A tale of two trees...

Here are the two trees we put up this Christmas. As you can see, the one in the living room is the usual tree we put up every year with the blue and silver decorations. It is some kind of Canadian Fir that we got at the Capitol Market from French Creek Farms (shamless plug here. More on that later...) that the guy at the cash register admitted was probably mistagged since it had a $20 price tag on it. It was a little flat on one side, but we just put that side to the window.



Ally, my "new" old cat has shown quite a bit of interest in the presents under the tree. Something about the ribbons on the presents is evidently prettyt tasty to her, as she's been caught a few times chewing on them.



Now, about French Creek Farms. Evidently, they and one other Christmas tree vendor are the only ones that are selling West Virginia-grown trees. The other vendors are getting their trees from farms in N.C. The Capitol Market is supported by the Department of Agriculture, and gets some of its funding from WV taxpayers. All the vendors outside are required to have a percentage of their goods from West Virginia. In the summer, the farms that sell produce must have so much of their goods from West Virginia. Same goes for the trees. The guy who owns French Creek Farms has complained to Ag that some of the vendors aren't following the rules, and evidently, Ag hasn't done anything about it. The guy at French Creek Farms said he'd sell his trees for next to nothing to undercut the out-of-state tree vendors. He's now selling all his trees for $30--and trust me, that is a HUGE deal since there were some 7 ft blue spruces or some fancy kinds that were marked $90 when we were there. It has been on the news a couple times this past week. When we got our tree, I asked the guy, and he assured me the one I picked out was in fact a WV-grown tree.



Now, that I'm done with my "public service announcement," here is my "Charlie Brown" tree. I got this beaut (and the idea to put up a Charlie Brown tree) from Maysel at Erinn's mom and dad's house. Alan has been putting up a Charlie Brown tree for a few years and takes pride in finding the most pitiful looking tree that never aspired to become and Christmas tree and bringing it in to decorate. So, he picked this one out for me. I think it is just beautiful!