Memories!

It was cold today! The biting wind chilled me to the bone when I was out hanging the laundry on the clothesline and the clothes were actually freezing as they whipped in the wind. I suppose that I should have hung them on the old folding clothes rack in side but I am a diehard "clothes smell fresher when hung on the line" person. I nearly froze while out there but the laundry did eventually thaw enough to dry and hehe..it really does smell quite fresh! After the chores were finished, I headed to the woods to cut a few pine branches for garland. I love the smell of pine in the house for the holidays and "pine-scented" candles do not smell like fresh pine at all. As I drug my limbs home, I had another "deja vu" attack! Memory! Back years ago..or should I start my tales like the fairy tales..Once upon a time long ago..... anyway.. we used to cut our Christmas tree from the woods behind the house. Sometimes it would be a cedar tree but occasionally a young pine tree would make its way to the house. It usually was a family outing or at least Dad with the whole string of kids tagging along behind. I think Mom stayed behind to "ready" the place for the tree. She was probably elated to have all five of the kids out of the house even if for only a few minutes. Dad armed with an ax or handsaw would corral us in the general direction of a tree that he had found on an earlier walk in the woods. When he would point it out to us, we just knew that it had grown just for use as our tree! After the tree was downed, we would all try to help drag it home. Usually, the younger of us wound up "riding" on top of the tree which in retrospect was probably Dad's way of keeping us from lollygagging about. Taking five kids on a walk in the woods had to be a chore in itself! But now to the memory.. more oft than not, when we would finally get the tree into the house, we would have an unexpected visitor. Sometimes it was a grey squirrel that obviously was in the tree when it was cut and just too frightened to escape..other times it was a flying squirrel that might have been snuggled in for a daytime nap.. and there were even a couple of times that a bunny was picked up as the tree was dragged along the path. Whichever it was, after squeals of delight from the kids and squeals of distress from Mom, I can imagine the poor thing was frantic to find a way out of the house. Dad, with his commonsense approach to everything, would shoo the animal out the door. The poor frightened critter would make a beeline down the path back to its home in the woods! Thus, our holidays would start.. exciting from the get-go! Today..I made it safely up the path to the house with no hitchhikers.. no stowaways.. no excitement.. gee! I miss the good ole days!

Is this not the most beautiful Christmas tree you have ever seen?! Times were hard but love was abundant! A lot of these toys were refurbished "finds" but new to us. Just so you will know..I am the tyke standing next to the doll buggy. I really look delighted to have my picture taken this early in the morning! I should be playing with what Santa Claus brought me! Note the how the tree is too tall for the ceiling..and the wonderful silver foil garland! You can truly tell that the kids decorated the tree with a lot of help from Dad! Poor Mom..she had so much patience with us!