Tree Time

 We all have those traditions that really make it feel like Christmas. Those baking cookies with grandma, caroling with friends, cocoa and movies snuggled up on the couch kind of traditions. For me that tradition is the getting of the Christmas tree. I don't mean just going up to the attic or the barn loft and dusting off the artificial tree. I mean choosing that one beautiful tree among all trees that will be the center of all the decoration for this season.
In our family the tree choosing starts a few weeks before the 25th. We all meet at my parents. My father sharpens up the ax while the mommas bundle all the babies. I say babies but our babies are much bigger this year. Then we all head out across the field and to the woods. Once we're to the cedar thicket we meander in and out among all the trees, some too skinny in my opinion some with two many holes or bare spots and Daddy always says at least one or two choices are way too big to fit in the house. In the end we all stand gazing at the one tree that has caught our attention and each person says yea or nay. This is the tree! Usually at this point angels from heaven are shining down while singing.
It is now time to cut the tree. While this task always fell to my Father, the last few years he has passed on the actual cutting of the tree to a younger generation. Our Growing Boys are now the fellers of the tree taking turn with the ax as we all watch with pride ready to yell TIMBER.

 

Our lovely little tree is then packed back out of the woods and across the field to the house where it will be trimmed and propped up in the stand.

 

The lights and decorations are hung with care as children play about. We discuss how beautiful the tree is and how it compares to last years.

Usually there is food but always there is the warmth of family

and the fondness of tradition.

 

(This is the tree at Growing Boys Farm, not the same tree as pictured above. I forgot to take a picture of the finished tree from my parents, but this way you can see our tree!)