Anyway, I arrived in NY for Christmas on Friday, December 21. At this point, my parents still had not gotten a Christmas tree, and my father told me that getting said tree was one of our missions for the next day, the 22nd. Now we've gotten trees pretty late before, but I was just a bit worried that this was the latest we'd ever tried and that pickings might be pretty slim.
Nevertheless, we set out on our mission. Kelsie came along, riding in the car with my dad and I, as we followed Ryan in his truck (the easiest way of getting the tree home). My dad started to get very agitated when the first two lots we went to were already closed and completely out of trees. We tried yet another place that was closed, and Ryan oh-so-helpfully said to my dad, "Why did you wait so long?" My dad started to wonder out loud if (horror-of-horrors!) we'd have to get an artificial tree. "Do you think your mom would notice?" he asked, only half-jokingly.
Then, in an instant, my brother changed from asker-of-agita-inducing-questions to hero-of-the-day. He remembered this lot in Setauket (about 15-20 minutes from our house in Rocky Point) that he thought still had lots of trees. So we headed off to Setauket. Sure enough, they had trees left. Yay!
The place was kind of depressing, though, only because you could imagine what it was like earlier in the tree-buying season. I imagine that the owners pitched it like this: "Come on down for a fun holiday experience for the whole family. Come and get your tree and let the kids have a blast! We've got rides and animals!" Now, though, it was the skeleton of a once-quite festive site. There was no one else there except for the workers. It was also a cold and gray day, which made the place seem even more desolate. Still, though, they had trees and that's all that really mattered.
I snapped some pictures of the animals that were animals on display who must have been part of some kind of petting zoo.
I got a kick out of these goats, although Kelsie wasn't too crazy about them. By the way, I left this picture more-or-less uncropped so you can see the bounce-house in the background. My friends, no one was bouncing in the house on this day.
Honestly, even the goats seemed kind of mellow, at least more mellow than I've ever seen any petting-zoo goats act. This guy was pretty cute, though.
Kelsie really liked the bunnies and asked if she could take pictures of them. So yes, the picture above (and the one below) were taken by her.
Kelsie: "Awww! He's so cute! I asked Santa for a bunny. I wonder if I'll get one." [Santa's answer: "No."]
But wait...why were we there to begin with? Oh yeah--to find a tree!
My dad and Ryan "talking trees."And...at long last, we found one!
The perfect tree! (Or more accurately, possibly the last acceptable tree on Long Island).
Kelsie took this picture of my dad going inside to pay. I include because the place looks so desolate. Also, Kelsie laughed and said, "I took a picture of Opa's butt!"
The guy putting the tree through the machine that shakes off all the dead stuff.
The tree coming out of the shaker. Check out that vehicle on the left. You know I wanted to take a ride in that thing!
For some reason, I didn't take a good picture of the finished product (fully decorated tree) this year. This is the best I've got. I don't even think I took this--I think one of the kids did. You can see my brother Christian on the left. Anyway, it does give you some idea of what it looked like when all was said and done.
Now the real question is this: has my dad learned his lesson about putting off getting the tree or will he risk it all again next year?
3 comments:
I have only ever had one real tree before...but was so young that I don't really remember it. I only remember my mom complaining about cleaning up pine needles off the floor for the next few months. That was my first ...and last real tree experience. I now have to fake ones... one very nice one...and a poor little old one...
Wait--that guy actually has a shaker to "shake off all the dead stuff?" They are selling trees that are partially dead? I have got to tell my dad about this! At first I thought it was a baler, and then I realized that the tree wasn't baled when it was coming out. I am seriously confused. I could almost see it being a bit of a problem since it was so late in the year, and the tree was probably cut back in October, but if they have a big expensive machine, they must do it even with trees that are sold earlier in the year. Did your tree drink a lot of water? Did it die before your parents took it down? I am very curious about this now. Maybe it is really a shaker tree to shake out any chipmunks that might have taken up residence in the tree. If you've seen that Chip & Dale Christmas cartoon with Donald, then you know what kind of trouble you will have if you have chipmunks in your Christmas tree.
First of all, I LOVE that Chip & Dale cartoon you are referencing. And anytime they put a tree in the shaker, I think of it and about how it would be kind of fun to have a chipmunk in the tree...until the cats found it.
Maybe "dead stuff" wasn't the right word. No part of the tree (or any of the trees) was brown. I just think they use the machine to shake off stray needles and (I hope) any bugs.
As for how the tree held up, I think it was okay. Yeah, it did take a lot of water, but I think they left it up until January 5th or so.
Does your dad shake the trees at all before he bales them?
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