By this time, I usually have up at least four trees and four mantels decorated. This year I have only one room that looks like Christmas. The room looks very festive, but for reasons we all know, I am not feeling festive this year. I just keep wondering who is going to see all my pretty elves, nutcrackers, pretty ribbons, tinsel, and all the embellishments I usually throw out.I finally put up our Christmas tree one day last week. One of my grandsons just went to a Christmas tree farm, picked out a “skinny” fir tree for me, and that was it. Then he and his brother helped me hang the pretty baubles on the fresh green branches. I remember the times my daddy and I would go out into the woods on my grandmother’s farm and look for the best cedar tree we could find. If you have ever trimmed a cedar tree, you know that one side is ALWAYS sparse while the other three sides are perfect. We would always turn the bad side toward the wall, and it was always beautiful.My sister and I have children that are about the same age and they were always in the same grade, so in third grade they volunteered us to bring a Christmas tree for their party. There were no Christmas tree farms, so we were obliged to find a “three-sided cedar tree” growing somewhere in the woods. Early on the morning we were to deliver this gem of a tree we decided we would just ride the roads toward Possumneck and be fortunate enough to find one growing on the side of the road.As we left town and headed west, we saw one growing right on the side of the road just past where the veteran’s home now stands. We decided it was too close to the road, so we passed it by. We drove several more miles, stopping and looking just off the roads, away from sight of passersby, at all the small trees. We could not find one. We drove back to where we had first seen the perfect tree and decided we would take it.We armed ourselves with our little axe and climbed the bank. I chopped and chopped and so did my sister with no luck bringing down the tree. We were tired of trying. All of the sudden, my sister jumped straddle of the tree and rode it to the ground, and I haggled the tree from the stump.At that time, I drove a small Lincoln and the tree would not fit into the trunk, so we put it on the back seat, opened the sunroof and let it stick out the top. We delivered our treasure to the school and the children were delighted at the beautiful three-sided tree. They never were told that we probably committed a felony in cutting the tree from someone’s property without permission.This is my favorite sugar cookie recipe I make each year.SUGAR COOKIES1 cup of sugar1 cup of butter3 oz soft cream cheese½ t. almond extract½ spoon vanilla extract1 egg yolk2 ½ cups flourMix all ingredients well and drop by teaspoon onto cold cookie sheet. If you are going to cut out cookies, chill for a few hours before rolling out.
