THE SEVENTEENTH CHRISTMAS TREE Part 4

On December 19th, Noelle was aglow with excitement as she and Nick dressed for the party. While Nick stuffed himself into his tuxedo and wrestled with his collar studs, Noelle wrestled with her Spanx and stuffed herself into her new, emerald green sequined party...

THE SEVENTEENTH CHRISTMAS TREE Part 3

Nick turned back to the tree. It looked like it had been out drinking. The ornaments that had managed to stay on hung crazily, while others littered the florr. Bedraggled garland swayed from the tips of branches. Entire lengths of it sagged to the floor. With a sigh,...

THE SEVENTEENTH CHRISTMAS TREE Part 2

On Christmas Eve three years before, Noelle had found a tiny kitten huddled against the back door, shivering, bedraggled, and mewing piteously. Noelle scooped up the kitten and cuddled it to her cheek. Nick sneezed. “Ooh, look, Nicky,” she said....

THE SEVENTEENTH CHRISTMAS TREE Part 1

Nick Sinclair began to seriously consider murdering his wife while he was decorating the seventeenth Christmas tree. It was not the seventeenth because he had been decorating the family Christmas tree for seventeen years. No, it was Number Seventeen (according to the...