Tree cutting won’t be the same without the boys

We’re a bit late cutting and decorating our Christmas tree this year, but that’s OK. We waited so our oldest son could join us on the Christmas tree hunt. He comes home this weekend, so it’s time to head for the hills.

Our oldest son is in his second year of college, and to complicate matters even more, he’s going to head to basic training for the Army and the Wyoming Guard in January. We wanted to make sure he could go with us for our Christmas tree hunt, so we put it off until this weekend.

I’m not sure if this will be the last year Colby goes with us to cut down a tree or not. He’s doing his own thing more and more, and while I’m glad to see him spread his wings and become his own man, it’s harder than I thought it would be to let him go. It seems like only last Christmas I was watching him unwrap his first .22 rifle or the first fishing rod that was truly his. But time has flown, and in reality, those gifts were given many Christmases ago.

And while we were lamenting the fact that Colby might soon be starting his own holiday traditions that don’t necessarily include his mom and me, our youngest son is about to leave the nest, too. Logan’s a senior in high school this year, so it’s only a matter of time before he isn’t joining us on our pilgrimage to the Medicine Bow to cut down a tree.

That’s devastating. It’s heartbreaking, yet exciting, to know the boys are both on the verge of starting their own lives. Every cloud has a silver lining, they say, I guess. But I don’t think that’s true. Because there is a cloud that doesn’t have a silver lining on the horizon. It’s the cloud that comes along with Amy and me having to drag whatever tree we cut down out of the forest ourselves. Amy’s strong for her size, and she’s a powerhouse in her own right, but even so, I think when the boys stop coming home to cut the tree, we’ll be picking much smaller ones.