Today my family and I hunted down a Christmas tree. It involved sharp objects, muddy fields, roaring fires and free cups of hot chocolate. A reader of this page and all round lovely lady (you know who you are!) suggested we visit Ian’s Evergreen Plantation and to get into the holiday spirit (after Tony the Grinch tried to stomp out of seasonal fun). Therefore, the entire family minus my oldest brother piled into the truck and we drove about thirty minutes outside of Kanata to the Tree Farm.

Hey, if you have children, you have got to take them to this place, assuming you haven’t yet purchased a tree.  Driving onto Ian’s Evergreen Plantation, there are Christmas trees everywhere as you curve along the drive and head up to the main area with its small log cabins, pre-cut trees and – yes – more fields of pine, fir, spruce, etc waiting for the chop.

We pile out of the car and Dad grabs a tree caddy. He looks, basically, like a giant kid with his red metal sleigh, and we head into the land of trees (Daniel carrying the axe, because no one trusts Tony with a giant blade in his hands.) The lady who works there comes out and gives us the quick low down on how it works at the Plantation. Basically if you cut a fresh tree, you have access to hot chocolate, playgrounds, hay rides and reindeer. If you buy one pre-cut, then the rest costs extra.

Honestly we’re all adults – though young at heart – and going on a hay ride in the snow as my butt gets soaked to the core is less appealing than it might have been twenty years ago (oh sh!t, I’m getting older). Had I been wearing snow pants, my opinion would have been different. Live and learn.

Going back to the story: we head into the growing trees. Dad is going on about how awesome this or that tree is, and my mom is shushing him to keep quiet because there are other people around looking for the ‘perfect’ Christmas tree. We don’t want them poaching our choice. Therefore we try and whisper, but that doesn’t last cause everyone’s ridiculously excited.

Stomping through the field Tony sets eyes on the perfect tree.

“That one!” he calls out.

We all move in and I pull out my camera. “Get in the picture!” I say, and everyone gets in the picture. With the photo snapped I head over to the giant fire that’s roaring by our chosen tree. Zsolt, Mom and I go over to warm our fingers. Therefore, I blame what happens next upon both Daniel and Tony.

Mom and I look back over to the men as they take out the saw and begin to cut through our tree.

“Tony!” Mom shouts, “It’s crooked!”

And it is. This tree is shaped like an S. I am not kidding you. But they didn’t notice and by the time my mom yells again, Dad’s gone and cut through the tree.

So there you have it, we’re committed. After we cut down our tree (drive 30 minutes out of town just to cut down a tree that has scoliosis), the tree-lady feeds us hot chocolate and we go and visit the reindeer.

Overall I’d say it was a great little trip. The best bit of the entire day was getting that tree home and watching Zsolt, Daniel and Dad try to balance this sideways, crooked, curving tree in the tree-stand. However, they managed and it now stands (leans) on its own. And that, I think, is a little bit of a Christmas miracle.