Who cut down our Christmas tree?

It was more than 27 years ago when we first bought our little piece of heaven here in Fish Springs. Five acres felt like a lot of land after we had lived in a San Diego suburban housing tract. Our backyard is wide open and butts up against a BLM hill to the west. There were juniper trees already growing out here but since they take many years to mature, we planted lots of fast-growing conifer trees.

During the years we've lived here, we planted more than 100 trees, including my favorite, Colorado blue spruce. One December about 20 years ago, we were walking in our beautiful backyard and suddenly we saw it " the freshly cut stump of a tree.  Someone had cut down a pine tree out of our backyard. And whoever did this had to crawl under a little fence to get to this beautiful Christmas tree. Oh well, what can you do? Forget and forgive... We still like to walk around our property and see how all the trees are growing.

Our Nevada families had a beautiful and peaceful Christmas together. It seems like each home we visited this season had so many gifts under their Christmas trees. That's not the way it was when I was a kid. Our family of nine shared a tiny, two-bedroom house. We each got two or three little Christmas presents, which we loved and cherished, but nothing like the expensive gifts many children receive today. 

I remember my favorite toy was a beautiful doll that could walk along side of me. I took good care of my dolly and didn't let our dog Barney chew on her pretty pink dress. I didn't have much of an allowance to buy Christmas presents so I usually gave my parents a box full of little notes that I promised to do for them like weed the garden, wash dishes, hang clothes on the clothesline or clean out the refrigerator.

My mother told me her favorite childhood Christmas gift was always in the toe of her long stocking " a big, sweet, juicy orange from California. That was the most coveted fruit as oranges didn't grow in her hometown of Tacoma, Washington. Christmas was much simpler in the old days, and so was life.

n Linda Monohan may be reached at 782-5802.