The Tree 🎄 and True Happiness 😊

What a trip to a Christmas tree farm can do for you 😊🎄

We waited until this past weekend to get our Christmas tree.🎄

As soon as the four of us were together again, we zoomed to the little Christmas tree farm. Last year we got there too late - they were already closed! We managed to find a decent leftover tree at another farm down the road, but it was not the same. We preferred the little one.

Wasem is a small family owned operation with unique looking pine trees that may not satisfy most people’s Christmas expectations. But that’s part of the charm, plus we love it that they treat us like old friends. On Saturday afternoon, Ed Wasem greeted us with a fist bump.

“You’ve been here before!” He said in his booming voice, looking directly at me. With his long white beard, sturdy stance and a solid presence, Ed could be Santa Claus himself.

His son and grandson were right there as well, chatting with another customer. A couple of college boys were off to the side packaging up a tree.

After some pleasantries and tree cutting directions, we were off to find “our tree” with a saw in hand.

On the drive to Wasem, everyone agreed not to get a “Charlie Brown’s tree” this year. Been there, done that!

In the car, the kids declared in agreement:

“I want a plump one this year!” said one.

“Yah! A big plump one!” said the other.

“Not too big, though. Remember our corner for the tree is small,” I reminded the twins hoping they would hear my growing anxiety around the “big plump one.”

It was a mild December day with the sun poking out of the clouds occasionally. We walked through rows of trees noticing how a lot of them were indeed Charlie Brown-esque. Some trees were nice and plump, but way too tall. Some looked like they need a few more years of growth to become a “proper” Christmas tree.

We pointed at this tree and that tree as possible candidates.

This one? No, too skinny! This one? No, too big!

In between all the choices, the kids played with farm cats looking for some human love.

I, on the other hand, was not getting much love. Whichever tree I pointed to was not the right one for the rest of the gang.

They were pretty ruthless:

“That’s way too small, Mommy! Remember, we want a BIG PLUMP TREE!”

Finally, we landed on one that we could all agree on. Sort of. In my mind, it was still too big and too plump… just too much. I knew it would be way too big for our corner back home. But I was tired of fighting at that point.

“We will have to trim a lot of it down for it to fit,” I muttered under my breath, but made sure it was loud enough for them to hear. The boys were sawing the trunk at this point. The big plump tree was coming home with us.

“That’s okay. It will be fine. You will love it,” they all reassured me.

You see, my family knows my strengths and weaknesses. They could smell my anxiety and need to be in control. They knew that I wanted a tree that would fit easily in our little corner; a tree that does not need extra work; a tree that would resemble the other ones we’ve had before.

Why? Because that would be easy and comfortable. I would know how to deal with it - on my own, without help.

They also know that I usually end up liking something challenging, something different, something unique and memorable.

And that’s what we got.

Once we got home, we discovered that I was right (of course): the tree was much too tall to bring into the house at first. It was so plump that the branches made it impossible for us to put it in the little corner.

Trimming happened outside the house first, and it had to continue inside. Setting up the tree required all of us to pitch in. We needed a ladder to put up the lights and to place the Santa’s hat on the very top.

If we had gotten a little tree like I had wanted, our overall experience would have been a very different one. I would have done most of it myself (because I could). It would not have been as fun, cooperative, or memorable.

The whole experience would have been easily forgotten, slipped into the background like any other Christmas trees of the past.

Instead, we got to experience the true meaning of “happiness” as described by Arthur Brooks, a social scientist and author of Build the Life you Want.

To Brooks, true happiness is composed of three macro-ingredients:

😊 Enjoyment: pleasure + people + memory 

😊 Satisfaction: overcoming a challenge to get the result

😊 Meaning: the purpose of our actions

And so, my friend, I have a big plump pine tree to thank for giving me and my family an experience of true happiness that was full of enjoyment, satisfaction and meaning.

Sharing this story with you adds to that happiness, so thank you for following along!

I am wishing you and your family true happiness this holiday season and a wonderful new year.

I have a feeling that 2024 is going to be fabulous.

Don’t you?

Let’s make it one!

xoxo

Kit

P.S. This weekly note got a name-change. Maybe you already noticed!

It is now called “Second Spring Chronicle.” 🌸

It’s going to have several other siblings coming up, and I can’t wait to share everything with you soon!