Oh Christmas Tree

In our home, the usual tradition is to bring in a very large, very full Christmas tree to celebrate the season.

We have a nice big space for the tree, to include a very high ceiling, so size has never mattered.  The bigger, the better.

We bring in our 8' ladder and I go to town.  Through the years I watched my father put the large C9 colored bulbs on our tree and learned just how to wrestle with the bulbs and light the tree so she shines brightly at night.  I have volunteered for this particular job for the past 28 years and as much as I dread the task, I love doing it.  A true love hate relationship I've got going with myself.

I relayed to my husband when we get our tree this year, he would have to put the lights on, seeing I could not climb a ladder.  "No problem Honey, I'll take care of it."

There are many homemade ornaments I've made, my children have made, my mother has made and those I have been given throughout the years which adorn our tree.

This past Saturday my husband and boys headed out to the local tree farm to get another wonderful double balsam to be brought in our home for yet another Christmas Season.  After being away for roughly an hour and a half, I saw them driving up the driveway.  One of my boys was halfway through the back cab window holding the tree and I thought "Wow, I've never see this before. I hope Mike didn't get a gigantic tree this year."

When I went to our side entrance I couldn't believe my eyes and said to myself, "You've got to be kidding me."  My son jumped out of the truck and said, "Mom, I saw a great tree but dad didn't want to get it, said it was to prickly. Mom, I don't like this tree at all, it is so small it kept falling out of the back so I had to hold it the whole way home."

The tree stood about 5' 7" tall.  When I gave my husband part of the tree stand, the part the trunk is placed in, I told him he was going to have to cut 1/4 of the bottom branches off the tree so the base would fit around the trunk and we wouldn't have any tree left to decorate.  I asked him what he was thinking when he picked that tree out and his reply was,

"Honey, all the big trees were prickly and this is the kind you like, beside's, YOU don't have to climb a ladder to put the lights on."

Somewhere along the way my husband never got the memo saying he was climbing the ladder this year and putting the lights on.

Oh well, once our tiny little tree made it into the house, the lights were put on and it looked beautiful.  It has a perfect shape, it smells wonderful and we can easily get behind the tree this year to plug it in.  I couldn't ask for a more considerate husband!

His only disappointment is the fact there are no homemade ornaments on our tree this year.  He asked why and I explained to him, "Oh Honey, a small tree like this couldn't possibly hold all our traditional ornaments, besides, I would have an awful time trying to decide which ones to put on this tiny little tree."

I think we've all learned something in this process.  Life is full of disappointments, but if you look on the positive side, joy and happiness will appear when you least expect it.  The decisions we make are based on what we know and for every action, there is a reaction.  It's up to us to see the light when we enter a tunnel that may have darkened our spirits, and if we remember certain situations are temporary, we will have a brighter outlook on all we face while we walk on this earth.

On the lighter side, I have also learned, once you volunteer for a job and become very good at it, you have that particular job for life.  My husband has asked me numerous times if I would like to learn how to run his Caterpillar Skid Steer.  He uses that to snow blow our driveway.  My answer is always NO.  He knows I'd be good at it and I know he'd soon retire from that one job HE is good at!