Every year Christmas gets closer and closer.  It moves from December 1st, to Thanksgiving, and has even started broaching Halloween.  Personally, I don’t much like Christmas for this reason along with all the stress and hype followed by an endless amount of annoying Christmas music, but there are some redeeming qualities, such as a feeling in the air of giving, family, and a strange relaxing moment or two to soak up the holiday season.

Last Christmas I had the “joy” of getting my first real Christmas tree!  Growing up my mom always put up a fake one – with good reason.  We kept ours up starting around Thanksgiving and she didn’t want the mess, sometimes it affected her allergies, and unbeknownst to me – you’re supposed to water the thing on a daily basis.

She decorated the tree with ornaments that we had made as kids (of course) but when we were feeling especially vogue we’d exclusively use my grandma’s Old World Ornaments.  One year not long after she passed I broke 3-4 in a row and gave up decorating a tree.

Lucky for us – Colton’s mom had a tree for us!  In the front yard.  I was told it was only maybe 10-12 feet tall.  When we got there to cut it and a second tree for Colton’s brother’s family, it turned out these trees weren’t just 10-12′ – they were at least twice that!  We cut them down, cut them in half, and by the end of the night had to cut off another couple feet to fit it in the houses!  We had to aim and shove the tree to get through the doors, exploding pine needles everywhere with the dog confused and the cat bug-eyed wondering what was invading his house.

But – we all got a taste of the battery operated chainsaw!  And it was so fun and addictive, Colton got us one as a wedding present this summer!  That thing has been a workhorse while we are renovating the barn.

This tree swallowed up our living room.  Since then we have joked that we got the “Griswold Tree”.  Colton was all worried about finding an angel or star or something for the top and I told him not to worry – I’d find something.  And since we had the Griswold Tree I found the best tree topper ever – a dog toy squirrel in a lumberjack jacket and hat!  I tried for a long time to figure out a way to have it jump out at him (like in the movie – if you’ve never seen it I can’t describe the hilarity), but finally left it at the top and waited for him to see it.

Griswold the Lumberjack Squirrel tops the tree again this year – and was the first thing to go on it!  Now it’s sitting for a few days until we finish decorating.  Only this year we didn’t get a Griswold Tree.  We got a tree from Scattered Seeds Farm in Sheffield.  It’s a sweet little shop Mom and I discovered earlier this fall and where we had a fall craft show!  Shari was kind enough to invite us for their Christmas Open House, Saturday, December 7, from 12:30-4, so if you’re in the area, please come out!  She still has a few Christmas trees and I think there will be several fun things to see and do!

We also started a new “craft project” last year around this time – barbed wire art!  My dad started with a barbed wire ball at my mom’s request after she saw one at a store for a crazy amount of money.  Then he decided to extend it to a barbed wire tree!  It turned out amazing!  Since then I started making a few wreaths and have many more ideas brewing.  (If the tree is something you’d be interested in adding to your decor, contact us and we can work out something!)

For those who don’t know – music has been a big part of my life.  For some reason, “The Sound of Music” is a movie I tend to watch this time of year, even though it doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas.  But the song “These are a Few of My Favorite Things” certainly appears in commercials.

So – for this season, you can find a few of our favorite things in a free gift!  Just subscribe to our newsletter and you’ll receive a free download of a few of our all-time favorite things!  (Sorry – you had your chance!  We have a different free gift available – did you take the opportunity to receive it??)

Merry Christmas from the Farm!

Don’t forget to keep us updated – what are some of your favorite things?  What was your most memorable moment of 2019?