As I begin writing tonight the clock says 11:51 PM and soon it will be Christmas Eve. Finally it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at our house. Unlike many of my friends and relatives I don’t start planning early, and sometimes I’m not ready at all when the big day arrives. But it seems we always have a good Christmas.
I want to tell you about my Christmas tree. We’ve never had an artificial tree and although I was tempted to go that route this year, I yielded not to temptation. We’ve had years where we cut our own tree – from the woods on Crown Land – from the edge of a cousin’s property, “up north” – from Christmas tree farms – and one year recently we cut the top off of one of the trees in our backyard, (we knew the tree wasn’t long for this world.) We’ve also had potted trees that we later planted in our yard on Elliott Street. Most memorable were the Blue Spruce that grew to be at least thirty feet high, and a tall gangly Northern Pine. Of course there have been a few trees straight off a lot.
Tuesday I found our most beautiful tree ever. It’s always been easy for me to find a tree close to Christmas Day. I’m not very fussy. What I wanted was a little tree that fit on the coffee table but that didn’t come to pass. I drove past one on the lot of a tree farm just out of town, and ended up at the place we’ve gone for the past four (or five?) years. A little yellow house, (also just out of town) that always has nice trees. I pulled into the driveway, looking at the five trees left. Only one was standing. With no car in sight I wondered if anyone was home as I got out of the car and started looking for a tree. As soon as I saw the the tree seller come out of the house I went back to the car, opened the door and reached in. He asked me if I wanted a tree (I think he thought I was making a getaway). I reached into the car to get my money and assured him that I wanted a tree.
I said I was looking for a smaller tree but I had already decided I would cut the bottom off to make the tree shorter. The one I bought was a concolour fir tree. It’s supposed to smell like citrus. Yes I used the word supposed purposefully. The tree was ten feet tall but from the beginning I planned to cut the bottom off to make it shorter. The other trees were shorter but they were bigger around. So I paid the man and we stuffed the tree into our too small van. The concolour fir has soft needles and not one of those needles came off in the van.
At home Clarence shortened the spike at the top and cut about two feet off the bottom. We dropped it into the tree stand and it didn’t fall over. (We took that as a good sign.)
I planned to tell you all about the tree… but the acquiring of it seems to have taken lots of time to describe. I’m going to put a few pictures on here so you can see what the tree looks like. I want to tell you about the tree because when I look at our decorated tree every year I am flooded with memories and feelings. I wonder if you are too? So I am going to sign off for tonight and tomorrow, sometime before the day ends, I am going to finish this post. Till than I hope you are as ready as you want and choose to be for Christmas… and that He whose birth we celebrate will fill your heart and home with Peace and Joy and Love.
Janet Weiler 