Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Good Yule

Merry Christmas

Here is one of my favorite Christmas memories.  Me, my dad, my little sister and my grandfather (mother's father) when I was 10 years old.  Choosing two Christmas trees out of the spruce stand in the upper pasture.

About a week before Christmas, we would drive out with the Allis Chalmers B and the trailer.  Then we would traipse through the over grown trees until we found two suitable trees.

It looks like from this photo, that Mom skied out with us to take pictures.  Her skies are stuck in the snow.  We would load them in the trailer to take them back to the farm.  Then they would stand in the warmth of the dairy barn for a day to let them melt off.  I remember one year there was the faint odor of cow instead of strictly spruce.

My sister and I had the joy of decorating two trees.  One at home, and one at Grandma and Papa's.  There was never a shortage of ornaments at home because we kept making new ones.  And we reused the garland and tinsel until it was thread bare and crinkled beyond belief.

But at the farm house the old standbys were saved and treasured.  I don't ever remember breaking any, but over the years we certainly did lose some.

May your holidays be joyous and your memories warm.

P.S.  Did anyone else get like a dozen seed catalogs in the mail today?  Time to start planning!