We have a neighbor in Alexandria that has a tree farm in Wisconsin. During the year he heads out a week at a time to do the pruning and all the associated (hard) work getting ready for this time of year. He very kindly included us on the list of folks here in DC who receive one of these wonderful trees - he picks out the perfect one each year.
We have a preference for Fraser Fir (the Cadillac of Christmas trees), and this year we have a 7-footer that fits nicely in our special spot in the dining room. Here is a photo of the finished product, just completed on Friday night (it has been a very busy December so far - as validated by no entries from the cabin in a couple of weeks).
As a reminder of the special place we have out in the Shenandoah Valley, this tree has some ornaments in common. I am fond of the little soldiers and other uniformed characters from the ballet "The Nutcracker" - these date to my time drinking gluhwine in the little Christmas Markets in Germany - and we have a number of series of these, most recently from the little store in New Market. Here is the king, we also have a couple of soldiers and a policeman.
Here is our little trout, there is also one on the tree at the cabin. Somewhere on both trees there is also a large mouth bass.
Last ornament photo - the Alexandria pickle. There is a German tradition to hang a pickle on the tree. It's supposed to be the last ornament up, and usually that's the case for us, although it seems we get a few new ones during the season every year, and they go right up. The rest of the story on this tradition is that the first child to find the pickle ornament gets a treat - during the New Year's Open House every child who finds it gets a cookie.
We're missing some weekends at the cabin - would like to have seen the full moon the other night from out there, outside of the DC area's light pollution.
No comments:
Post a Comment