Oh Christmas Tree!

(Our favorite gift under the tree this year, was the scarf Mitch Poulson (8) crocheted and gave to us. The kid spent 4 months on this scarf of many colors and then let us have it. We love it Mitchel! You are awesome. Thank you so much and go Utah State!)

(Jake's first tree)

Today I took down the Christmas tree. This day is always a little emotional for me. Growing up my sister and I used to laugh at Michael McLean's song, "I Cry The Day I Take The Tree Down," somehow whenever I hear that song, I picture some lounge singer with a silky red dress and blue eye shadow, relaxed over a piano singing her little heart out to all the truckers that stopped for their weekly shower, but honestly that song has struck a cord as of late and I'm crying today too.

I hate to see the season end, and although it's fun to anticipate the new year and get excited about fresh beginnings, it still tugs at my heart strings. I love Christmas and the whole holiday season. This year's ending seems particularly bittersweet to me.

As I sat and rocked Jake before his nap, I just looked at our tree. It probably wouldn't be considered beautiful by any one, other than myself. Glamorous is definitely out of the picture. It will never be displayed in Better Homes and Gardens, but I love it and it warms my heart. We have slowly graduated as a family from Charlie Brown Christmas trees to a twinkling smorgasbord of yearly memories hung haphazardly on dried out branches. There is no rhyme nor reason to the decorating of our tree, but each ornament has a story to tell and memories galore to reminisce.

As I looked at our tree today I saw the blue ball ornaments that Mike and I decorated together before we were married, even engaged. We painted Utah State A's, Big Blue and Go Aggies all over them. I didn't know then that Christmas 9 years later we would still be enjoying them together. I looked again and saw the dried out oranges that we hung on our first tree 8 years ago when we lived at USU Married Student Trailer Court # 58. Our married student trailer was 10'x50' and to drag a live Christmas tree inside to some might seem impossible. We weren't skeptical though, we were just in love, married for two months and excited to spend our first Christmas together. So we made our way to Tony's Grove with $10 in hand to see what we could find. We found the ultimate Snoopy Tree. It was $10 and we thought we got a bargain. We didn't have any ornaments except the blue balls that came with me into the marriage. We didn't have any money either, but we did have a few oranges. We didn't realize that there is a method to drying oranges so they retain their beautiful color. Our oranges turned out black, and they get blacker with the years. In fact, a few have had to be retired, but it wouldn't seem like Christmas unless at least one of those black oranges, with a ribbon through the top, hung on our tree. That year we also tried our hand at spice and applesauce ornaments. They haven't retained their festive smell, and most of them have cracked, but I had to chuckle as I looked at the one Ike tried to take a bite of while hanging up ornaments this year. He hasn't tried that again.

I looked at the tree again and saw Will's first ornament. I was so excited to find a cute ornament kit that you could press your babies hand print in and keep it forever on your tree. Will was a 1 1/2 month old that Christmas, and no matter how we tried we couldn't pry his little hand open enough and keep it open long enough to get a good imprint. Everytime we tried, he would end up with a fist full of plaster. We eventually resorted to his footprint, and not a very good one at that. Many times I picture things turning out differently in my mind than they really do. This was one of those times, but each year we get out the foot ornament and I smile. And then this year I cried as I compared his little foot ornament to the cute bigger 6 year old hand print glazed ornament he brought home from school. He was so proud and excited to give it to Mike and me. I eventually got that hand print of Will's just 6 years later than I thought.

One tradition I love is I get the boys an ornament each year that reminds me of them and something that they did that year. I wrap them up and give them to the boys the night we decorate the tree. This started the first year Mike and I were married, I mentioned earlier that we didn't have any money and that was true, so spending the $5.99 on the Harley Davidson motorcycle ornament made me choke. It seemed perfect at the time though, a perfect gift for the boy who sold his beloved motorcycle so he could buy cement tools and start a business to get him through school. And so I excitedly purchased the ornament and presented it to Mike on that first night we decorated our tree, with the blue Utah State balls, black oranges and spice ornaments. Mike liked it, better yet it made him laugh, and he triumphantly hung it on the tree. Our Snoopy Tree couldn't take the weight, however, and less than 20 seconds after receiving the ornament the Harley fell and broke. We were horrified and glued it back together. That year it had to hang from the top of the tree on the thickest branch, the only place that would hold the ornament's weight. Who really needs a star or an angel really, if you have a Harley?

