Page 64 of Make You Mine This Christmas

But that sounds likeflirtingterritory, doesn’t it? Do friends throw sweet foods at each other in the hope they’ll eventually touch? Do fake sisters-in-law?

It’s all too complicated.

She goes back to the gloopy icing in her bowl that looks a little like PVA glue, which must be right.

With a small spatula, Kit spoons out small portions of icing and quickly puts the almonds in place.

‘We’ll just leave it to set, and get on with the rest of the decorating,’ says Kit, confidence renewed.

Esther had left them some premade and coloured royal icing, so Kit and Haf get to work making decorations. Somehow, Haf ends up on door and window duty, neither of which are entirely straight, but she hopes that will be part of the charm.

Meanwhile, Kit intensely builds something out of marzipan. When it’s done, she proudly sets it on the table, but Haf cannot work out what animal it’s supposed to be. This reminds her of the time her little cousin Llew proudly gave her a piece of paper covered in an ominous blood-red squiggle, which, after someincorrect guesses he grumpily said was a portrait of her. This sad little monstrosity isn’t quite so terrifying, but it is sagging a little, one leg giving way beneath it, but the setting icing manages to hold it together. It does look permanently exhausted though.

‘Great!’ Haf says with too much enthusiasm. ‘Well done, very nice.’

Kit eyes her with suspicion. ‘You don’t know what it is, do you?’ When Haf doesn’t respond, she whines. ‘I’m rubbish at animals.’

‘No, it’s very good. Absolutely lifelike. Maybe you should make another one.’

‘Why?’

‘Then you’ve got both Stella and Luna?’

‘It’s a reindeer!’ huffs Kit.

This is like Llew all over again.

‘Oh! Sorry, yes.Of course it is. I just got thrown by the ears. And lack of antlers.’

‘Fine, it’s a girl reindeer then.’

‘They have antlers too.’

‘All right, David Attenborough,’ she says, sulkily rolling out some antlers to go on its head. Of course, these are far too big and the model far too set, and so Kit and Haf watch in silence as the new antlers just slide off the poor thing’s head.

‘We can say she’s just moulted?’ offers Haf.

‘Yeah, from shock, having seen her own reflection for the first time.’

It’s this proclamation, along with noticing how bug-eyed and angry it looks, that causes Haf to completely lose it.

‘I know Esther was desperate, but do you think this was what she expected?’ says Kit, laughing too. ‘I made another thing too.’

In her hand is the world’s worst-constructed snowman, made from two balls the exact same size, with nightmare eyes and anorange nose so big that it off-balances and the snowman falls on its face.

‘How did you make somethingmorehorrible??’ cries Haf, bent over laughing.

‘What do you mean? It’s clearly a work of art!’

‘Put it in the Louvre!’

‘Or the Tate Modern!’

‘It’ll scare the children.’

‘We can only hope.’

After a few minutes of wheezing laughter, they recover, wiping tears away from their eyes.