November 30, 2019
Dear Emily,
For the first time ever, our
Christmas tree is bought, set up, lighted, and decorated even though the
calendar still says November. We always
have a “real” tree so I’m a little concerned that this tree will be really,
really dead by the time December 25 rolls around! For many years we had a cedar tree cut from woods near the house. Pap and I would
tromp through the weeds and mud or brave the cutting wind and cold temperatures
to find to find a cedar tree that was tall enough and had only one imperfect side
that we could turn to the inside where no one could see it. The best choice was
to cut the top out of a large tree – a real engineering feat. When your daddy
and Uncle Robert came along and were too little to take along on the hunt, Pap
went by himself to find a tree. When they
got old enough, your daddy and Uncle Robert made the annual trek. We never cut
and decorated a tree before the middle of December. When you daddy and then Uncle Robert left
home and the job of finding a tree fell to me and Pap again, we decided to skip
the hassle and just buy a tree. So now
instead of an old-fashion, lop-sided cedar tree, there is a lovely, perfectly
shaped blue spruce gracing the sun room.
Last week I was at Martin
Methodist. This year as part of the
college’s 150 year celebration, Christmas Trees Through the Decades have been
placed in the lobbies of several buildings.
They are beautiful. Since each
tree can be purchased, the tree sponsor has listed the estimated cost of
decorations on the tree. The estimated
cost of one of the trees is $600! As I sit here and look at our tree, I wonder
“What price would I place on this tree?”
What price would I put on the two white Styrofoam balls with red stripes
– the only two balls left from a set of six that Pap and I bought for our first
Christmas tree as a married couple. Those six balls were the only decorations
on our tree that year. Then there is the
white Styrofoam coffee cup with a pipe cleaner for a hanger. Written on the side in your daddy’s
kindergarten print is “I love Christmas.”
A small fortune could not buy that treasure!
I always make sure to hang the ornament “Best
friends”- a kitten and a puppy on a sled. Uncle Robert always looks for that
one first.
Glass ornaments, hand- made gifts from my mother,
are showing their age, but they are still gently hung on the tree.
Today as you were helping hang the ornaments,
you found a paper angel that you made two years ago. You said “She needs a hug” and then you put
her on the tree too. On and on,
memory after memory decorates our Christmas tree.
Estimated cost of the Brown tree on
Mahaley Road? Priceless.
Love,
BB