The boys have received an ornament every year and I glanced at the ones that hold some significance to us. One like Ikies blue bird. As a little baby he loved birds, he would get so excited whenever he saw them fly in the sky, his first word was bird and whenever he would see them he would say bird over and over again just like Bambi. It was so cute, and so that year he received a bird to hang on the tree. There are a few Santa cowboys, for Will, and a wheelbarrow ornament filled with seeds and shovels for Mike. He got that the first year we tried our hand at gardening. We were serious about eating the fruits of our labors that year, and a garden we thought was a great way to teach our boys to work (did I mention they were 3 and 1=). Well we rented a community garden plot and with excitement went to Westside Market to pick our seeds. The preparation part of gardening I think, is where we went wrong. There were a few weeds before we started, so we tilled and thought we'd be extra safe and spray some heavy duty Preen on it. Well the Preen did its' job and them some. It killed all the weeds, however, it also prevented any thing else from growing too. Not one green thing came up on our plot that year, no weeds or vegetables. Our plot looked like Mars compared to the flourishing plots around it. Our dreams of fresh salsa died as we harvested character and a little more garden savvyness.

I looked again at the tree and saw the many post Christmas tree trunk ornaments that we hang up. Our second year in Kansas we found a Christmas Tree Farm that we could actually afford somewhere out by Saint George. I grew up cutting down our family tree and I loved that experience. Nothing quite beats finding the perfect tree out in the field and laying claim to it. So we were pretty excited to be able to continue this tradition with our boys. Once cut we always cut another inch off the bottom of the trunk, write the year on it, (with the intention of decorating it), and keep it as an ornament. As I looked at those tree trunk ornaments hanging on the tree, I remembered all the fun times out in the field with the boys...... and the nasty farm cat Will was certain wanted us to be his family.
Our second to last year in Kansas the tree farm stopped selling trees. We were pretty sad, and Home Depot didn't quite have the same magical feel to it. (It did have a tree bagging machine that was pretty intriguing to watch though). This same year we also broke tradition in the fact that we ate somewhere other than Vista the night we brought our tree home. We were tired and Arby's happened to be across the street from Home Depot. It was getting late, the boys were in the car and the tree wouldn't appreciate us opening and closing all the doors, so we decided to go through the drive through. Mike was a little hesitant to do that though with a tree on top of his vehicle, but food is fuel sometimes and we were running on low. I had to laugh when the kid in the drive through window said, "Hey Mister do you know you have a tree on the top of your car?" Mike replied "WHAT THE??!" and leaned out his window to inspect the top of the car. We were all laughing by that time, and decided that going through a drive through with a tree on the top of your car was pretty fun after all.

I looked at our tree and noticed ornaments we've picked up on fun vacations, like the Nauvoo Temple, the Bear Lake ski boat, the lighthouses from Oregon, and the Canoe from Signal Mountain. I saw the ornaments students gave me the year I taught school in Brigham City, the snowflake from colorful Donna Capaso, and the ornament Sister Hawkins gave the boys from the institute.

Mike loves to hang Candy Canes on the Christmas Tree. When kids come over to our house during December, they usually get to choose a candy cane from the tree to take home. Our boys are often found sucking one from the tree themselves. As I looked at the tree one last time, I noticed three Candy canes, that had escaped their doom, left at the tip top. I thought the boys will enjoy these this afternoon..

As I looked at the tree again, I thought of Will's statement to me earlier today, "Mom this is the best year for trees ever."
"Why?" I asked
"Well it's the first year our tree hasn't fallen over."
He was right. We must be growing up or it might have something to do with the new tree stand we had to buy this year. Anyway I look at it, though it has been a good year for trees.