Wishing you all a merry Christmas and happy holidays! We hope your season is filled with an abundance of joy, laughter and hope for a bright new year. We enjoy celebrating the holidays at Stine, and this year we started by hosting our annual holiday sweater contest in the Adel and Dallas Center, Iowa, offices. As we get ready to celebrate Christmas and prepare for the new year, we’re filled with gratitude for all who have been a part of our business. While we may not be able to see all of our friends and family in person this year, we’re reflecting on the traditions that keep the holiday spirit alive. Here are a few favorite holiday pastimes from the Stine team.
“I enjoy passing out jars of wild raspberry jelly for the holidays. This year I picked nine gallons of raspberries from the woods at the farm. Thanks to Mary (my wife) for her hard work turning out the jelly. This year, I had enough for all 43 members of our farm crew.” — Fred Eby, farm manager
“My family’s Christmas tradition is ice fishing! Christmas morning, we open presents and then head straight to the lake for a day on the ice full of laughs, snacks, stories, maybe some ice skating, oh yeah — and fishing! No matter who can make it home (or the temperature), it’s a tradition the entire family looks forward to and carries on.” — Bethany Oland, Stine Region 7 RSA
“I always enjoy Christmas because I think it’s a great time to get together with your family and enjoy each other’s company. Our family likes to play games and watch movies together, but most of all, we just enjoy what Christmas is all about. And, of course, you have to take plenty of time to go pheasant hunting. Christmas always makes me realize how thankful I am for the people who are in my life, whether that be my family, my friends, my coworkers and the opportunity I have working for Stine Seed Company.” — Jeff Anderson, western director of sales
“With three little kids at home (a 5-year-old, 3-year-old and 10-month-old), it is such a fun and exciting time around our house during the Christmas season! For the last couple of years, we’ve started a tradition where I will make an advent calendar for the kids and hang it up by the Christmas tree so we can count down the days until Christmas together. Then, in addition to the advent calendar, the kids each have a tiny gift box that we set under the Christmas tree and each day I fill it with a small toy, treat or a card with something fun for us to do together as a family written on it. Then each night after supper, we’ll all sit around the Christmas tree, do the advent calendar together and then the girls will open up their boxes to see what they got for that day. It’s something fun we can do together as a family, and it gets us all into the Christmas spirit! Merry Christmas!” — Tamara Davisson, administrative assistant
“I like to go last-minute Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve and then look at the Christmas lights around town. Afterward we make sure to watch ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.’” — Jason Green, Stine Region 18 RSA
“In the Schmidt house, Jesus is the reason for our season! And eggnog … multiple batches of homemade eggnog throughout the season! When our kids were young, we celebrated with a Christmas Eve candlelight service, carryout pizza (weird, I know, but they loved pizza, and I didn’t want to have to be in dinner jail on Christmas Eve), family and presents! Now that we have four teenagers and everyone is busy working and going multiple directions, we give them the gift of a few days together of memory-making and skiing (and we’ve upgraded to appetizers!).” — Renae Schmidt, sales support team lead
“My favorite tradition is cutting down our own Christmas tree since our oldest child was born back in 2000. My wife Lisa and I, and our kids, Rylie, Avery and Trey, have made many memories trudging through the deep snow or mud or even on a perfectly warm, sunny day (like this year) at the same tree farm each year. It has gotten easier over the years because we no longer have to bundle up the children in as many layers as possible, but picking the perfect tree is still like the Lenz's meet the Griswolds (favorite Christmas move plug)!” — Tony Lenz, corn technical agronomist
Happy holidays!