SNOW !!!!

Winter won't officially arrive until about noon tomorrow but it's definitely made it's presence known along the Chesapeake this weekend !

It started snowing about midnight Friday and didn't stop (at all!) until about 10 p.m. Saturday night. We've got 19" in our neighborhood. Communities around us have measured out anywhere from 17" right on up to about 23". This is NOT the norm in these parts. Someone forgot to tell Mother Nature we ARE south of the Mason-Dixon line.

The Mid-Atlantic does not deal well with snow. I, personally, do not do snow. I'd prefer not to do winter at all if the facts be told.

I "lucked out" and was sick all weekend. What a fantastic excuse not to go out and shovel!!! Since The Big Guy had breathed his germs on me earlier in the week sharing a nasty intestinal virus, he felt guilty and did not complain about that. Between he and the neighbors, they have our cul-de-sac in fairly decent shape and I should not have any trouble getting out today. Normally, I'd attempt to hibernate until it was gone but I do need to do one final Post Office run. All of my orders have gone out but I still have some family gift shipping to do at a high expense today.
This mass of white stuff wreaked havoc in my life more than one way. This was supposed to be "candy making" weekend. Since my help (read "family") has about a a 90 minute drive on country roads in good weather, they canceled out on me even before the first flake fell. (That was before I got sick.) I, obviously, understood this move and accepted the fact that I had 25 to 30 pounds of candy making ahead for me, alone. When I got sick Friday evening I realized that was out for the weekend, too. So, here I am, late Sunday night, still looking ahead to hours and hours of candy making.

Looks like, once again, I'll be making and packing candy on Christmas Eve! So much for planning. This production weekend was originally scheduled for four weeks ago and kept getting pushed back for one reason or another.

Want to know the real clincher in all this? They're predicting more snow for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We'll probably be stuck at home anyway with all these packages of candy and the gifts I've rushed to make and then won't have any way to deliver that day! (Our Christmas Day run involves about a 200 mile round-trip run with five stops.)

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One of the interesting side notes about this snow storm was the work done to pull off the Ravens v. Bears football game at M&T Stadium in Baltimore.

A crew of 750 folks made up of ground crew staff, volunteers and work details from a near-by prison, hand shoveled 25 million pounds of snow from the stadium seating area !!! They started shoveling at 1 a.m. Saturday morning and finished just before game time at 4:15 Sunday. (The snow was hauled off and dumped in the bay. Before you panic about the state of the bay, this was clean snow.)

As there were a few areas that simply weren't cleared, folks whose assigned seats were still snow covered were allowed to find open seats elsewhere in the stadium. Late in the game, they showed a picture of some kids up in the Upper Deck who had created a large snowman in the seat next to them and put a Ravens hat on him. I guess they needed to do something to keep warm!

By the way, the Ravens won!
--------------- Well, we're guaranteed a white Christmas. This stuff isn't going anywhere as it won't be warm enough to melt by then.

Stay warm, my friends !!!

More Tree Tales

They always say you marry a man like your Dad. Well, he's never waited till Christmas Eve to buy the tree and he's always helped me come up with a fairly presentable one, so I guess The Big Guy may be an exception to that rule (at least when it comes to the Christmas tree buying.)

However, he's not really much of a tree man. He can take or leave it - and has.

What is it about men and Christmas trees? Why don't they see the importance of finding and decorating the perfect tree each year?

Our first Christmas together, The Big Guy decided we weren't going to have any tree. I tried pouting, begging, even full out crying, to no avail. He was determined. At the time, it was HIS house, not mine, so he stood his ground. We had NO tree at all but we DID have a huge family party on Christmas Eve. His family. Of course, he expected them to see his reasoning and was shocked when every single person entered the house and immediately asked where's your tree? he swore I called each one and instigated them to do so. (I didn't need to.) He swore trees were a "woman thing" and was surprised to find even the men in the family thought this just wasn't right. He did not do this again. We call this one the "Year with No Tree."

We went along smoothly for several years, with me going and getting the tree, bringing it home and, often, even setting it up without help. He sometimes assisted in getting it in the house but the rest was all my job. With a number of "single" years in my past, I was up to the challenge.

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Then , one year, he and his mom went shopping and purchased artificial trees. She bought a nice one. All I can say about ours is, I didn't know they made artificial Charlie Brown trees! It was pitiful. I know why he thought it was such a great price. It started out straggly but lost as many needles with each use as a real tree. One had to hang the ornaments carefully so the tree was balanced weight-wise all the way around. I still had trouble keeping it standing so we started tying it to the rail along our stairway.

