“…little full, lotta sap."
- Clark W. Griswald
Those who know Kendra are quite aware that she is, mildly put, cuckoo for Christmas. When we decided to leave Memphis and move to Springfield, we found the house that looked to be “the one." There was one feature, and I'm not going to say it was “THE” deciding factor, but it was certainly a contributor - the house is literally (I use the word correctly, as in “actually”) one fourth of a mile from a Christmas tree farm. Done.
We'd never had a real tree before, so our first Christmas in the house how could we not go down and get one? It's the type of operation where you go out into a big field of varying sizes and types of trees, pick the one you want, saw it down yourself and drag it on a sled up to the the entrance for bailing and checking out. Charming. Like a Hallmark movie with non-shiny people.
Not long after that, we got to know and become good friends with the owners, Don and Karen (and dog Baxter) Nelson. What fine people. They live right up the hill too. Come the next year, and knowing how enchanting we found it, they asked if we'd care to help out during the season. Sure, we said.
This will be our third year to do it. Opening day is today. It's always the day after Thanksgiving. That day is NUTS. People are out and anxious to get a good tree. And let me say, it is the happiest place on earth. Disney World feels like a trip to the DMV compared to the Delaware Town Christmas Tree Farm.
Families come, parents, kids, dogs, grandparents and everybody is all smiles. It's a magic place. It's impossible to be in a funk.
I don't have to tell anyone that our world is riddled with sadness and depression. It's epidemic. If I were a mental health professional of any kind, I would encourage anyone in my care dealing with the blues to go work at a Christmas tree farm. I'm not kidding. It might be more effective than some other treatment options and there are no side effects…well, except maybe your face will hurt from smiling.
A little music for the season that you might not know: