No matter what you think or how you feel about holidays there is no doubt that deeply submerged in the human being is a sense and a need and consequently a joy in seeing, hearing and doing a familiar pattern of events that soon come to hold a steadfast and comforting place in the lives of individuals that bond them with family, tribe and community. Such is the Suneson Family Tradition of cutting a Christmas Tree at Kadee Farms outside of Greenville, Texas. And such marks the beginning of the Christmas Season as the oft repeated songs, sounds, sights, stories and scents that tie family tradition to faith community to the real and steadfast core joy of Christmas.
We have been to Kadee Farms soon after Thanksgiving, we have been to Kadee Farms at 5:41 PM on the last day they were open for the season, we have been to Kadee Farms when snow covered the pine boughs of all prospective specimens and more often than not I have been to Kadee Farms attired in a Hawaiian shirt (and at times, short pants) to select a Christmas Tree.
In earlier seasons I have carried my children on my back as we walked among the Virginia pines looking for a tree about 7 feet tall, a relatively straight trunk with no forks, a fair shade of green with a good strong pointed top. This season I follow as my children nimbly weave among the stands to call out to come and consider a likely candidate for our living room. Consensus is either reached, or bad vibes are revealed by a member of the selection committee, or a flaw is pointed out; in which case the search resumes across the back 40.
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| Ready to search for this year's Perfect Christmas Tree |
The fresh pine scent adds to the remembrance of seasons past at the same place, searching once again for the best Christmas Tree to cut and bring home atop the car. A sure sign that Christmas Celebration has come amongst us again. This year was excellent tree selection weather with calm air and a sky shinning with high luminous clouds in the setting sun and a pleasantly cool thermometer reading in the low 50's. The free hot apple cider supplied back at Kadee Farm's processing station goes down so much better while wearing flannel rather than shorts, while anticipating getting back into the car with good A/C - has has been the case in years past.
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| The Selection Committee Ponders a Nominated Pine |
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Returning From The Hunt
A Consensus has been reached and a Christmas Tree has been Cut
Grant & Inga Wait for the Hay Ride Wagon to Transport the Tree to Kadee Farms Processing Center |
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| Sue, Inga & Grant Return with the Prize Pine |
Upon return to the entrance to Kadee Farms, the family visits with the bunnies, goats and ponies that are available for petting while the farm hands stick the cut tree trunk into a rattle-trap shaker that dislodges most of the dead pine needles and other detritus from the branches. The tree is then netted and tied to the top of the car.
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Grant & Inga Ready for a taste of Apple Cider
And a visit to the bunnies, goats and ponies at the Kid's Corral
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The second half of the Tree Cutting Tradition is to stop on the 50 mile return trip for some barbecue. When we first started this tradition, it was a stop at the Double Deuce, an extremely rustic back-country kind of place on the side of 2-lane Highway 78 with a jolly proprietor who looked for our patronage each December. Highway 78 is now a divided 4-lane thoroughfare and much of the rustic scene is now "improved" with homes and shopping outlets stretching for miles beyond what we first knew as the edge of urban civilization back in 1990. The Double Deuce is gone, it was either cleared for a more upscale look befitting a suburb of Dallas, or else it finally succumbed to gravity and slid off into the brushy creek behind the dining room wall (which was always an incipient danger noticed by patrons as they sat around tables on a visibly cracked and slanted floor). This year we were pleased to find (by way of Google), Big Baby's Barbecue in Greenville. The St. Louis style ribs had the meat fallin' off the bone and the sliced brisket was moist and flavorful. As dictated by that religious sense and desire for tradition which pulls at the core of each human being - and also, not to be underestimated is the joy from a good meal of Texas smoked meats; we pledge to carry on the Suneson tradition - we will be back.
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