O Tannenbaum!

 Our tree is up and decorated

    Sometime in the mid 1970s, I was working at the Ogle County Life newspaper in Oregon, IL.  

    Now, my memory may not be accurate ...but I am going with this anyway.  I heard about a cut your own Christmas tree place near Oregon.  I took Jackie and the kids and ever since that year, with maybe one or two interruptions, we have had  a cut your own tree.

    There is something about going out into a space where hundreds of trees are growing and picking one for your own.  Getting down on your hands and knees in the mud or snow and sawing it down, well, it just gets the  holiday juices flowing.

    I also felt it's way more environmentally responsible.  No wasted trees come Dec. 26.

    And I hated plastic trees because they don't look right and don't smell.  

    As much as I complained about doing it, I loved the process.  And I loved the trees.

    But last year was my final real tree.  It just got too hard.  So we bought an artificial tree.  

    Julia and I put it up, I fluffed it for several hours, and tonight we hung lights and ornaments.

    It's a tad smaller than what we'd like....I should have gone with the next larger size.

    But it looks good, doesn't leave a mess, and did not require a lot of work on my part.

   Sadly, aging means giving up some things you hate to give up.  But I have to be a realist too.

    And I killed a Santa.  It was a hand blown one from Germany that Julia gave us.  He was about 6 or 7 inches tall and was a pretty awesome glass ornament.  Was, until he hit the ground tonight.

    Friends John and Kathy came out from Chicago today and we enjoyed Pequod's pizza from the big city. It's a great pizza with an amazing crust.  The best part of the day was talking and visiting with them.  We don't get to do that too often and I really miss it.  It was an awesome visit!!  Awesome!!!

Peace and Love

I don't think I can glue it back together