Snippets of a Spiders Non-Spidey Life

How Does One Untangle Christmas Lights?

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a great day (even if you don't celebrate christmas)! Happy Hanukkah!

I attempted to write a little Christmas thing. Technically it's set a few days before Christmas but oh well. :) 

It doesn't really have a narrative but still managed to have 6410 words. Whoops.

Mentions of dead love ones and hospitals but no details.

The italics are flashbacks but you probably don't need to be told that.  :)

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The dust finally settled, as the last box of Christmas decorations were taken out of storage and placed in a large pile in the middle of Peter and MJ's lounge. Over many years they had acquired a wide range of different ornaments and decorations. Their Christmas tree was never like the colour coordinated ones on social media but one that reflected their family life a lot more.

All the boxes seemed to almost be spring-loaded waiting with excitement to be opened. The Christmas tree itself was a great investment of theirs, having survived through many different houses just to be shoved back into storage once January rolled around again.

'We should probably put the tree up before the little monsters get out of school and daycare. You know they'll want to decorate it as soon as they enter the door.' MJ said with reason, looking at Peter.

'Yeah. I might take out a few of the fragile decoration as well, just in case.' He replied, picking the tape, which was keeping the box closed, off one of them.

'We should have enough time to do all that before someone has to go and pick them up from school.'

With that, the couple started their search through the  mountain of boxes to find the one containing the Christmas tree. After several failed attempts by Peter to find it, MJ pointed to the corner of the room with a light chuckle, where they had placed the tree's box for easy access.

'You couldn't have told me that five minutes ago when I first started looking now could you?'

'It was more fun to watch you struggle though.' She said with a large smile invading her face.

There was something about Michelle Jones's smile that completely captivated Peter. It made him all warm and mushy, well more than usual, inside, especially when he was the cause or recipient of it. When the twinkle in her eyes teamed up with her smile, Peter 's whole world focused in on her and her alone.

The assembling of the tree was quite a quick process, going up in  a matter of minutes when they actually worked together. It stood tall in the corner of their lounge, the place it's stood for every year they have called this house home. It's the perfect place for it really; the lights sparkling from within the branches provided the room with a welcoming, warm glow but didn't reflect in the TV screen, a great thing for movie nights.

Taking a few steps back, they admired their few minutes of hard work. Peter snaked his arm around MJ's waist, pulling her gently into her side as she laid her head on his shoulder.

'Do you remember when we first got this tree?'

'Yeah.'

It was an almost a painfully cold afternoon in the weird period of time between autumn and winter when the weather seems to just do as it pleases and, for them, it was the day Peter and MJ had finally moved in together. Ideally, they would have waited until their leases on the properties they currently owned ended but Peter's apartment had already flooded five times and had lost complete power twice and the first semester hadn't even finished yet. Michelle's apartment, on the other hand, had no issues with its facilities it was more the people in it. She had already started completely ignoring her roommate and the annoying remarks she made whenever she felt like it. Moving in together was the best descision they made that year.