Each year I
put up a fake tree way before Christmas and after Thanksgiving we go get a real
tree somewhere around our house. This
year we have family from out of the country and they have never cut a Christmas
tree so we asked if they wanted to come and cut a Christmas tree this year with
us. It was an enthusiastic yes from our
cousin’s husband who lives in a large city and has never had the
experience.
We live in the desert so we usually
pick the tree that needs to be thinned or is flat on one side so it fits better
against the wall in my kitchen. This
year my husband said he found one that would work so we all piled into the
truck. It was also their first time in
the back of a pickup truck. I was raised
riding in the back of a pickup truck so I went back in my memory as a little
girl and remembered the excitement of riding in the pickup and had to smile as
they gleefully rode to where the tree was.
We stopped in front of a steep hill
where the tree sat at the top of it much to my dismay. Usually we go on a level plane to find one
but this year the “tree” was at the top of the steep rocky hill. My daughter protested that we needed to go somewhere
flat but we all climbed the hill, another one for my cousin who doesn’t hike in
the city. The tree that was picked was
way too big for the kitchen so we found a smaller tree not too far from the
first one.
After instruction from my husband
the cutting the tree experience began.
It was fun to watch my cousin’s husband who had donned a Daniel Boone
hat he found at my house to cut his first live tree. It made climbing the hill worthwhile to see
the joy of such a simple thing at the Holidays.
They hauled the tree down the hill
then went in the pickup back home and helped haul it in the house. They had to leave the next morning so were
unable to decorate it; I told them I would send them a picture of it when it
had been decorated so they could see their tree.
Since I was raised in the country I
forget how fortunate I am to experience the things that others who come from a
large city are unable to. It doesn’t
matter if you have an artificial or real tree, the meaning is the same. It is a time to get together with the family
and bring out the ornaments that you have collected throughout the year and
decorate your tree. At the top of my
tree each year I get out a small angel, the skirt is made out of cardboard; I
bought her at Woolworths with my young son when I was newly divorced. I didn’t have very much money so I bought my
little angel for my tree top. Each year
I get her out and ceremoniously put her on top to watch over the festivities
throughout the season and think back to when I had less and how very blessed I
have been since.
Each ornament has a story, my tree
doesn’t look like the cover of the fancy magazines but I think it is much more
beautiful as it is the story of my life.
I tell my children and grandchildren the story of each ornament and it
takes me through the good and bad times to where I am now.
