Every year we buy a balsam tree for Christmas. We can't remember where we bought our first tree. Though I do remember buying our first imported glass ornaments at the department store on Wisconsin Avenue.
Every Christmas we add a new ornament or two to our collection. When we take them carefully from the box, they are a review of our life together.
I love the smell the tree radiates. It is a reminder of celebrations of Christmas past.
We have learned to make a fresh cut at the bottom of the trunk as soon as we bring it home on the day before Thanksgiving. Then the tree stands in a bucket of water in the garage - until it is time to bring it in and decorate it. This access to water - even if it freezes over - is the secret to keeping it fresh and preventing it from shedding its needles. Sometimes the tree even puts out new pale green tips on the ends of its branches.
After New Years Day, the tree is stripped of its lights and decorations. It is hauled outside and tied to the edge of the deck - next to the bird feeders.
The birds are overjoyed at this shelter that suddenly has sprung up in their midst. They fly in and out of its branches all winter long, as they come to feed on seeds and suet we put out for them.
We call our balsam tree the gift that keeps on giving!
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