Look for Noah Jeffries’ memorial living Christmas trees in … 2022? Hey they have to grow first!
The Post:
Merry Christmas! God bless us all, everyone.
Christmas. It came. It actually happened. I’ll be honest, it was the day I was most dreading having to face post-Noah. Christmas has always been for me, to quote the song, the most wonderful time of the year. My parents always made it such a beautiful time for our family it was impossible for me not to become a full-fledged Christmas-aholic.
It was the time of the year I felt the most peace, the most love, and the most creativity. It just made me happy. Period. I could not wait to share all of my family traditions and that love with my child. Then enter Noah in 1996 and I was off and running.
It meant so much to me to be able to share these Christmas things with my child that I even had a recipe for “Reindeer Antlers,” which my aunt bequeathed to me (the woman who sent me a check at the beginning of every December for baking money LOL). Between my mom and my aunt, “The Food Vixen,” was inevitable. I was drawn to a Kitchenaid mixer like Superman finding the crystal buried in his father’s barn.
That recipe, I saved for 11 years before making them with Noah. To me they were just so perfect for making a memory with a child that I wanted to save it till I had one of my own old enough to make them for and with.
We had special mugs for hot cocoa, a ritual way of watching all of the Christmas movies and specials, and going to get the Christmas tree was a big event evening. It was a night that became so very special to us. Noah never knew a Christmas anywhere but Florida. To me, a “perfect,” Christmas would mimic what I knew in Pennsylvania, so we would even coordinate tree-night on the coolest predicted evening duing the first week of December.
I loved finding ways of incorporating the spirituality of the season into our fun and decorations. We did the 12 days of Christmas and celerate on though Epiphany and did an Epiphany gift as well. I loved Noah’s face and reactions to everything – the excitement in it all. His joy, his laughter, his love, his generosity and his total lack of greed in it always. He’s the only person I ever met who was uncomfortable receiving gifts. LOL He was great at giving them, but receiving was another story. He looked like Will Ferrell in Taladega Nights, “I don’t know what to do with my hands right now…”
When Thanksgiving ended this year I began to grow concerned about what to do about “the tree.” I didn’t want to dismiss Christmas all together, because I felt like I’d be letting him down. He didn’t intend to have an accident. He wasn’t planning on not being here and I know him well enough to know that what would destroy him the most is thinking that those he left behind were so devastated by his passing that they shut down and weren’t living life to the fullest filled with good memories, joy and love. I wasn’t going to be the person who chose to stop living out of grief.
When Noah was small and wanted to quit if things were difficult, I would remind him that it’s when things are the most difficult and the hardest to get through, that the success on the other side is the most rewarding and sweet. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. That’s what we had to do, even if it was about something as simplistic as getting a Christmas tree.
The thought hit me that buying a regular tree from a regular tree lot, also meant that when it was time to take it down, I was taking out a dead tree. It bothered me a great deal. It always has and Noah too, but this year, much more so. I considered investing in a quality artificial tree, but then thought it would become the ear-marker tree of, “That’s the tree we bought the year we lost Noah.” No thanks.
Then it dawned on me, why not get a living Christmas tree? The first issue is we’re in zone 10 in Florida. What were the options? I did some research on tree types and learned of two Christmas Tree farms near us in central Florida that grow and carry trees you can cut, pre-cut traditional trees from further north and this year’s Holy Grail – living trees. Ergle Christmas Tree Farm and Lazy Lay Acres located in Dade City, FL. We chose Ergle this year for ours and made the trek with my parents and Dana to share in the event.
I think it was my first real feeling of joy since his passing. I felt real true excitement like I was doing something for him, something forward-thinking and like he was actually with us in spirit. I then had another thought, which sky-rocketed my enthusiasm. Once the tree is planted in January, as it grows, to cultivate sapplings, plant them and eventually, in a few years, sell those as living trees from the original Noah’s Memorial Christmas Tree to add to the scholarship we have established for Polk State College Public Services. This division of the college is specifcally for cadets for police, sheriff and EMT in Polk county where Noah would have been attending in 2018.
Further, the tree will also have red, white and blue lights on it year round as a note to Noah’s patriotism and his support of the US military. For me personally, seeing the tree continue to grow and thrive, reminds me of what his organ donation will do for others lives as well.
Its the best I can do, for Noah, for us, for the future. It was my way of still giving Noah a Christmas gift and others in the future in his honor. While he will never serve as an officer as he intended, we will do what we can to help others fulfill that dream and serve our community to the best of their abilities.
I pray everyone has a beautiful Christmas season, surrounded by those you love and your new year is filled with both prosperity and peace.
