24. Christmas Tree

Every year our family goes to a Christmas tree farm and tags a tree over Thanksgiving weekend. Then, sometime in December, we go back to cut it down and bring it home. (And each year my mom--a.k.a. Grandma Fox--exclaims, "I wish we had made plans to get a live tree this year!!!" I guess you need to dig a hole in which to later plant it before winter sets in.)

This year was no exception. We went to a new farm. It was beautiful and sprawling, and on the day we went to select a tree--COLD. Beatrice and I only made it part way to the trees before deciding to turn back. So Bea's first trip to pick a Christmas tree went about as well as her first trip to pick apples. But everyone else was very pleased with the tree they picked--it was by far the best one there.

Last week Dale, Bea, and I were back up in CT, so we and Grandma Fox and Grandpa Griff made a trip to pick up the tree. The weather was somewhat milder and Bea and I were well bundled (see photo above), so this time we made it all the way to the tree.

Or rather, we would have made it to the tree.

The photo below is of Grandpa Griff hurrying ahead to the tree. And the photo after that shows what he found.

Needless to say, Grandpa Griff was not pleased. (Nor were the rest of us.) Someone had stolen our tree! (Yes, stolen--we had already paid for it and it was marked with two large, labeled tags!) Some Christmas spirit. So we had to pile back in the car and start all over. (There weren't any more nice trees at that farm. At least, none of them looked nice to us anymore.)

On the way home we passed a sign for a different tree farm. We followed it and found a cute little farm (less a farm and more a very, very large back yard planted with trees for picking). It even had crazy wheeled, jingle-belled, tree-toting carts.

Beatrice was able to help pick her first Christmas tree after all. And everyone agrees it is even nicer than the original.