O Christmas Tree....

When I was a girl we went up to the mountains and chopped down our Christmas tree. It was fun to try and choose one that looked good on all sides!!! I loved our trees and the fresh smell they brought into the house. Dad was the one who cut the tree down and got it in the stand. After that he was done!!!! My mom thought that my Aunt Marjory, who was just a few years older than we were, was a great tree decorator. Maybe she just had more patience with the ice cycles. Some years mom would have her come and decorate our tree, which must be something like hiring a professional decorator these days. I personally was a little insulted, because I thought we were as capable a Marjory. Anyway...we never put up our tree until Christmas Eve, which is when we baked our cookies and wrapped our presents! We always took our tree down on New Years Day. Fun times!

Things have changed. I held out for a fresh tree as many years as I could. Glenn wants the tree up right after Thanksgiving and NEVER wants to take it down (BAH HUMBUG). So with a fresh tree(they are never fresh when you buy them from a the tree lot), they can't go up the day after Thanksgiving and can hardly wait until New Years to come down. AND I am vacuuming up pine needles until the 4th of July! Finally Glenn won, as I could see the wisdom of an artificial tree.

We have had our share of the ugly trees, but a couple of years ago we bought a beautiful pre lit one. This years tree hassle takes the prize! Last year one string of lights went out and I was under and around the tree,trying to take of the old lights off and put on the new lights, which is a task no human should have to endure. This year we tested each sections before we put the tree together. The entire top lights were out, so we painful unstrung them and put on new lights trying to remember which end of the plugs went at the beginning and the end. As we started on the middle section we could see that we were running out of time so we put new lights over old. By the time we were through with the lights I was hoping a praying that my children wouldn't see the way the lights were put on the tree or they would have us committed! It was about that time that Ruth Grigg called and in the conversation mentioned that they cut the dead lights out with a wire cutter!!!! Duh!

Keep in mind that I only had two day after Thanksgiving to get ready for a long trip to Idaho, Clark and I had spent all day Friday getting the boxes in and putting up decorations all through the house, we had left the tree until Glenn could help. We were under a time gun. We finally got the tree set up, lights and all by noon, and ran out side and put lights on our trees and bushes, in one hour flat! I took a welcome break to go to Danielle Baker's baby shower, and when I came home Clark and Glenn had decorated the tree!!!! Talk about role reversal, or coming full circle! I couldn't be more proud of our tree!



Next tree is at my mom's house. My sister kept debating about whether to put a tree or not this year. One day my brother Kirby and my sister Cynthia were there visiting with us, there was such a special spirit among us that Sylvia asked us to help her put up the tree. It was so fun to have that experience with my siblings after all these years. Kirby brought it upstairs, and helped set it up. Then he did the manly thing of leaving the decorating to the girls! This is the tree that we put up in Lost River. Cynthia is in the picture, I wish I had taken it when Kirby was there.



Since I was driving home alone, I broke my trip into two days. I spent Wednesday night at my dear friend Susan Taylor's beautiful home in Meridian, Idaho! What a luxury. We had a great time, We went shopping in decorator shops looking at glamorous Christmas Trees that sold for $3000, had dinner at our favorite Sandwich shop, and spent a couple of hours decorating her tree! Susan loves earth tones and she was trying to move from her gold tree ornaments to more of the burgundy rust tones. We just kept adding and adding to her tree, and the mantel, and a vast space she has about her television. Finally we were exhausted and the tree still wasn't done. This is Susan atop her ladder.


Her husband, Dr Bob, graciously took time out of the BYU vs BSU Basket Ball game to click this photo:


Susan and I have been friends since the early 70's. We were in that original book club that you hear me talk about. The first time I met Susan, she showed up on my door step with that wonderful exuberant smile and talked faster than anyone I had ever heard. I fell in love with her instantly! She had a 4 year old and I had my 4 year old Danielle. So we logged a lot of hours together. She also has a Clark! She is so smart, has such a strong testimony, works tirelessly on humanitarian projects, she has closets full and a room dedicated to that. They are in the nursery, are temple workers and are planning to leave on a mission in a few months. We are kindred spirits and it was so fun to be there with her in my own suite.