This holiday season has been topsy-turvy. Our Thanksgiving vacation was cut short by a call from the Sheriff notifying us that our house was burglarized.  Time usually spent decorating the house & making travel plans went to meetings with law enforcement stopping by daily to collect more evidence.  Then there was time spent viewing found items, discussions with the D.A. and buying new security systems.  We had no time to think about Christmas until December 20th.

I keep thinking about Little House on the Prairie, when people were working to survive and truly didn’t have extra time.  On Christmas Eve, the kids would wait anxiously for Pa to tell them it was time to go pick out a tree.  Pa would chop down a beauty, it was only 4′ tall because the cabin was small, but it seemed huge to the kids. They decorated with simple homemade ornaments and cranberry strings, laughed together and then went off to bed, thinking about whether it would snow on Christmas Day more than about presents.

We made our annual family trek to McGovern’s Christmas Tree farm on the 20th.  Even the visit was different this year.  I’ve always chosen a flocked tree because it’s a beautiful background to display decorations. Mr. McGovern is getting on in years, so he decided not to flock any trees.  Bobby thought I’d be disappointed but no, for whatever reason this year, I love the idea of a green tree.

With other stuff already scheduled, we have a tentative date to decorate the tree on the 23rd.  As my Mom says, change is good. And, a great opportunity to remember the true meaning of Christmas.