The plan was
so wonderfully illogical, and I absolutely loved it. My
brother Adam, his wife Savannah and I were all having a wonderful vacation in
our La Grande home just a few days before Christmas, 2018. It was Adam’s first
time being back in over a decade and Savannah’s first time being there. Saturday was Adam’s birthday and when I
asked him what he wanted to do, he said he wanted to give Savannah the true
Oregon experience and for the three of us to get a permit and drive up into the
mountains and cut down a Christmas tree, like we used to when he was
little.
The perfect
start to the day was our aunt making Adam a special birthday breakfast. Our
aunt Max is a force of nature. She is
like having a favorite aunt, best friend, and fairy godmother all at once. When
we lived in La Grande, cousin sleepovers were a common occurrence. For a
special breakfast treat, Max would often make aebleskivers, which we always
called able-skaybbles. I was delighted
when I heard Max was making able-skaybbles for Adam’s birthday breakfast. Our cousin Kara came over with her husband
John and their beautiful baby girl who is all smiles. We all gathered around the beautifully set table,
with Max’s Spode Christmas dishes and red cloth napkins and bright red
candles. Her dining room is so cozy and
happy. Behind the table, is my grandma’s
hutch with all of her pretty china.
There are traces of my mother everywhere, as there are little quilts and
Christmas decorations she’s given Max over the years. We ate and ate the golden pancake puffs
dipped in melted butter and then in snowy powdered sugar. After breakfast, Kara and Adam went
downstairs to play Super Smash Brothers, like they did when they were
kids.
Later on,
Adam, Savannah and I piled into Uncle Mark’s truck and after obtaining one of
the two last Christmas tree permits at the local store, we headed off into the
mountains we know so well. Our family definitely has a history among the
forests and the majestic Grande Ronde River.
I wondered if Adam too was thinking about the fishing trips and picnics,
the 6th grade school field trip to gather wild flowers, and our
yearly family trek to find the perfect Christmas tree. It was
great fun to see Savannah be so delighted.
It was clear this place had charmed its way into her heart. We stopped
at a few places, getting out to tramp around in the snow and take a look at the
trees. Thankfully it was warmer there
than in the valley and I enjoyed the walk through the snow, pausing to pick up
little pinecones. We looked at several
trees, but…there was no magic, so we kept on going. The world around us was so beautiful and
quiet. If it was only for the drive, it
was worth it. And then…we saw it. There
were large majestic pine trees standing sentinel, and then just past them was a
beautiful clearing with dozens and dozens of perfect Christmas trees, scattered
all over little rolling hills. Magic
was most definitely in the air.
As we walked
in, even before we started looking at trees, all three of us began to talk of
about it as “our place” and make plans of coming back each year for a tree. The
only footprints around were a myriad of animal tracks (nothing too big J) and it really did feel like we ourselves
had discovered this place and it was somehow ours. Savannah was thrilled and kept taking
pictures to capture the loveliness that surrounded us. The cold was refreshing, not harsh, as we
looked at the different trees and hiked through the snow. There was one particular spot that Savannah
fell in love with and after I took their picture, a little patch of light
caught Savannah’s eye in the distance and she said “How about that one?” You
want to talk about magic, I am not kidding when I tell you that there was a
small ray of sunshine highlighting our tree.
We hiked over to it and it was absolutely perfect. It was beautiful, with just the right amount
of fluffy branches filled with soft green needles. We all agreed this was the one. Adam took out the saw and looking so much
like Dad, he sawed down the tree, giving Savannah her turn to saw and complete
her perfect Oregon experience. We took
our treasure back to the road and as we left the beautiful clearing, Adam put a
pin in the maps on his phone so we can find our place again. Reason about #41,000 why I adore my brother:
he named it “Christmas Tree Wonderland.”
We put the
tree in the back of the truck and piled back into the cab, Savannah declaring that
was one of the coolest things she’d ever done.
We listened to Christmas songs on our way back, delighting in the gift
of the experience we’d just had. The
next day Adam and Uncle Mark tied that tree on top of Adam and Savannah’s
little red car and we took it all the way back to Utah with us. We put it up in our parent’s basement,
decorating it together on Christmas Eve with dollar store decorations. Before Adam and Savannah left to go home to
Arizona, he sawed some of the branches off, taking a piece of the trunk because
reason #41,0001 why I adore my brother, he planned to carve a nutcracker out of
it. I took the branches and put some in
mason jars filled with vinegar to make homemade pine cleaner. The fun of our special tree continues.
Yes, it may have been illogical for us to go into the Oregon mountains to chop down a Christmas tree
and then drive all the way back to Utah with it, two days before
Christmas. But in a world where the
message is so often to simplify, cut back, “let’s not and say we did,” etc., I
worry that sometimes we forget that the special things have their place
too. Our special day will always be one
of my favorite Christmas memories now.
It was the perfect way to celebrate my Christmas-loving brother and to
bring a little magic to all of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment