My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

I wanted to share my post Christmas greetings with you... My hope is that you were able to spend time with those who make your holidays special.

Sadie Says - "Let's Play!"

We have spent Christmas Day away from home for many years. So this was the year to bring it back and share the snow with our kids and grand-kids.

Now and then I travel back in time to pursue memories of or maybe resurrect a tradition I would like to continue from my childhood. One thing that made Christmas, Christmas is the tree my Mom would go cut out of the road ditches in southwest Iowa. At the time I was a child the Red Cedar was a common occurrence along our country roads.The cedar scent released by the tree when it came to room temperature would fill the room. I would often rub the scaly leaves to release the oils onto my hand and sniff the refreshing pungent unguent.

Until last season we had some very nice trees in close proximity. The weather remained fair through the winter and our county had the road-crews cutting down roadside trees in our immediate vicinity, providing a task to be done since the roads weren't in need of scraping.

When our kids left home we rarely put up a Christmas Tree,because our current situation lacks in space.. I do like the trees you find on the tree farms, or at the local grocery store, but it just didn't mean the same.

Thanks to the help of my hunting mentor I was able to go about  finding a tree in our neighbor's horse pasture, I found several potential trees dotting the landscape. Decisions! Decisions!

However, what I needed was to make sure I was able to handle it by myself once I got home. Finding one that stood about three feet taller than me,my mentor sawed through the trunk. I caught it as it came loose and pulled it up the hill to load in the pick-up. Eventually, I whittled a couple feet off the bottom and trimmed up some sparse branches to reach the best shape.

The afternoon light left the center of the tree in the shadow since the wall was still a support.

Once Hubby helped me tackle the task of straightening the the poor little tree, I went about getting out the decorations.

My taste in decorations isn't extravagant...more rustic you might say.

I have this notion that you can create a pleasing display with mementos from the past. It was fun pulling them out of the storage tubs to see the sunlight reflect off them again.

My tree topper was an artistic creation - a snowman sack that once delivered a gift to my Hubby , tucked away into my storage tub to call upon once again.

Do you see that green object under the snowman? That was a 2nd graders rendition of a reindeer. Our oldest grandson, now 14 yrs. old, needed to borrow the foot of someone bigger to trace to make the head, but his hands were the models for the antlers. What a nice way to remember when he was a little guy!

Under the tree are items I hold dear ...some special people gave them to me as gifts.

I have given my tree a name this year,"My Charlie Brown Tree." I liken the transformation from sprig to pleasing as it happened for Charlie Brown and Linus on their search for just the right one.It took the help of Charlie and Linus' friends to make their project complete.

Christmas has passed-the message is one that remains the same from one year to the next. 



Thank you Charles Shultz for your timeless message shared by Linus. Still touching no matter what time of year we hear it. I hope it will touch your inner child too...