The Smells of Christmas, Cedar, Pine and Holly

Holly, Cedar and Pine Bowl

   Winter sunshine, and melting snow.  Really got us into the Christmas Spirit today.  It had been too cold to go out and find our usual evergreens to decorate our table, until today.
   The snow still lingered in patches across the fields and some places were slippery.  But, the warm sunshine took a little bite off the cold wind.
   We suited up in insulated coveralls and the like and headed for the woods.  We found the Holly in a fence row in the middle field behind the house, but had to go into the edge of the woods to find the Cedar, we clipped the Pine branches from low limbs on the trees in front of our house.  I put about a quart of water into an amber bowl and placed the evergreens in it.  The smell of Cedar and Pine, the bright red berries on the Holly, and the hot apple cider, and coffee we had, when we got home, all tells me it's beginning to look and smell a lot like Christmas.  The Blessings of Christmas, need not cost a thing.  They've already been provided, if we'd only have it so.