#yes. yes...

This is the first time that Claudia is truly celebrating Christmas outside the religious ceremony of it all. In the past, it's been a day of dry church services rounded off with a quiet, terse meal before bed. Now, it's becoming something more like a true celebration, something to look forward to rather than to dread in the weeks leading up to it. So it's exciting, and Claudia is full of energy while they're getting their coats and shoes. At some point along the way, or perhaps when they reach the farm itself, Lestat disappears. He's hungry, she thinks. Or maybe he considers this whole endeavor beneath him, she thinks a little more unkindly. Nevermind. Louis is her not so secret favourite of the two of them, and she's pleased to be allowed a little time alone with him. Linking her arm with his, she drags him down the rows of trees. They all look the same, they all smell the same, but she just knows that when she finds the one, she'll know it. "That one's too droopy, look at it," she says derisively, as if she does this every year and has any idea what she's looking for. There's as much fun in pretending to be a human as there is in pretending to be something else she's not: in this case, someone who has a solid understanding of the finer details of picking out a Christmas tree. It's serious business, she thinks, pulling Louis away from the smaller trees and stops before one that's probably taller than her and Louis combined. "Wow," she breathes, tipping her head back to look up to the top of the tree. Her eyes are wide as saucers, reflecting the pretty lights strung up to mark the aisles. "This one. It's gotta be this one. Just look at it! It's huge, pro'lly the biggest Christmas tree I ever saw."