This was a lovely Christmas story about love and the value of time. It would benefit from a little more subtlety in the use of imagery, and a light edit as some sentence don't make complete sense as they stand, There is also one point in your story where I think you mixed up Clara and Elara: the point where it says Clare didn't understand why she was so happy. But from subsequent sentences, it seems clear this should have read that Elara couldn't understand why Clara was so happy. Proofreading would catch little slips like this and elevate the end product. Merry Christmas, @zerah