It’s almost time. There are just a few more minutes until the holiday arrives. Oh, hallelujah.
Yes, it’s still the autumn season, but Christmas is a holiday to be enjoyed much longer than your average, ho-hum, yawn-inducing George Washington’s Birthday. I love the guy, but still.
We tend to merge Thanksgiving and Christmas in our house. We put up a tree and lights inside, but no Christmas decor, nothing explicitly stating anything about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. So it’s more wintry decor than anything else.
To me, cedar, pine, and spruce aren’t a representation of the Christmas season.
As the air gets chilly and the leaves begin to cover the ground, the only thing left to bring the surrounding landscape alive is the Evergreen.
Most of the trees I’ve planted around our house are evergreens. Don’t believe me? Okay.
I’ve planted thirty-eight trees on our tiny property. Yes, thirty-eight. Out of those, five are not evergreens.
I have two maples, two black walnuts, and one white oak.
The rest are Green Emerald arborvitae, Green Giant arborvitae, Dwarf Alberta Spruce, Holly, and Loblolly Pine.
I don’t think saying that I like Evergreens is an overstatement. And I need a few more Evergreens to plant.
I’ve been known to cut branches and twigs off of neighboring pines and cedars to use inside our home. One year, I cut down a cedar to put on our front porch. Then, I pulled a tiny pine out of an obscure embankment and planted it in a yard.
Green isn’t my favorite color, but I enjoy looking at green spruce, cedars, and pine. It just makes me happy.
When everything starts to fade, when the grey fog rolls in, and when the cold air sucks the life out of the maples and the oaks, the evergreen illuminates the otherwise bleak winter landscape.
So we’re a few minutes away from breaking out the tree, wrapping white lights around it, leaning back in our recliners, and warming our hearts around the blazing fires of the joyful holiday spirit.
to the Peace and Joy within my heart,
– Caleb
caneymountainblog.com 