It was the kind that had a dowel for a trunk with little angled holes into which you inserted the individual branches. The branches were color coded to the holes so the tree had a gradually widening shape. I complained about it from day one but tried to make the best of it that first year.

The second year, the little angled holes starting cracking a little and the branches tended to droop a little lower as the holes crumbled at the edges. The Big Guy did not see this as a problem. According to him, I was nit-picking. I duct taped the branches in.

The third year, duct tape wasn't cutting it. I was having to completely skip branches here and there where the holes had deteriorated. It was beginning to look like it had survived a bombing. The Big Guy redrilled some of the holes. The tree was now just slightly cockeyed due to the now unbalanced placement of the new holes. It was unstable enough, I needed to tie it right from the start. The light string was heavier than it could handle! I complained for a full hour while decorating it.

The Big Guy sat in his chair, seeming to ignore me. He finally jumped out of his chair, shouted "Then throw the d------ thing out!", pulled the ornaments and lights off, grabbed the scrawny little fake weed and carried it out (fully put together) and jammed it in the top of the trash can ! To add emphasis, he dragged the can up to the curb to wait for the garbage man !

I was a little stunned. We had that danged party scheduled for the next night and, once again, we didn't have a tree. I could not face that again. I screamed, cried and argued. He got mad and went to the bedroom to watch T.V, slamming the door behind him.

I then grabbed my keys and headed for the nearest tree lot where I bought the most expensive tree I've ever had, had it netted and tied to my car by the man at the lot. I brought it home where I found The Big Guy still holed up in the bedroom.

It was almost dark. The tree needed a fresh cut and I had no idea where the big saw was. There I was, out on the front step with a tiny little hack saw trying to take an inch or two off. My neighbor saw me, assumed The Big Guy was ill or something and offered to help. He whipped out an electric saw, trimmed the bottom and carried the tree into the house for me where he helped get it bolted into the stand. I quickly decorated it and by the time The Big Guy was feeling remorseful and came out to apologize, we had a beautiful tree in residence.

The clincher was the next night, when as guests arrived, they walked past the tree sticking out of the garbage can. As they came in the door, they called out, "Is it safe to come in?" They figured there'd been a war!

Ultimately, we did have one of our prettiest trees that year. Of course, it cost more than twice what most of our trees have cost as I wasted no time shopping around. I think the salesman felt how desperate I was and took advantage of it when it came to quoting a price!

That was the "Year of the Trashed Tree."

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Next came the "Year of the Smashed Tree."

We had an absolutely stunningly fantastic tree that year. It sat centered in front of the big window in the living room and was all decked out with the many fancy glass ornaments I had been collecting for so many years as well as quite a few family heirloom ornaments dating back to my grandparents. It was quite large and seemed fairly stable.

The night after Christmas, something woke me in the wee hours of the morning and, after going to the bathroom, wandered to the living room instead of going directly back to bed. I stood in the doorway, ready to admire my beautiful tree which should have been glistening in the moonlight but there was no tree there. I turned the light on only to find the tree laying full out on the living room floor. There were bits and pieces of colored glass everywhere.

I was devastated. So many of my treasured ornaments so lovingly wrapped and stored each year were gone. To quote The Big Guy, "smashed to smithereens!" Since I didn't think he'd appreciate me waking him in the middle of the night to tell him the tree fell over, I crawled into a chair and cried for about an hour and then went back to bed.

When the alarm went off an hour or so later, I told him the tree had fallen over. He thought I was dreaming and mumbling in my sleep so he was shocked when he entered the living room, too. He was able to lift the tree and lean it against the wall. We began to mop up the spilled water and did a quick run-through with the vacuum cleaner but that was just the beginning of the clean up. We both needed to go to work.

When I came in from work, he had already begun the clean up of the glass.He knew I was heartbroken and he was properly sympathetic. None of my grandmother's ornaments had survived. Many of those I'd been given or bought while I was a kid were also destroyed. I picked pieces up here and there and commented on how old each was and where it had come from. I think that was when he truly understood the importance of the tree to me.

After dinner, he did his best to make things right. We went to a local department store known for their beautiful ornament selection and attacked the after-Christmas sale full on. I bought many a great and unique looking ornament. (I think we bought something like 30 ornaments that night !) Most were more expensive than I ever would have considered before the holiday. We came home and redecorated that tree.

One of our best friends showed up a day later with a new, extremely heavy cast iron tree stand for future use. Nothing could knock that stand over.

Until the next year. That's when we had "Smashed Tree Two." (And another after-Christmas shopping spree in the ornament section!!)

