Mountain cold has hit the valley, leaving us to discover whether the low temperatures will really bring snow. Those of us who are led to save some heating costs by lowering the thermostat almost immediately recognized the fact that we needed to layer on a few clothes and wear gloves until our hands are warm enough to type on the keys of our computers.

This week brought 22 degree temps to the Red Bluff area.

The sun and wind joined the lowered temps and we continued layering clothing. We ventured onto the highways and byways knowing we would warm up using the car’s heater. Traveling north we caught a glimpse of the annually decorated Christmas tree located north of the Bend Jelly turn off on the right side of the highway going north. This unique out-in-the middle of no where tree catches our attention with the adornment of unique, sparkling ornaments placed there by anonymous decorators.

Our family has had a variety of Christmas trees over fifty-five plus years. Our first choice was always a live tree. The aroma of a freshly cut tree always brings thoughts of Christmas. When our children were small we went to the mountains to cut our own. That is we went when it was a year we could afford gas, the car was running and our children had warm clothes to wear. We started our decorations with the handmade ornaments that Aunt Bessie had made for us the first year of our marriage. We added some crocheted ornaments that I had made; the finishing touch was a variety of paper ornaments that our children made.

Then there was the white paper artificial treenot successful or enjoyable, more like laughable. We went back to the natural trees until we hit an economical disaster year. That year our tree became the talk of the neighborhood as being unique and lovely. The best part was that it was not expensive. We paid nothing for the bush and very little on blue ornaments and an inexpensive spot light. The whole family liked the tree which was actually a Manzanita bush adorned with blue bulbs and tinsel spotlighted by the light.

The ensuing years, husband and son worked for a Mountain Christmas tree enterprise so we had live trees again. After the kids were on their own we actually bought a very tall artificial tree with installed lights. It was beautifully lighted and looked real. Three years in a row we put up the tree and oh’ed and awed over it and put every tree ornament we had acquired over fifty-five married years. Last year we struggled in the lifting and setting up of the huge tree and after Christmas we again struggled in de-ornamenting and lifting the tree apart. We agreed that having become chronologically more mature we had acquired a bit of arthritis which led us to pass the big, beautiful tree on to one of our daughters.

Do we have a tree up? You bet, it is a small artificial tree sitting on a table in front of our south living room window. Is it pretty? Yes and I still think I smell the aroma of real trees. Do we have all our owned ornaments on it? I’m afraid not. Part of the ornament problem is that we put last year’s ornaments away so well that we cannot find them. Oh well when spring weather comes we will clean out the storage sheds and find them. Having shared our annual Christmas tree adventures I will close this epistle and remind myself and others that the focus of Christmas is the birth o05 Jesus Christ our Lord.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11

[Thanks: http://www.redbluffdailynews.com]