Decorations

The weather today was unseasonably warm and comfortable.  I decided to take advantage of the warmth and do some outdoor chores that could have waited.  I cleaned the chicken coop and cut down my Christmas tree.  My Christmas tree is actually just a branch of my black spruce tree.  My black spruce has a disease called dwarf mistletoe.  This causes the tree to grow deformed.  One deformity is called a witches broom.  Another is that the tree tries to send up branches to form a new tree top.  I cut off a 30 foot upright branch. It wasn't easy, let me tell you, and my guns are smarting from sawing it off by hand.  I think it was about 5 inches diameter where I cut it off from the tree.  I used the top five feet of the branch for my tree.  The shape isn't perfect but it's much better than last years version and the price was right.  I put my five foot tree on top of a table and set it near the peak of my vaulted ceiling.  It looks pretty nice.  With such a small tree I couldn't put on all my ornaments but it's hard to know when to stop.  That goldfish ornament from Hawaii has to go on.  The parachuting bear is a must.  The purple needlepoint outhouse with the little bear and the tiny roll of toilet paper must go on.  The ornament from Offspring #1's third grade teacher must go up.  That ornament we made out of a Christmas tree cookie (slice off the bottom of the trunk) from 2001 that listed all of us (Me, Offspring #1, Offspring #2, Ruby the dog, Kovu the cat, the birds Slim Shady, Amelia and Stardust) is a must.  I think those birds were zebra finches but I'm not sure.  Baby's first Christmas ornament from 1984 has to be displayed. The wooden gavel we got from a visit to the Supreme Court in Washington has to be hung up.  Same with the London Royal guard with the bearskin hat, the miniature streetcar from New Orleans, the sailboat from Connecticut, the Pilgrim tower ornament from Cape Cod, the sliced stone from Glacier National Park, the bear from Yellowstone National Park, and the copper Kokopelli from Arizona.  The tiny violin has to be displayed but where did this miniature flute come from?  The star trek symbol on a light bulb from Cub Scouts deserves a spot in the branches.  The needlepoint mailbox that says Noel which I got from my Grandmother needs to be on this tree.  There is a little cardboard Christmas stocking that is decorated by hand and dedicated to Diet (a pet crayfish who despite our best efforts never ate a single thing while in our care yet managed to live for months).  I even have some hand tatted snowflake ornaments from a girlfriend when we were in high school.  I can't forget the little saluting Navy sailor snowman!  I've got angels and rocking horses and lots of bears; candy canes and mittens and all kinds of birds; I've got a tree full of memories.