Our trees ALL get tied in place now. We don't take any chances.

Here's to you and all of your beautiful trees out there. May they stand solidly for the duration!

The Christmas Eve Tree Tales

As a child, I recall, we always put our tree up on Christmas Eve.

In fact. there were a few years there where we actually bought the tree on Christmas Eve. I believe those may have been a matter of Dad "making a point." (He could be quite stubborn and determined at times. ) There were a couple of times when I remember a real life scenario depicted in so many heartwarming Christmas movies. You know the ones where the family arrives at the tree sale just as they're closing and there are only a few trees left to choose from. In the movies, they always find the perfect tree at that moment. I'm here to tell you, there are usually only pitiful imitations of perfect trees left at that point in time.

Charlie Brown had nothing on my Dad when it came to finding a tree. One time the choice was so bad, we actually had to tie two trees together to form one!! (I kid you not.) Tinsel, lots and lots of tinsel, can hide a multitude of flaws.

Then there was the year that he simply stayed too long at the office party, wandering in sometime after dark. This may have been the latest he ever pushed things. The fact that we still needed a tree didn't phase him. I, on the other hand was terrified that without a tree, Christmas simply wouldn't happen. Mom was simply perturbed, to put it mildly. (Let me take a moment to clarify, Mom didn't drive so we were dependent on him to get the tree.)

"Never fear," he admonished me, "There are tree lots on every corner around here." At least there WERE, a few hours earlier. By 6 p.m., most had closed down and gone home to celebrate the holiday with their families.

Dad and I set out to get the tree. On our way out of the neighborhood, we noticed one of the local delis had three trees leaning up against the wall with a little handwritten sign stating "Trees for Sale." We laughed at the pitiful twigs and drove by. After 20 minutes or so, going from closed lot to closed lot, we started considering those twigs again. There were only two left when we returned to the corner deli. I don't know what price they were asking but if they paid Dad any less than twenty bucks to take it, he was crazy!!! I was in tears by the time we got it home. (Maybe we should have just cut a bare limb from one of the maples in the yard. It would have had as many needles.) Mom was speechless though I'm sure she later found words and expressed them behind closed doors. It took an inordinate amount of tinsel and ornaments to turn it into a Christmas tree. The deli was called Anchor Bay and, to this day, we call it "the Anchor Bay tree."
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There was a major decorating routine and it rarely wavered. Sometimes I think it was Mom's way of sticking it to Dad. (Payback's a B----, you know!) She was always busy elsewhere in the house - doing Christmas dinner preps, wrapping gifts, whatever. Dad set the tree up and got the lights situated. Then, he supervised the decorating. He was usually assisted in this job by our hapless, bachelor neighbor, Jim.

Our tree was always situated in the center of our large bay window and Dad and Jim would sit in chairs against the opposite wall, with cocktails in hand, and shout out things like, "You need a red one down there", or "Put some color in that section", "Hang a long one over there", etc.

There was always at least one crash of a beautiful and treasured ornament in the process. I can still see my brother perched on a 6' ladder and staring down at the pieces of ornament he had just dropped. Poor Neal. It was always one of the ancient ones Mom claimed had come from her paternal grandparents. She usually was a bit upset but quietly swept up the broken glass. As a kid, I thought she over-reacted. Now, I can feel her pain. I've lost quite a few important old and irreplaceable ornaments myself.

Somehow, it always came together, Mom would come in and "ooh" and "ahh" over the finished product and we'd be pleased. Then, there would often be popcorn or brownies for the exhausted decorating committee.

All was well with the world.

My Life's Story on a Tree

For most of us, trimming the tree is a walk down memory lane. We have those "special" ornaments that mean something to us whether bought as a souvenir on vacation, received as a gift from a close friend or relative, simply indicative of something meaningful to us or handed down through the ages.

The tree this year is a little slimmer than the last few and holds way less ornaments. Each time I sit and admire it (as I tend to do often), I realize another "special" ornament didn't quite make it on the tree this year. But since all of our ornaments are memorable in some way, I love each and every one and like to simply look at them and think about their significance.

This is one of the oldest balls on our tree. There are about 4 of these left in my collection. When I was a little girl, my mom had a trio of these (in different colors) hung on ribbons (the old-fashioned curling kind) from a bow and a set hung in every window of our house. (We had a lot of windows back then, too.) For whatever reason, I adored these particular ornaments. We were constantly admonished to be very careful, as they were "very old." Since there was set for each window in that particular house I would assume she had specifically put these together when they moved there in 1953 or shortly thereafter. At one point in time, I had about 12 of them. In fact, one set was still tied in the little set of three until about a decade ago. Obviously, these remind me of Christmases at home so very long ago.

