I certainly value the concept of tradition, but I’m easily bored and like to change up things in my life. When it comes to acquiring our Christmas tree, the only constant over the years has been that we always buy a real tree as opposed to an artificial one.
We’ve traveled to a number of tree farms in the region, even driving up to Boone, NC one year. Several amazing tree farms are located only miles from us, and we have visited those as well. We’ve also kept it simple at times and merely bought a tree at the WNC Farmer’s Market in Asheville. This year I felt like doing something a bit different, so I turned to trusty Google and stumbled upon Frosty Mountain Tree Farm which is on the NC/Tennessee border.
To get from point A (our house) to point B (the tree farm), we traveled through Asheville, so we decided to start the day dining at Early Girl Eatery in downtown Asheville. They put butcher paper on the tables so kids and adults can draw, color and doodle while waiting for food. Last Saturday was a sunny, chilly day, the boys were excited and we were getting our Christmas tree, so I jotted down my favorite quote from Emerson. It seemed befitting.
After breakfast, we wound through interstates and highways and tiny roads along creeks to ultimately make our way to Madison County. We even left NC, entered Tennessee then re-entered NC to get to the tree farm. We listened to Christmas carols to the point of delirium (or so I felt like). The drive was beautiful. It felt like we were driving into no man’s land then all of a sudden, the tree farm appeared on the left like an oasis. It’s a rustic farm with little fanfare, which I like. Sometimes all of the hoopla and festive pizzazz gets in the way of simply hiking up a mountain and picking out a tree.
The folks at the farm gave us a huge measuring pole so we could measure the trees. We selected a full, seven-foot tree. It looked much smaller on the side of a mountain than it does in our house. The tree is quite large! Along with our regular tree, Brooks really wanted a Charlie Brown tree and the sweet people at the farm let him have one. The also had the sweetest horse that just hangs out with the crew all day. The boys and I both were rather taken by him.
After we loaded up the trees, we headed home and spent the rest of the afternoon decorating. Since these photos were taken, our big tree now has a skirt around the bottom and some gifts wrapped, thanks to our six-year old who is SO into decorating and wrapping gifts this year. He’s making me get things accomplished earlier than ever before. And the Charlie Brown tree has more decorations now, but I still wanted to share this picture to show how cute it it.
The day was really special, and it was so worth deviating from the beaten path to do something new and different.
Our house is finally fully decorated with cozy lights aglow. For the first year, both boys are cognizant of everything that’s going on when it comes to Christmas. Even our three-year old spent hours decorating the tree. The holidays are so much fun when little ones involved. They add so much joy and magic to this sweet time of year. And I know that before I can blink they will no longer need to be lifted up to decorate the top of the tree.
Until then though, I am soaking up every minute and every vision of lights reflecting in their starry eyes and tiny hands hanging ornaments on limbs. Special moments, indeed.