Happy Holidays

I hope wherever you are today, whomever you are surrounded by that you have a wonderful day filled with love and well wishes from not just us but from everyone you meet. My greatest regret is that that feeling we all embody today doesn't always translate into tomorrow or next week but for today Peace appears to be possible and that's gotta be good enough.

Everyone deserves to be happy and celebrate this time of year with the traditions and heritage that they choose. This is especially true for those healthcare workers, emergency responders, military personnel, transportation workers (trains, planes and automobiles - yeah I went there) and many others who have to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as if it were just another day on the calendar. To those we salute you and hope some lovely soul in your life saved you some pie.

So Happy whatever you celebrate be it Chanukah (Hannukah), Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, St. Nichols Day, Las Posadas, Ramadan, Winter Solstice, Merry Christmas or something else that I haven't thought of in my mashed potato filled brain.

As Golden says Happy Holidays covers it all! 

Have a wonderful end of the year, see you in 2020! 

Marcy
Golden

New Experience : Live Christmas Tree

So dear reader, I’m at an age, that I’m not going to disclose to you – tho if you have been reading closely could likely figure it out – in which it’s very hard to have new experiences. However, this past weekend I did just that. I had a brand new to me experience that I’d like to share.

See for my many, many years we have climbed into our attic drug down some boxes and assembled our Christmas tree usually as Christmas music played in the background and my brother and I fighting on which ornaments we wanted to put on the tree. See we’d assemble the tree, then we’d have to check the lights and untangle them. Then we’d each pull out our favorite ornaments which always had to have prominence on the tree. Then often involved moving other’s favorite ornaments and moving them to the back of the tree. That would require strategic and careful planning over the next few weeks to ensure that your ornaments didn’t get moved around. I myself had several that I would pull off the tree to play with before returning them to the tree. The point is that it was a very interesting experience that resulted in several smashed fingers as we pulled boxes out of the attic and carried them into the living room inevitably banging our knuckles on the door frames as we walked. At some point in the afternoon my brother and I would wander off losing interest and come back out of our rooms to find that my mom had single handedly transformed our house into a Christmas masterpiece straight out of a magazine.

We have been fighting Christmas decorating cause my mother recently had hip surgery and while it has gone amazingly we had no idea what to expect. The last thing I wanted was a lot of “junk” lying around that she would have to maneuver around. It also seemed silly to decorate if she was going to be in a rehab facility for the entire month, meaning we wouldn’t really be around to enjoy any of it either cause we’d be visiting her. See, last year at this time, we nearly lost my mother to a bleeding ulcer that has perforated, and she was bleeding internally. So last year, mom was just getting out of rehab about this time and we didn’t really decorate for Christmas. We went to my brother’s house but our house had very little Christmas joy inside of it. Because of that this year my father decided he wanted to go all out. 

WE GOT A LIVE TREE YALL!!!!!  

We didn’t go cut it down ourselves mind you but went to a Christmas Tree lot near our house, picked it out, brought it home. On the way to pick up the tree my father told me that once while he was hunting and SHOT DOWN a Christmas tree cause he didn’t have an axe. Then he drug it all the way home to give to his mother. I had no idea my father had it in him. It was a fun morning the young man we bought the tree from never took the cigarette out of his mouth as he sold us the tree, cut off the bottom to the right height, and loaded it into my dad’s truck. He informed us that he has to stay there 24/7 cause he’s also security. I was shocked and frankly there doesn’t appear to be any place for him to stay. I hope he’s paid well. I gave him a $5 tip and I thought my dad was going to plotz. 

Then we carried it from the car into the house and almost took out a lamp and the ceiling fan as we brought it into our living room. Needles were every where. And I mean every where. We then had to go into the attic to find the precious ornaments and lights. I decorated it while mom picked the ornaments she wanted to put on the tree for a change. 

I think it turned our rather pretty. I will admit I miss the things that a fake tree gives you. We have several LARGE ornaments that this live tree just isn’t ready for. I missed being able to take a branch and fold in back onto itself to allow it to hold a heaver ornament. We’ve had a few fall only to catch at the last minute before tragedy took place. I fear we won’t always be there to protect the precious darlings. 

My father did well, it’s starting to feel like Christmas now, even if the real tree doesn’t quite smell like the fake one did with evergreen sticks hidden inside it.

So Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/Happy Haunakuah/Happy Kwanzaa/Happy whatever. Here’s to the new yar, may 2020 be a good one for us all. Have a safe holiday season wherever you are and I hope you’ll still be around to read my ramblings in the new year.

Marcy
@beaslma