Category Archives: Love

The great tree hunt

Posted in Canada, Finding Home, Fun, Life, Love by

Today my family and I hunted down a Christmas tree. It involved sharp objects, muddy fields, roaring fires and free cups of hot chocolate. A reader of this page and all round lovely lady (you know who you are!) suggested we visit Ian’s Evergreen Plantation and to get into the holiday spirit (after Tony the Grinch tried to stomp out of seasonal fun). Therefore, the entire family minus my oldest brother piled into the truck and we drove about thirty minutes outside of Kanata to the Tree Farm.

Hey, if you have children, you have got to take them to this place, assuming you haven’t yet purchased a tree.  Driving onto Ian’s Evergreen Plantation, there are Christmas trees everywhere as you curve along the drive and head up to the main area with its small log cabins, pre-cut trees and – yes – more fields of pine, fir, spruce, etc waiting for the chop.

We pile out of the car and Dad grabs a tree caddy. He looks, basically, like a giant kid with his red metal sleigh, and we head into the land of trees (Daniel carrying the axe, because no one trusts Tony with a giant blade in his hands.) The lady who works there comes out and gives us the quick low down on how it works at the Plantation. Basically if you cut a fresh tree, you have access to hot chocolate, playgrounds, hay rides and reindeer. If you buy one pre-cut, then the rest costs extra.

Honestly we’re all adults – though young at heart – and going on a hay ride in the snow as my butt gets soaked to the core is less appealing than it might have been twenty years ago (oh sh!t, I’m getting older). Had I been wearing snow pants, my opinion would have been different. Live and learn.

Going back to the story: we head into the growing trees. Dad is going on about how awesome this or that tree is, and my mom is shushing him to keep quiet because there are other people around looking for the ‘perfect’ Christmas tree. We don’t want them poaching our choice. Therefore we try and whisper, but that doesn’t last cause everyone’s ridiculously excited.

Stomping through the field Tony sets eyes on the perfect tree.

“That one!” he calls out.

We all move in and I pull out my camera. “Get in the picture!” I say, and everyone gets in the picture. With the photo snapped I head over to the giant fire that’s roaring by our chosen tree. Zsolt, Mom and I go over to warm our fingers. Therefore, I blame what happens next upon both Daniel and Tony.

Mom and I look back over to the men as they take out the saw and begin to cut through our tree.

“Tony!” Mom shouts, “It’s crooked!”

And it is. This tree is shaped like an S. I am not kidding you. But they didn’t notice and by the time my mom yells again, Dad’s gone and cut through the tree.

So there you have it, we’re committed. After we cut down our tree (drive 30 minutes out of town just to cut down a tree that has scoliosis), the tree-lady feeds us hot chocolate and we go and visit the reindeer.

Overall I’d say it was a great little trip. The best bit of the entire day was getting that tree home and watching Zsolt, Daniel and Dad try to balance this sideways, crooked, curving tree in the tree-stand. However, they managed and it now stands (leans) on its own. And that, I think, is a little bit of a Christmas miracle.

The Fresh Tree Debate

Posted in Canada, Fun, Life, Love by

Yesterday afternoon my brother and I were sitting by the fire, conspiring over plans to put up a Christmas tree. Daniel suggested that we buy a real tree this year since Home Depot was selling them cheap, and I agreed this would be great since Zsolt is used to having a real tree whenever he celebrates Christmas in Hungary. The Zsoltster will be here with us this year in Canada, so maybe a real tree would help him feel more at home. (?)

So that was the plan – we were off to buy a tree. Until Tony Buzz-Kill showed up and said, “no tree for two more weeks,” claiming it was “way too early” to buy a real tree for Christmas.

WordPress has this lovely feature that allows me to create a poll in my post. So – first time ever, here’s a bumpyboobs poll: Should we buy a tree and enjoy the Christmas cheer, or is my father, aka. the grinch, right and we need to wait?

What do you think?

Space, Life, Death, and God

Posted in Life, Love by

The other night Zsolt and I were laying in bed and wondering about space. You know, how it keeps going and going and going? You get to the end of one universe, and hey, there’s another. And then what? How far does it all go? What does it all mean? Where does that place us?

A long time ago I decided to stop wondering about the universe. It was simply too huge and unknowable, my brain would tick-tick-tick at the possibilities and vastness . . . I’d lay in bed not sleeping, simply being overawed. Until I decided to stop thinking about space.

And like I said to Zsolt last night – “no matter how big this thing is, whatever this thing is, I’m awfully glad to be lying here next to you.”

But then when it comes to funerals and death and life-after-death (we’re going to Lulu’s funeral this weekend, and it will be a lovely memorial) when I think about death, that’s like the only time I find it incredibly comforting to think about space.

Because space is so huge, and so unknowable (even if we explore, there will always be more  that stays a mystery) . . . and death is so huge and so unknowable. And yet – space happens, and space exists. And death happens, and death exists. And somewhere in all this is something called God, or god, or however/whatever you want to call God. And God is huge and unknowable.

So while I cannot say what happens after a person passes away (thought I know what I’d like to have happen, to a degree, which is to be reunited with everyone you’ve ever loved and then go off together and explore the rest of the universe, kinda like Dr Who and his Tardis) – I know that while I cannot ever fully realize the unknowable, it nevertheless exists. And within that not knowing are so many possibilities. So many incredible, whatever-you-allow-yourself-to-imagine possibilities.

And so I hope whatever Lulu wished for most, she has right now. I hope she is surrounded by love. And I hope she’s really happy.

Space and God and Life and Death, it’s all so absolutely incredible. But thinking too much about these things tends to blow my mind. That’s why I’ve written it down and shared it with you. And that’s why I’m going to go to bed now, and snuggle up with my husband. Because no matter how big BIG is, or how far existence stretches, or tiny we are in the grand scheme of things (or hey, maybe we’re huge and this is all like some giant Trumen Show) – like I said to Zsolt, “I’m just happy to be here beside you.”

The author of Peter Pan said something about death once I found rather encouraging. He said something like, “death is the best adventure you’ll ever have.”

So Lulu, I hope you’re having the best adventure of your entire life. Be sure to give grandpa a kiss on the cheek for us, eh. 😉