through the trouble of finding a tree farm so they wouldn't have to have an artifical one in the corner where their new tree was standing tall.

"The white or the multi-coloured lights?" It started as a game where they tossed "I don't care- what do you think?" back and forth, passing it between the two while Rose held it in her mind that she preferred the uniformity of the white. It wasn't that she was against the multi-colored lights, she enjoyed them, they used them last year, she just liked the idea of the contrast between the olive needles and the white lights. There was no fighting, a dose of frustration that was settled with, "Why don't we let Rocky decide?" The couple put one box with the white on the floor and then the box with the multi-colored lights next to it, addressing that whichever box he crawled toward first would be the one they chose. "Do it for mommy," Rose chimed in with, wishing her son could read her mind here. To say the least, he did not, he immediately went over to the box of the tacky lights and tried to balance himself on it, smiling as he rubbed his hands all over it. Ezra's lips perked up into a smile, Rose did the same in a much more reluctant manner, eventually claiming it was the set of lights that had to go up, for Rocky, of course.

As the tree came together branch by branch with ornaments that came from the states and then some they purchased here in Sydney, Rose felt a warmth cascade over her clavicle and down her arms; watching Ezra hold their tiny son in nothing more than his diaper while he put his miniature hands on top of the glittery star they topped the tree with, his strong and thick fingers holding Rocky's torso, swallowing it up whilst knowing one day he won't be so small, he won't be able to sit in Ezra's hands or fit perfectly against her shoulder with his head underneath her chin; Vincent was at her feet brushing up against her bare ankles while he scratched at his stomach with his hind legs, their family was there, in her home country, in Australia, finally.

It all felt so impressive to think this is what her life had become, this is what they had to look forward to while they year came to a close and all of the shit happening in the states, the injustices, the fear and the anger that followed with the devastating news they heard while they were here, in moments like this she felt safe and perhaps that was selfish, ignorant even, when there were things going on that were bigger than her, bigger than them, all of these things surrounding them that instilled negative emotions, they all made her want to believe in the best and to believe in happiness and the good that was rooted inside people like her boyfriend who sometimes drove her crazier than any other man imaginable, but this was it for it, this was how it had to be, this was how she wanted it to be, with him, with Rocky, and with that furry bundle who wanted nothing more than to piss all over that tree and bite off a branch or three to take underneath the kitchen table and make a mess with.