Every year, we drive a short distance to a local tree farm and murder a tree so we can take it back home for holiday decorating. We've been going here (mostly) for the last ten years. There used to be Very Large Horses who would pull the hay wagon full of folks and their trees along the acreage, but I think they got old (or expensive) and now a tractor pulls the wagon.
Recently, Mark purchased Moose Outfits. I believe they are supposed to be pajamas. Or something. The Child loved the first Moose Outfit so much Mark found a second one. There was an attempt to get a Yeti Outfit for me, and an old Jack Skellington onsie... but I'm pretty sure that if we're getting something warm for me to wear in a cold winter house, I'd rather have a very large, hooded blanket covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
So... Mark and The Child suited up. I declined to dress as a Yeti. So The Child suggested that I grab a Nerf Gun and go as a hunter. Mark found a kind of hunter's cap, and I put on my old brown coat. I also put on my leopard print scarf, which Mark said didn't work for the hunter-look, but I pointed out that it was something I could have bagged.
We climbed into the car and drove past the Fern Ridge Reservoir. The water was very low; I think they emptied the basin in preparation for the rains we'll be getting later.
At the tree farm, we got out. Not more than twenty paces from the car, a woman asked Mark and The Child if she could take their picture together. Then we got a hand saw, and hunted for The Perfect Tree.
I'd say it took something like forty minutes, and we eventually settled on (another) Grand Fir (this seems to be our go-to tree to murder). As we were tromping over the acreage, we'd occassionally hear families with small children. Mark and The Child would then "antler up" and run through the trees. There was at least two sets of children (and one skeptical mom) who saw the exclaimed with wonder in their voices that they saw reindeer!
Mark said (and I thought) they looked a little bit more like Sasquatches than reindeer....
After we got the tree cut, wrapped, and paid for, I took out the Nerf Gun and we got a few "hunter" shots in. It was sort of fun, but I'm ambitious about the final results, which seem like candidates for Awkward Family Photos.
We got the tree back home, and will decorate it (or at least put it up) on Solstice. Decorations are an interesting subject at our house -- this year Mark decided to make a bunch of decorations out of small cereal boxes, and I'm pretty sure Tony the Tiger will be the tree topper.
We turned down and lights and played some Tibetan Tone Bowl music. Mark suggested this, and it was better than the Enya compilation I'd put together because it was less intrusive. Folks walked the spiral with an unlit candle, lit it at the center of the spiral from flames at a wrought-iron tree, and then walked out of the spiral with a lit candle. At some point on the outward journey, they placed their lit candle along the spiral -- a spiral of shadows became a spiral of light as the nigh progressed.
I sat in the east and thought about keeping the space open to the realm of spirit while simultaneously keeping an eye out for any candles setting the boughs on fire. None did, although there was one moment where I thought one had. There was also another moment where one celebrant raised her candle over her head and a part of me wondered if she was going to set a banner over her ablaze. In between those times, I sat and thought about the returning light (and how I hoped it would bring renewed energy and motivation).
About ninety minutes and about one-hundred-twenty folks later, it was time to open the circle and end the event. It's always a little sad and strange to blow out the candles after everyone has left.
