KnitKnacks

o/'o/'o/' Oh Christmas Tree o/'o/'o/'

The Christmas Tree...I plan on getting ours put up this morning. I think I have some left over childhood traditions of just "when" the tree goes up; at any rate I seem to have a long history of putting up the tree the weekend before Christmas...whew...those Monday Christmases are squeakers! Christmas Trees remind me of my father. It seemed like it was a father/daughter thing to go out to get the tree each year but I suspect my brothers were there too ..before me. (They were over 10 and 15 by the time I was 5 and capable of remembering well) My father used himself as the "measure" since he was 6 feet tall...hrumph...the trees always looked too little to me out there...they still do. He was also appalled at the prices of the trees which probably prompted him to start his own Christmas Tree Farm on the land behind his house along the Connecticut River. Long before he planted his acres for future sales, he planted an area with a variety of trees to see how they grew down there so it wasn't long before we went shopping for our own trees from his experiments. I usually had my eye on a tree sometime in the summer months and would tag it so I could find it again. One year I found the perfect tree...it happened to be a blue spruce but as the "therapy story" goes my father wouldn't cut that tree for Christmas..."Baby, you know how much I could sell that tree for if it was balled and transplanted...noooo it's not a Christmas tree." Year after year...after year...... it's now 40 years later and that tree is still there.

Soooo, the Christmas Farm was born...my job for many summers was to keep the grass mowed around the young trees as they were growing and forming. I mowed down more than my share of trees in my day as a result of snakes, or not having enough room ( in my opinion) to maneuvre the mower( that last row, just had to go!) When it came time for him to start harvesting his trees, I think he actually shed a tear when the first one left the lot...I rather think he had names for all of them too. He had quite a little business...he worked out of the truck of his car...kept the cash in coffee cans which he later would keep in the freezer in the cellar. He also had his stash of coffee cans around the house; we even found one long after he died. We managed to get a few of my father's trees for our own home but we decided it was getting out of hand when he wrapped one up and sent it to us on a Vermont Transit Bus.

So we started buying our trees locally. One year I bought a tree so big that the lot owner lent me his truck to haul it home in. It was this same tree that we cut 4 feet off the bottom and it still hit the top of our cathedral ceiling. Actually we had to lay it down sideways in the room and then haul it up behind the beam...securing it with guidewires to the sliding glass doors. I do believe this is also the tree that Morgan and I decorated using the wooden 12 foot "step" ladder. I got tired of tying to move this thing..went up the wrong side of the ladder..had a rung break which left me hanging quite a few feet off the floor. I had to ask Morgan to quit laughing and help me down! Another year we decided to go for quantity...we had 8 trees that year ranging from one footers in the bathrooms..a 3 footer on the den loft... a 5 footer on the upstairs landing and probably a puny 8 footer in the living room. Since the decorating is generally my task, we haven't repeated that scheme.

Decorating the Christmas tree each year is it's own event...we've only had one fall down. Most of our decorations have history, as well. We have ornaments from both our childhoods...some from our parent's childhoods. I have sorted and boxed our son's ornaments now that they have homes of their own...maybe one of these years, they will actually have them transported to their homes in time to use! Greg has Ollie Octopus from his childhood; Ollie usually gets the choice spot on the tree. For many years we would all guess just which branch Ollie would occupy. Ollie now resides in a gold mesh bag tied with ribbon...a mere fraction of his former self. He was not in great form when I met him 32 years ago but after an encounter with a puppy Newfoundland, he has even less form now. Seems he has gained more though the telling.

Sooo I guess it's time to get going....get dressed...haul out the boxes of decorations..rearrange the living room...haul out Neil and Kenny ( Diamond and G). It can get pretty crowded in that room with all the memories but there is always room to make some more.