Chapter 10We got the tree the next day, as well as swags and mistletoe and holly and ivy, and decorated the hell out of his half of the house. I even talked him into stringing twinkle lights along the white picket fence and over the archway spanning the gate. Above the gate itself, we hung a huge pine wreath and added another one on the front door. In a single day, we turned Scrooge’s cottage into a holiday home and a showplace for Old Town Stone Acres.
With only a few days until Christmas, Cuttings went from zoo to madhouse. Wreaths and swags disappeared faster than I could make them. Fredi and his clients descended like bees on a flowering bush.
I would hit the house around midnight every night, so tired I could barely make it up the stairs. Like a diligent 1950s housewife, John was wa
