The
Christmas doings were women’s work as far as Jack was concerned. For the most
part, he stayed out of the way. Still, several important tasks were entrusted
to him – carrying mail to and from the mailbox, including outgoing and incoming
packages, and cutting the Christmas tree. Last summer, he had spotted a nice little
fir tree out on the canyon rim, but he now had second thoughts. He wanted to
take Sadie with him when he cut the tree, and the canyon rim was too far for a
little girl to walk.
So,
after a hearty lunch, Jack set off to the draw on the northern boundary of his
property with his faithful companion, “Dick the Dog,” at his side. Before long
he spotted a young fir that would make a perfect Christmas tree to set on the
library table. It would still be a good stretch of the legs for little Sadie,
and he hoped Ethel would allow her to go. He smiled to himself as he thought of
Sadie.
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| Jack & June -- which is which? |
Christmas trees: we got a Nordman fir this year. It's lovely in appearance, but a bit of a disappointment in function. It looks much like a Noble fir, but the branches aren't as strong. Also, it doesn't have Christmas tree smell!
ReplyDeleteIt's not a perfect world with live Christmas trees. Through the many years that we set up a live tree, including with my parents, the trees were never the same. I remember flimsy branches, trees with tight branching, trees with gaps. In fact, one year my dad wired in a bough to hide a big gap. Some years the tree was dry and we worried it wouldn't make through the season. The year that Daddy cut a blue spruce was the worst. Many ornaments were broken as the sharp needles pricked us. One year at our house we bought a tree after dark, and when we got it home, we realized it was yellow. I took it back. Now I deal in artificial trees, and that's not a perfect world either.
ReplyDeleteI’ve actually thought Christmas trees have seemed very uniform lately. I like some personality in a tree. Some gaps are nice for droopy ornaments.
ReplyDeleteI like gaps, too. My artificial pencil trees don't have many gaps.
ReplyDelete