Margeaux and Sawyer on our last tree hunt in London, 2009
There is something special about arriving home on a cold day in December and being greeted by mistletoe, garlands, glistening lights and the smell of pine wafting over you as you pass through the halls. Decorating for the holidays was a full day event when we lived in London, we would pile into the car, drive an hour to the nearest tree farm and banter about searching the entire field for the 2 perfect trees that would grace our home — the first, usually a 10 foot tree for our front reception room, and the second, usually a 3 foot tree for our Kitchen bar. However, the day never went as planned, we were always greeted with a heavy downpour that left us scrambling from the car to the canopy where we could shop from pre-cut trees. On our last Christmas in London, we were so determined to march up the hill to the live trees that even the farmer was taken aback at the sight of us slipping and sliding in the freezing mud that he offered to drive us to look for a tree….as luck would have it, the tree of our dreams was the first tree we spotted, or maybe that is just how we like to think of the crooked specimen that was too large for the room but seemed perfect at the time.
As we find ourselves welcoming our 2nd Christmas in Arizona and unpacking our holiday decorations, the Christmas memories that each decoration holds seems to leap out of the tissue, and my heart fills with each tiny parcel I unwrap. Our tradition is to unwrap them as a family, talk about which country they came from, who gave us the ornament or how old the children were when they made them…. and then on the 6th of December, on St. Nicholas Day, we trim the tree, deck the halls and set our boots out and await the arrival of St, Nicholas to fill them with sweets.
When we unpacked last year, it was evident that none of the ornaments carried any American memories, but that is all about to change this year as I have been busy shopping at Sears for new ornaments to trim our Kitchen Tree with….as we look back in years to come we can remember our time in Arizona thanks to a few shiny decorations that will start the stories that will become our American memories. I was lucky enough to find everything a I needed at Sears, right down to our first ever artificial tree (an item I swore I would never buy, but after spending the bulk of last December picking up tree droppings in the kitchen and having nightmares about the tree burning down from the aired desert heat, I changed my thinking and am delighted with our new addition).
Essential Kitchen Tree trimmings
- Fresh Popped Corn, strung with care (and plenty of patience);
- Tied cinnamon sticks;
- Brightly colored candy canes;
- Salt dough ornaments hand made with care;
- Candy cane ribbons;
- Variety of food themed ornaments (I just adore the decorations I bought at Sears);
- Nut Cracker soldiers;
- Scented pine cones;
- White twinkly lights;
- Kitchen Angel.
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