I stepped back from my artful hanging of a handful of balloons and eyed what I'd done. "This okay?"

Alison came running over, ribbon ends stuck in her mouth and an armload of some kind of sparkly fabric in her arms. "Mumph mumph!"

Um, what? I liberated the ribbons so she could talk.

"Looks great!" She beamed at me, flustered but clearly in her happy place. "Almost done. Can you help with the bunting?"

So that was what bunting looked like. I followed her to ...