Aubergine: christmas is coming

We went to get our Christmas tree this weekend. We have developed a tradition of going up to Crest Ranch to cut a tree. We love that it is a local business, that they grow a bunch of different varieties, that they employ local teenagers to help with parking and snack sales, but most of all, that they regrow new trees from stumps of old ones, so their farm is pretty sustainable (I don't actually know what their fertizing/watering practices are, though). We also love getting a fresh tree that hasn't been sitting on a lot for a month. When we were driving up to Bend the weekend before Thanksgiving, we saw semis loaded up with trees heading south. You know those trees are going to be dry by Christmas Day.

Sunday was a gorgeous day - warm and sunny, even at the crest where it is often 10-15 degrees cooler than in the valley. The place was packed. They were completely out of tree carts, which is kind of a bummer, because the farm is large and hilly, so if you pick a tree that happens to be way out there, you have to lug it all the way back to the lot to pay for it. We resigned ourselves to carrying back whatever we picked, and headed off in a random direction into the trees. Not 15 feet in, we found the perfect one. Unbelievable. We're both kind of picky about our Christmas tree. Lisa likes trees with "soft" needles, and pefectly straight trunks. I like them to be evenly round, but still have space for plenty of ornaments. I prefer that the tree doesn't have a big gap on one side, which is often the case. We're both picky about the very top, which has to be straight and a single branch, none of those forked tops. We walked all around it, said, "No, that can't be it. It is too close to the parking lot." We searched around a bit more, but we came back to that first one to cut and bring home.

And then, because it took hardly any time to pick the tree, and the weather was so gorgeous, we lingered at the farm to enjoy our favorite post-tree-picking treat: Hotdogs and hot chocolate.