Oh, Christmas Tree

In mid-October I went with my Dad to a local tree farm to tag a Christmas tree. When you first arrive, they give you a tag with a number on it. You browse their selection of trees and when you find one you like that hasn't been sold, you put your tag on it and leave a deposit with the owner. Then, when you are ready to pick up your tree, you bring the ticket stub back to the farm and they cut the tree down and you have yourself a Christmas tree :)

Last year was the first time we had ever tagged a tree, so when we showed up in mid-November to tag our tree, there wasn't much of a selection. We found a nice enough tree but it was only about 5 feet tall. This year we purposely went to the farm on their opening weekend on Columbus Day (Oct. 10th) to make sure we would find a nice tree. We spent well over an hour searching for the best tree and when we found a really nice one, we tagged it and left the deposit.

This was the tree farm:

Our tag on the tree we chose

After an hour of searching, this is the tree we picked

So, today was the day we decided to go and pick up our tree. Ironically, before we left the house my Dad joked that he hoped our tree would still be there. When we showed up at the farm, we gave the woman our tag stub and she had her husband go out into the field to cut down the tree. About ten minutes later he came back and said he couldn't find our tree. We went out into the field to help them locate our tree and my Dad and I found the section where we knew the tree was, but we could not find our tag number. At that point, I started to think that someone had removed our tag and took our tree by putting their own tag on it.

I went to the next row of trees from where ours was and, lo and behold, I found our tag. Someone removed our tag from our tree and just stuck it in the branches of another persons tagged tree! The worst part is that there are a couple of signs on the way down to the field that says 'DO NOT REMOVE TAGS FROM THE TREES'. We were so upset, my Dad especially. There we stood looking at the tree that we believed was ours, with someone else's tag on it. And there was nothing we could do to prove it was ours. The owner offered to give us our deposit back of course, but we were still so disappointed that we spent all of that time searching for this tree and some could come along and just take it.

So, off we went to find another Christmas tree. We drove to a nearby Christmas tree stand that had nice, freshly cut trees and found ourselves a beautiful tree (and it was a little cheaper too). All in all, I think the tree we ended up with is nicer than the original tree we tagged. The first tree was about 6 feet tall, including the long stem at the top, but the new tree we brought home is at least 7 feet tall and is much fuller. I guess something positive did come from the whole experience :)   I will be decorating the tree tomorrow, so I will make sure I come back here to post some photos!

This is the tree we bought from the tree stand. It is much bigger in person than it appears in the photo...I am 5'7 and the tree is about a foot and a half taller than me!

I will be back tomorrow to post photos of the tree decorated. Have a great weekend!