Wonder Pens at Home: Christmas Tree Hunting

So, we went hunting for our Christmas tree!

I tell anyone who will listen that one day, after analogue and new technologies have finally battled it out and declared a winner, I dream of retiring and buying some land up north of the city and foraging for wild mushrooms and growing eggplants and kale and letting the dog out to mark our territory, scaring off all the natural predators. I’ll bake bread and write my memoirs of running a stationery shop and can tomatoes and collect fresh eggs from my chickens which I’ll have named to prevent any chicken dinners.

In reality, I am, however, not really a bug or spider person, nor do I fare very well in cold weather, so it’s a bit of a dream that I dream of when I’m dragging the baby on the TTC across the city to his doctor’s appointments, or there are fragrant smells wafting in from the courtyard next to the office unit.

However, this past Monday, on our last day off until Christmas Day itself, we went to a Christmas Tree Farm. I’m not sure if there’s anything both more or less romantic than that. I mean, on the one hand, it’s a farm where there are Christmas trees, young and old, as far as the eye can see! On the other hand, it’s a farm where all the trees are doomed. I mean, “doomed” unless you’re the tree in e.e. cummings’ poem.

I’m on the romantic side. When we pulled into the farm, it didn’t look too great, probably not helped by the very grey weather and skies, but as soon as you stepped out, you can literally smell Christmas in the air.

We went to Prestonvale Tree Farms, which is out past Ajax. I highly recommend it! They’re very nice, and they have everything you need, which is great for folks like us, since we don’t know what we’re doing. They even gave Caleb a candy cane, which we had to accept to be polite, and since Caleb isn’t eating candy yet, someone else had to eat it on the car ride home.

Caleb listening to the wisdom coming from our Christmas tree guide, in his farmer overalls. When I am a farmer, I too will be wearing overalls.

Saw selection – safety first!

The prince, dubious, yet uncomplaining of his new chariot.

 

A Caleb-sized tree.

Having located our perfect tree, I call the troops. Jon has to momentarily abandon the wagon to come and take a look at the chosen one.

I could have sworn I took a picture of the tree pre-chopping, but I just have a bunch of pictures of a bunch of trees that, pre-chopping, looked very different, but now all look exactly the same. I’m pretty sure that our tree is actually neither of the trees in this photo because the one on the left looks pretty small, and the one on the right looks a bit lopsided, but who knows.

Jon: “Stand back, Caleb, there’s some dangerous stuff going on here. You wouldn’t want the tree to fall on you now, would you.”

Jon: “This would be easier if they gave me a real axe. Plus, I bet I would look manlier in the photos.”

Jon: “My manly hands are so sticky with tree sap.”

 

After a snack, rinse-down + nap.

The tree is up! There are some lights on it, but nothing else! Actually, we didn’t even have a Christmas tree last year, either in our home or in the 906 shop, but this year we’re a bit more organized, and the baby is a bit older. We don’t have too many ornaments, but we’re hoping to slowly begin collecting them over the years. Our tree will look a bit empty for now, but stick with us 🙂

It’s been a busy couple of days, and it’s been a bit quiet here on the blog! We have lots, and lots going on, I can hardly keep up. I’ve been working on our Christmas cards, we’ve been packing up orders into the late night, we had my in-laws over so there were a few dangerously full closets. We’ve still got boxes and boxes coming into the shop as the holiday season comes into full swing. Restocking and new things, I’ve been rubbing my hands in anticipation of the TWSBI Vac-mini, which I think will be around the end of December. More and more to come!