It was three days until Christmas. And, though I had no gift for her yet, my wife had dropped less-than-subtle hints that she wanted a new pair of boots for Christmas.

I have always steered clear of clothing purchases for several reasons. First, I never have any idea what my wife likes. In fact, if I pick the ugliest thing in the store, that is typically what she likes best (it is usually also the most expensive thing in the store). In addition, I never know what size she wears and I hate going to stores.

I was prepared last year, because I asked my sister about my wife’s foot size and I was told it was 7. So, I went to a store just down the street from my office. I walked in and quickly identified ugliest pair of boots. It was the last pair, so they must have been very popular. I cringed as I turned over the price tag, but this pair of boots got even better --“CLEARANCE SALE $29.99.” I was out of the store in no time flat.

I had even impressed myself this time. Ugly boots (hideous in fact) that looked really expensive. My wife would love it and would have no idea what a bargain I had gotten.

I could hardly contain my excitement Christmas morning when my wife opened her gift. She opened the box and her eyes got wide.

“Hmmmmmm…”

This was not the exuberant response I was expecting.

My wife did like the style, but apparently her foot had grown substantially in the last couple of weeks because she informed me that she wore a size 9, not a 7. In addition, this was a Girl’s Size 7, not a Woman’s Size 7 (I was unaware there was a difference). And, to top it all off, this was a pair of slippers, not boots.

To make up for my multi-pronged ineptitude regarding ladies footwear, I promised I would go shopping with my wife to find a pair of boots that she liked and that fit. This resulted in an unending afternoon in multiple lady shoe stores, a price tag more than three times my original purchase and a trip back to the original store to return the wrong size, wrong category, wrong kind of footwear purchase I had made.

With this experience fresh I my mind from last year, I have vowed to resume my tradition of not buying my wife anything she can wear this year.

It is a time of year that oozes tradition – gifts, carols, charity, goodwill, and, at the center of it all, stands the beautiful Christmas tree representing the birth of a very special baby boy more than 2,000 years ago. The Christmas tree tradition has been around for 500 years and still cherished by families today. In northeast Ohio, many of those families go to the spectacular Pine Tree Barn in the rolling countryside of Wayne County.

“I enjoy being able to see those trees growing in the spring and summer and then getting them to a family that is really excited about it. I really enjoy growing the trees, but also the chance to meet the customers and make it a better Christmas for them,” said Roger Dush, owner of the Pine Tree Barn. “We have found that when you start doing things to make the lives of others richer, it makes your own life richer.”

The Pine Tree Barn also features a restaurant and an expansive gift shop that is open all year with a focus on designer furniture. Christmas trees have been growing on the farm since Dush’s father started planting them in 1952. Now the farm sells around 7,000 trees annually, mostly Frasier and Canaan Fir.

“We want our customers to experience nature in a family setting. We encourage people to come out, ride the wagons, cut a tree together, watch it be baled, loaded on the car and take it home. That is a nice experience for people,” Dush said. “All farmers are competing against artificial trees and we need to give the customers a reason to get a real tree. There is really no tradition to a plastic tree.”

Dush is right. You can’t pack up 500 years of tradition into a box and put it in the attic at the end of the season. Like a pair of girls’ slippers for a lady that wants boots, a plastic tree is simply not the real thing.

To find a Christmas tree farm in your area, visit ohiochristmastree.com.

It is such an idealistic dream that Charles Schwab even has a commercial with an animated retiring guy lamenting advice about starting a winery in his golden years. While it is a dream of many to do just that, the retiring guy in the commercial does have a point – starting a winery is serious work.

“It is a lot more work than anyone imagines. It is such a romantic idea to start a winery and then reality sets in,” said Jeff Hicks, who helps manage Gervasi Vineyard in Canton. “Be sure to research it as much as possible.”

Hicks speaks from first-hand experience. His father-in-law was retired for two months before he decided to buy some property and start Gervasi Vineyards. The dream has become a spectacular reality, but the business of making wine is more challenging than most people probably imagine.

Though Gervasi is still a young winery, winemaker Andy Codispoti and vineyard manager Sandy Prentice have extensive experience to seamlessly transition from vineyard to vino. The process started with the monumental task of selecting the grape varieties to produce. Type, taste, tolerance to climate and soil type, disease and pest resistance, and numerous other factors went into the decision.

“We have six different varieties growing,” Prentice said. “We’ve chosen varieties that are more disease resistant to require less care.”

There can be drastic differences in the taste of the grapes and performance of the vine based upon climate and soil types.

“Some of the world’s best wines come from the shaliest, poorest looking soil that you can imagine on the side of a hill. Better soil is not necessarily good for wine production grapes,” Prentice said. “The typical Ohio field soil is better than it needs to be for grapes.”

Excessive fruit can reduce the quality of the grapes and the too-rich soils make for potentially over productive plants.

“Grapes, generally speaking, are weeds. They grow like crazy. And since we’re not producing for volume, we’re always assessing plant health to decide how heavily we want the plant to produce,” Prentice said. “There is pruning almost every month from March through mid-September.”

While Prentice is calling the shots in the vineyard, he relies heavily on input from Codispoti to implement the management practices necessary to produce the grapes necessary for the wine.

“We’re interested in a fruit that has a lot of light and air exposure,” Codispoti said. “Air flowing through the vines helps prevent disease and sunlight promotes ripening -- those are key factors in what you’re going to get at the end of the summer when you come to harvest. We work together and discuss things like how much of the canopy we need to remove to expose the grapes to airflow and sunlight.”

As the fruit progresses, the management intensifies.

“When we think that we’re about a month from harvest, I’ll takes samples from the vineyard and bring them in to check the sugar development of the grapes,” Codispoti said. “The closer we get to harvest the more closely we’ll check the sugar. Then, based on the flavor and sugar analysis, we decide that it is time to pick based on what the weather is doing. As we get near harvest, we will check the sugar, acid and pH of the juice also. We are looking to strike a balance between those things and the flavor development of the grape.”

Disease management is critical in the production of quality grapes.

“Disease needs to be avoided because the mold and rot of diseased fruit will affect the flavor profile that you get from the good fruit,” Codispoti said.

The spray program starts early in the spring and continues almost until harvest on a 10- to 14-day spray interval to keep ahead of fungal problems. Pests, including yellow jackets, deer, birds and other insects can also be a challenge. Just a couple of Multicolored Asians Lady Beetles harvested with the grapes can have a dramatic impact on the flavor and quality of the wine.

“In wine making, you have the science part of it and people think making wine is just like making a recipe from a cookbook. There are a lot of subjective decisions that come into play, even before you start the vinification process,” Codispoti said. “You also have to adjust from any shortcomings that you may encounter. Sometimes it isn’t all just chemistry. The chemistry may say that fruit is ripe, but when we taste it we find that is needs a few more days of sunshine.”

With the two men working in concert, Gervasi has been selling wines as quickly as they can be made, but nothing in the world of wine happens all that quickly, Codispoti said. “People ask how much time it takes to make wine and my answer is always, ‘A lot more than you think.’”

So while retiring to start a winery may sound like a great idea, for many, it may be a better idea to just visit one.

For more great Ohio wineries near you, visit tasteohiowines.com.