The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 96

Treasure Hunt
We found Christmas in
the unlikeliest of places.

M

Y YOUNGEST WAS STRAPPED in a
Baby Bjorn the first year our family cut our
Christmas tree at Roll Out Farm in Pilot, Va.
It wasn't the first time we'd trekked to a Christmas
tree farm. We had visited other places that were
closer, and flashier, with horse-drawn carriages and
wreath-making barns and larger-than-life blow-ups
of chimneys and elves.
But on that sunny December day when my sevenyear-old and four-year-old tumbled out of our minivan
into the high grass atop a tall knob, we were hooked.
The big sky and kindly smile of the teddy-bear-of-an
owner called to us all.
We cut down our tree that day, but we also bobbed
and weaved through a stand of tall pines, ran up and
around stair-step junipers and spruce. We gulped in cold
mountain air, collected piles of pine cones, then warmed
our toes in a little hut near our car. By the time we left,
96

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019

WRITTEN AND
PHOTOGRAPHED BY
CHRISTINA NIFONG

this place had found a home in our hearts.
The next year we slid our CD of Christmas carols
into the player and made the long drive through the
country back to Roll Out Farm. I think that was the
December we began our traditions of rolling down the
impossibly long hills and playing a never-ending game
of hide-and-seek among the tidy trees.
We were often one of only a handful of families
racing through the rows. The owner at Roll Out
would marvel that we drove so far, year after year,
to cut down seven feet of boughs. But somehow, his
farm became our farm.
The following year we traveled over the river and
through the woods to find the farm blanketed in
several inches of snow. There'd only been a few slushy
flakes at home but we'd hoped Roll Out might have
more. So, along with our snacks and coats and gloves
and saw and ropes and Christmas tunes, we'd packed
our red plastic sled.
We chose our tree first. My nine-, six- and threeyear-olds gallumping through the wet fluff. We
hauled it to the top of a hill to be later carried out
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The Roanoker - November/December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - November/December 2019

The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - Intro
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - Cover1
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - Cover2
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 3
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 4
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 5
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 6
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 7
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 8
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 9
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The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 96
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The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - 114
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - Cover3
The Roanoker - November/December 2019 - Cover4
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