Do you like my vintage reindeer? I would say they were manufactured in the 50’s – 60’s. They remind me of my childhood. The awful truth: I bought these last Christmas to give to someone who was having a holiday party. I didn’t end up attending said party; I think I was under the weather. I discovered them in my craft closet this year. Now they’re mine.

It’s very cold here in our neck of the woods. But no snow. I watch the weather and see snow falling everywhere else. My goodness, Europe was really getting hit over the weekend. Airports were closed, train travel stopped. Here? Nothing. We may have ‘snow showers’ on Christmas. Translated: no accumulation. I know I will be up to my neck in snow later this winter, so I shouldn’t complain. However, it would be nice to have some white stuff on the ground for Christmas.

We moved out to the East Coast 9 years ago. Don is a Southern California boy and I had lived in San Diego for 8 years. We were ready for a white Christmas. Boy, did we get one. There was a blizzard that day. Snow, snow and more snow. It went on all day. I remember trying to walk through waist-high drifts to our vacationing neighbors’ house to feed their dogs and let them outside. It was a magical adventure. We were living in a tiny rented cottage and we felt warm and cozy while all that snow whirled and twirled through the air. I still love that feeling.

 

That was the Christmas I realized that because of a moving day glitch, all our boxes of Christmas ornaments had been put in an not-very-accessible storage facility and not in the cottage where they belonged. We had nothing. We had to run out and buy some very inexpensive ornaments from the local drug store. And that’s where this tree topper comes in. We had a beautiful glass tree topper that was, regrettably, in those darn boxes. I found this tin angel in a local shop. Her folk-art look was charming and I thought she would do nicely until we were reunited with our “in storage” ornaments. Well, we weren’t reunited with them until four years later when we moved to MHC. As we unpacked them all that first year here, we admired our glass tree topper once again.  We placed it on top of the tree. Pretty…but not our angel. The angel won out. And she has every Christmas since.

Have I mentioned that one of my favorite scents in all the world is pine? It may even be my favorite. I have a long history with pine. I grew up in Michigan. Summer vacation for our family was a camping trip to the Pigeon River State Forest. We started out in tents, then eventually graduated to a pop-up camper, and by the time I was in high school we had a trailer/RV. As we neared the campground and I caught my first whiff of pine, I knew we were almost there. (I didn’t particularly like camping, but I loved that piney scent.)  In my college years I was a camp counselor in the northern Michigan woods – more pine. To my mind, it was absolute heaven to be surrounded by pine trees. To this day, whenever I get a whiff of pine, I relax and feel my shoulders drop.

When I lived in Philadelphia in my grad school days, Wanamakers carried this wonderful pine bath from Austria. I bought it and used it religiously. A hot bath with the scent of pine was the perfect way to relax after a long day.  When I moved to Boston, I found it for a while at Crabtree and Evelyn or Caswell Massey (one of those ‘C’ shops.) But no longer. I search for it whenever I travel. I miss it so much it hurts. If you ever run across some form of pine bath, let me know please!

We always have some form of pine scented candle in our house. The best, bar none, are the ones from Aunt Sadie’s Candles. It’s their “Tree in a Can.” Heidi sells them in her shop and they sell like hotcakes every year.  I usually stock up on them for the long winter ahead.

But this time of year, I get the real thing. Right in my home. There’s nothing better. That’s why we always have a real tree here at MHC. Pine heaven. I don’t want an artificial tree. I love picking out a tree at our favorite nursery and that each year’s tree is different in size and shape from all the others we’ve had in previous years. Every year we say, without fail, “This is the prettiest tree ever!” This year’s tree is particularly well-shaped.  Let me show you.

Oooh, it’s pretty. It’s covered in vintage ornaments, as well as some newer ornaments that look vintage, like my favorite bottle brush ornaments: