Time moves swiftly. Where only a short time ago the old house was alive with kids and assorted relatives on holidays, all is quiet today. Our Mary Lee has been gone for nine years, but her presence is ever felt, be it decorating for the holidays, baking a double batch of cookies or planting tulips for spring blooming, she is there. Our Doug and his family live on the southern part of Mother Earth, a long way to go for family visits. But our Jim is with us, something we are so grateful for. When we try to tell him how much his being here means to his mother, he says it looks as though his mother is being repaid for putting up with him for so long.

The year 2002 is nearly here? It was only yesterday when we were all together, going in the little truck for a Christmas tree, before Christmas tree farms as businesses came into being. It was many years before when we lived on the Neil ranch and our family lived in Oak Harbor, and there were two celebrations to attend.At the Neil farm the big square farmer’s kitchen held the festival table. Grandma Neil was an old hand at family get togethers as well as cooking for threshers during harvests. The upstairs bedrooms were full at night with people who came from South Whidbey, Eastern Washington and far-away Texas. At the Burrier home, Mother and Dad hosted not only our brother and two sisters and their families, but waited patiently for us to conclude our farm feast and arrive for another one with uncles, aunts and cousins et al.Two holiday reunions and dinners on one holiday was quite an agenda for one learning to become a farmer’s wife. But we made it! One Thanksgiving at the Burrier home we will always remember. Aunt Elsie was married to Mother’s oldest brother, and they had no children. Elsie was never known as a good cook and when she and Uncle Will arrived that day, she brought a cake pan with something dark and devious filling it. It was a pudding Aunt Elsie said. And we have never trusted a pudding since.The dinner table was laden with all the good things like turkey and yams and salads and vegetables — with apple pie a la mode for dessert. The pudding lay forgotten in the pantry. And when Mother insisted that she take it home with her, Aunt Elsie magnanimously insisted that we keep it. It kept all right. A week later we divided it into 12 portions and wrapped each in foil. Everyone got a piece of Aunt Elsie’s pudding and for several years each holiday gift was accompanied by a little square of goody a la Aunt Elsie. It made the holiday last longer!

Driving along Whidbey Island roads lined with trees we recalled the days when one wanted a Christmas tree, it was there, in field or forest, for the taking. Today it is a tree farm or a Boy Scout tree sale. No tree free for the ax-ing.Our last free tree trip was a wild one, with our Jim falling into a dead-fall (a pit where a tree once grew) and Mary Lee getting lost in the woods! We didn’t have Doug at the time and just as well. A mother bear might have taken him home.

Christmas memories. Family and friends. Feasts and lights. Fun and something always to remember.

Dorothy Neil has gathered and recorded Whidbey Island history for more than 50 years. Her 10 books chronicle Whidbey life and times.