Dimon Kendrick-Holmes: Still ugly and still beautiful

I thought it was settled.

This year, my family was going to actually purchase a Christmas tree.

Last year, as you may recall, we cut down a tree on some land my parents own in Alabama.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. All four of our children were home, which these days is rare, and so we traipsed through the woods talking and laughing and breathing the clean, crisp air.

We walked and we walked until, in something of a magical moment, everyone at the same time noticed the perfect cedar. At least, it looked perfect huddled together with all its cedar siblings.

So we cut it down and took it home.

We put it in the tree stand and set it up in the living room, and that's when we realized that the woods are dark and deceiving. Under the bright electric light, our hand-cut tree was a dud. Loaded down with ornaments, it looked worse. It looked like we were trying to hide something.

Did I mention that it was Bess' idea?

It was a great idea. We both grew up cutting down our own trees in the countryside with our parents and siblings, and so it was a chance to relive the experience with our own children.

Everybody enjoyed it. We laughed about our ugly tree, and visitors to our home told us they admired us for caring so little about what other people thought.

Whatever that meant.

But I felt nothing but relief when Christmas was over and that tree went out with the trash.

In fact, I announced the same day that next year we were going to return to our old ways and purchase a perfectly symmetrical Douglas fir just like everybody else.

And if anybody in the family missed the wonderful bonding time of walking around in circles in the woods then we would all drive to Alabama and walk around in circles in the woods.

We just weren't leaving with another scraggly cedar.

The decision was final.

Or so I thought.

Last Saturday, I walked in the house and was greeted with a wonderful smell. It was the fragrance of Christmas. Bess must have bought a tree. It was the fragrance of

Wait a minute. It was the fragrance of cedar.

I walked into the living room and noticed cedar boughs on the mantel.

Nice touch.

And then I saw the tree, already in the stand and blinking with lights. Bess was loading it down with ornaments as fast as she could.

You know, before I could notice that this year's tree was another scraggly cedar.

There was a story. One of our friends was clearing some property that morning and cut down a couple of cedars. Of course, that was when he remembered the Kendrick-Holmes family and, based on our most recent tree, the abundant charity we feel toward Christmas trees that nobody else wants.

It's the gift that keeps on giving.

So may your tree this season look better than ours.

Not a tall order.

Dimon Kendrick-Holmes, executive editor, dkholmes@ledger-enquirer.com

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 9:43 PM with the headline "Dimon Kendrick-Holmes: Still ugly and still beautiful ."