However, much to my surprise, my cell phone light was not needed. The rainbow of twinkling lights which snaked all around the Christmas tree beamed out from the center of the living room.

My drunk ass mom must have forgotten to shut off the tree before she stumbled off to bed. Figuring I would protect against a fire hazard and save some energy, I decided I should shut the thing off myself.

Since every light switch in the ancient house just had to be difficult, the switches for the living room lights and the tree lights were wedged behind the bristly back of the tree. I had to stick myself into the cruel branches just to flick the lights off.

I felt a pine needle stick hard into my skin as soon as the room went black.

“Ah fuck this,” I fumed in the dark.

I tried to rush out of the living room, but couldn’t. I stepped down hard on something with a bare foot and screamed. It took me a few moments to get over the initial, shocking, sting, but when I did, an even worse feeling took over me. I knew what I stepped on was Gram and Gran’s snow globe. Had I broken it?

My foot still throbbing like I stepped on a scorpion, I went back through the arduous process of getting the tree lights on and quickly spotted the snow globe lying under the tree looking relatively unharmed. Phew. I knelt down and picked it up. I took a look at the scene through the round orb of glass.

I instantly kissed goodbye to that relief because inside that snow globe was a new scene. This one contained Gram and Gran, but the two of them instead both lied in bed, drinking from cups with their backs turned to my mother who was holding a can which read POISON, adorned with a skull and crossbones.

The room got even colder. Something which now clearly should have been a worry of mine was suggested by the snow globe.