Remembering Christmas on Timbertree

By Rose Carter Parmer © 2014

Online: December, 2014

I'm remembering Christmas on Timbertree, many years ago. Memories of my Mommy during the Christmas season, 1976, are especially poignant. It was to be her last Christmas. And the year she got spoiled.

Mom loved real trees, and that year, me and her had a date to get the Christmas tree. So I came up there around 10:00 in the morning and we drank our coffee, and then bundled up and went up into the woods back on the hill behind the house. We prowled around, and finally found the perfect cedar tree. Momma chopped it down and we hauled it down to the house. We put it in the front room that Dad had built on to the little three room house. (It had a pool table in it, but that is another story.)

The old fashioned ornaments, one in particular, went first on the tree. The most special one was an old Santa Claus that had been on the tree since I, the oldest, was born in 1955. It saw each child, every Christmas thereafter; and then the ornaments that we had all made over the years. The special ones Sue and Ruthie had made in school, and maybe church, with their names on them; blue with glitter lines. Paper ones we had all drew and cut out and put yarn through a hole in the top of them.

Then we would all cut paper ribbons out of school paper, color them with crayons and glue them together to make chains, and then put them on the tree. Popcorn threaded onto needle and thread to make chains; tinsel if we had it, Mom letting us put it on the tree, me being impatient, as usual, and throwing it; Millie being careful and placing it strand by strand.

And I remember an old fashioned topper, looked like a star, blue with silver glitter. I think there was a blonde headed angel too as a topper.

Mom's and Dad's face watching us opening our presents. Laughing and grinning at our excitement. Usually us getting a tangerine or orange, apple and a piece of peppermint or a candy cane.

One year, me and Millie got a chalk board to share, Sue and Ruthie got a Barbie Beauty center, and Dan and Willie shared a little red wagon. Me and Millie played with the Barbie Beauty center as much as Sue and Ruthie did.

That last Christmas, Mom got a new fur coat, an electric can opener, which she had never had before, and I cant remember what all, there were other things, but we were tickled with her reaction to these goodies. It was our last Christmas together before she left us; such precious memories of my family and being together.

The next Christmas was very hard, and we all shed a few tears, remembering our Mommy. But each Christmas, I still remember her face and her excitement and joy at her being the one spoiled that one special Christmas. And she and Daddy's face watching their babies opening their presents; precious memories.

Merry Christmas, Timbertree! I love you one and all... Maw!