Friday, February 10, 2012

Christmas And The Big Tree

Christmas at our house was a real treat.  One in particular is most memorable.  We had two children and had moved to the country.  I was pregnant with our third child, but then when wasn't I pregnant.  We decided we would take the little ones to a tree farm and cut our own tree.  I had also been having trouble with a wisdom tooth trying to work its way through my very sore and swollen gum.  Not to worry, I would rush to the dentist, have the nasty thing yanked out and be back in plenty of time to join the family for a trek through the isle of misfit pine trees. 

All went well at the dentist in spite of the fact that my grandmother, two hundred miles away, was having palpitations because pregnant women should never have a tooth pulled and she was not going to rest until I was safely home and in bed for the next week.  I don't remember why teeth pulling and pregnant women didn't go together, but Lynlie looked okay when she was born.  I mean she didn't have antlers or three eyes or anything like that.

We bundled the kids up so tight they could barely walk and we were not much better - but then I was out of shape, weary from tooth pain, and very front heavy.  We walked and walked.  We picked the kids up over and over when they tripped in the snow.  We walked and walked, picked up, and rested.  Finally we found the perfect tree.  It was about twenty-five feet tall, round and full.  It was absolutely beautiful, problem was our ceilings were only ten feet high.  So hubby climbed about half way up and chopped and sawed, then huffed and puffed, then chopped and sawed, then... oh well, you know what he did, and you probably also know he wasn't happy about it at this point.  It took a long time but it eventually fell down splashing snow all of our giggling children and their very frustrated mama. Finally we could go home and it was a good thing because I was about nine months pregnant and I really had to go - SOON!

Along about the time the tree hit the ground, the pain pills wore off and my tooth, or lack of a tooth, really started to throb.  Edward and I grabbed the biggest limbs and Renee and Eddie pulled on anything they could latch onto between falling down and being too bundled up to stand back up on their own.  So we walked and walked, picked up, and walked and walked.  Finally we were at the car and tied the tree on top as best we could.  The trip home was a lot of fun because it was like driving through a forest with all the branches laying on the windshield.  Did I mention the frustrated husband.

I don't remember how the tree came off the car when we got home because I was making a mad dash for the bathroom.  I do remember that once we cut off a couple of feet and set up the tree it took up about half of the living room - and the room was about twenty feet long.  It was so big we nailed it to the floor and tethered it to both walls.  We didn't have nearly enough decorations for it so we only put them around the front and sides.  The kids and I made paper chains and ornaments and strung popcorn.  It looked very much like Charlie Brown might have helped us, but we loved it and I think the kids played hide and seek inside it's branches when we weren't looking.
It was the best tree we ever had.

Lynlie was born three days later, so I took grandma's advice and went to bed for a week.

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful story! I love the pine branches all over the windshield.

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