When I first moved here almost 10 years ago my husband and I set out on a romantic adventure to cut our own Christmas tree at his family orchard. He assured me on the ride over that there would be TONS to choose from. He was very confident about this and proudly pulled the truck to a remote section of orchard that backed up to a large wooded area. After trudging through the snow for bit I finally said " I don't see any trees, maybe you planted them somewhere else." We drove to a second spot where he paused, looked out the window and said "yeah, they must have died or something, I know there are trees here." At our third location he was looking desperate and kept looking up at these enormous evergreens that had to be at least 80 ft tall and said "maybe we can figure out how to cut the top off one of these, I just don't understand what happen to all those trees I planted as a kid." AH HA! I tried to be as sweet as can be and said " how old were you when you planted those trees?" to which he replied " maybe 12-14". About 20 years, that's what happen to all the trees he planted long ago. In his mind we were on a hunt for a tree of his childhood just slightly taller. We go back in the car and drove to a lovely little tree farm up the road.
This past weekend between family time and tree trimming we had a date night. After dinner we headed out to a local pub where it was a homecoming of sorts for everyone that was in town for Thanksgiving break. It was a lot of fun seeing some friends that have moved out of town as well as our usual gang but with their younger and olde siblings in tow. Then there was the moment of truth. Across the bar, drinking a beer was a 'girl' that I used to babysit when I first moved to town. She was in high school at the time and I would stay with her and her sisters when her parents went on vacation and do things like take them to lacrosse practice and prevent them from going to parties. There she was, living it up and totally allowed (and legal) to do so. Don't get me wrong it was great seeing her and she is lovely and sweet but, she is also older now, which means so am I!
I guess my holiday homecoming run-in came at a good time. The trees of my husband's childhood and my old friend have all grown up and before I know it so will my own children. With Christmas craziness starting up and 2 young kids that aren't always the angels sitting by the tree it's helpful, but sometimes hard to remember they will grow up someday soon. The won't want to spend hours having an ornament parade or talking to their animals about Santa's upcoming visit. Eventually everything and everyone grows up.
This year we opted for the tree farm!
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