The Yellow Duck gets a Christmas Tree

When the cold front blew into San Antonio, the Yellow Duck was excited. If it was this cold, it might snow, he thought to himself. And if it snows, then I need a Christmas tree.

"That is precisely what I'm going to do today!" the Yellow Duck said aloud to himself. "I'm going to go get a Christmas tree!"

With that, the Yellow Duck set out to find Toad and Ms. Fish. He decided that getting a tree required several opinions and more than one set of eyes. When he got to the pond, he started to laugh. Ms. Fish had decorated her bowl. She had lined her bowl with tinsel garlands and had placed a small Christmas tree inside. She had also strung lights inside of her bowl so it glowed.

"That's a very festive bowl," the Yellow Duck laughed.

"Isn't it marvelous?" Ms. Fish twirled in the water. "I think it is just grand!"

"I think it looks like Wal-Mart puked in your bowl," Toad said.

Ms. Fish sighed. "You just don't understand Toad. You never will."

"Hey, come and get a Christmas tree with me!" the Yellow Duck said cheerfully. "It'll be a lot of fun. I'll get my mom to take us!"

"OOOOOHH! I'm going to get the coolest Christmas tree ever!" Toad said, leaping off his log. "I'm going to find one that is so sharp it's like ninja spikes on it's branches. It'll be an awesome tree! No one will try to touch it!"

"You're so dumb," Ms. Fish scowled. "I'm going to get the prettiest tree there. It's going to be full and pretty and have thick branches. If I'm lucky, it'll have a bird in it's branches and then I'll have a pet!"

"And I'm the dumb one?" Toad said scornfully.

"Guys, come on," the Yellow Duck pleaded. "It's Christmas! Now, quit fighting so we can go get a Christmas tree. Santa won't like you if you keep fighting."

"Fine," Ms. Fish sniffed. "Let's go get your Mom so we can go down there."

The three friends loaded up in the Yellow Duck's dad's truck and headed down to the Alamo Heights Christmas tree lot that was run by the Optimist Club. The Yellow Duck was excited to so many trees.

"Look, it's like our own private lot!" the Yellow Duck squealed. "There's hardly anyone here."

"That's because it's in the middle of the day, and most people are in school or work," the Yellow Duck's mom said. "Now run along, pick out the tree you like."

The Yellow Duck waddled through the rows, Toad hopping along behind him as he pulled Ms. Fish.

"My bowl's prettier than any of these trees," she bragged.

"Whatever," Toad said.

"I like this tree!" the Yellow Duck said, stopping in front of a full Noble Fir. "This is such a nice tree. What do you think of it Mom?"

"I like it a lot," his mom said, smiling down at him as she stroked his feathers. "What do you think?"

"It's not as cool as the ninja tree," Toad sighed, depressed there were no ninja trees on the lot. "But I guess it's all right."

"It's not as pretty as my tree," Ms. Fish said, swirling around her bowl. "But I guess it's all right."

"Let's get it then!" the Yellow Duck said excitedly. The tree was paid for and loaded into the truck and taken back to the Yellow Duck's house. The Yellow Duck and his mom happily decorated the tree while Toad created a tree out of ornament wire and Ms. Fish colored her tree with sparkly pink paint.

"It's so beautiful, Mom," the Yellow Duck said, looking in awe at his tree. "It's the most beautiful tree in the world."

"It sure is," Toad and Ms. Fish agreed, while they each looked at their own trees. The Yellow Duck's mom just smiled.

"Yes it is," she said. "It's a beautiful tree."