a morning at the tree farm

this past sunday morning, we ventured a little bit outside of charlotte to a christmas tree farm in the country. it felt so good to be out, in the cool air, filled eternally with the spirit of christmas. this season is especially beautiful because it focuses so much on what’s already inside. what we need, we are given. what we desire, we already have.  this was our fourth year visiting cedar lake tree farm and it just keeps on getting better and better; cutting down/getting a real tree at a farm is my favorite lifelong christmas tradition. 

when i was little, we traveled far to cut down our tree every year with our family + aunt and uncle and two of my cousins. the cats around the fireplace, hot cider and the donkey named rosa were some of my favorite parts. (picture handmade puffy paint sweatshirts and big scrunches and ohio state all-star jackets). this year, nash and i sat on around the fire and watched the donkeys – it was very special to me. the white one was his favorite one.

parks, nash and my husband together around the fire in the distance

a scene while setting up the tree sunday afternoon
the smell of pine and cinnamon and judy garland and ingrid playing

the santa is just the best there
and the people
so hospitiable 
deep in the country
i feel at home there 

we met the owner this year of the farm this year
it was much calmer and way less people than in the past
he saw the boys had a handful of rocks on our way out and said, “you got to take some rocks home.” 
i told him that they planned to paint them and he said, “i have something else over here that they can paint” 
they were the bottoms of trees with a hole in the middle for hanging on the tree
and then he made this little tree for us- and i melted.

christmas is coming soon
and my heart feels ready now