This tiny pink glass horn is another oldie but doesn't quite go back that far. I bought this one when I was still a kid in school and had started decorating a small tree in my room each year with my very own ornaments. I would put the card table up and drape it with a piece of Christmasy fabric. I had a small artificial tree that was about 3" high and I would go to town decorating it. This was one of the first ornaments I bought with my own money at the "after Christmas sale" at a huge Christmas specialty store that was in our community. Many of my friends and their families made a special trip to those sales to get the "fancy" stuff at 50% off each year. It was local tradition. It dates back to around 1970, give or take a year or two.

Yet another old one, this probably came to me in the 70's. I bought it simply because I liked it and it reminded me of so many of the old ones on our tree back home. The significant thing about all three of these is that they are a part of the small set of survivors that have made it through two major tree catastrophes when our tree fell completely over, smashing many an ornament.

Those incidents brought this beauty into my life.

It's a big glass ornament featuring a beautiful bright red cardinal with a bright yellow pear with a white flower. Green leaves add another touch of color. Again, we bought this at an after-Christmas sale for 50% off. At that rate, it was still expensive but I loved it. That was the first year the tree fell over. I was heartbroken at the loss of so many of my treasured ornaments and The Big Guy took me out in an earnest search for new ones. The cardinal was always my mom's favorite bird and it makes me think of her.

Lastly, this little guy is one of the newest members of the family. I collect reindeer and have over 500 in various forms. This is his second year with us. Plugged into the string of lights, he gallops constantly but never makes any progress. He gets a lot of attention by visitors so he smiles sweetly, too.

Well, we've still got houseguests so I really need to run. Just wanted to share some of these with you.

Another day, another missed blogpost. (9 more days on the countdown!)

Sorry about that folks! (I'm beginning to feel like Maxwell Smart saying that so often.)

What can I say? It's been so hectic around here - typical pre-Christmas. Today's the last day I am accepting online orders for Christmas delivery so, hopefully, I can breathe easier soon. (I'll still have some local deliveries but they are manageable at the moment.)

The tree is actually decorated ! It looked like it was the same size as last year but must be skinnier. It took a whole box less of ornaments this time around. (I'll have to share some better shots of it later but the lighting is bad here at the moment.)

I actually got some candy made last night and this morning. Our guests arrived and, yes, we were ready.

The Big Guy planned a quick, impromptu get-together for friends at a local restaurant tonight and we've got 19 people planning to show. Not bad for last-minute plans! Maybe we can get him a gig as a party planner after retirement.

Well, we've got company so I've got to run.

Oh yeah, only 9 more days to go, folks. Kick it into high gear NOW !!!!!

Still driving that paint brush at warp speed!

It's been a busy weekend. I've spent many hours painting (and sewing) to complete the orders I have. Surprisingly, I've had more off-line sales than online. (I had anticipated the opposite!) I'm pleased so many of my old customers have returned with customized orders.

Here's a peek at some of my recent work.

Duckie finally got his wheels on and his finishing touches.

I'm eager to get to my Christmas delivery deadline this week so I can get busy and complete the items on our own gift list. Otherwise, I'll be one of those folks shopping at the last minute at Walgreen's!!!

I was also motivated as we have houseguests arriving on Monday for several days. I'd like to spend some quality time with them instead of holed up painting or staying up all night to get the orders done. (Been there, done that before!)

We did get our tree and it is in the house but not yet decorated. It has a nice, somewhat sporadic, array of lights on it. We tested them all before stringing them onto the tree but once up, half the first string stopped working. The Big Guy played with it a bit and it started working. he went ahead and hung the second string. These were all good but that string won't blink. About half way through the third string, half of that one stopped working!

The Big Guy was getting a bit tired and grumpy at this point. He had done a really good job of tucking the lights in and really integrating them into the tree branches. He managed to rearrange the working half od the third string so the tree had lights at the top and we agreed to have a dark bottom foot or two of tree.

At this point, he has done his job. He gets it in, stands it up and puts the lights on. The rest of the job is mine although I do ask for some help for the highest ornaments and the angel. (He's tall and doesn't need a step stool. I'm klutzy and have visions of falling into the fully decorated tree while using a stool to reach!)

Maybe after I get these shipments out in the morning, I'll get a chance to sit down and write one of the many posts I've had rambling around in my head these last few days. I know it will get hectic once our compnay gets here.

Hope y'all are getting all your preps done.

F*L*E*X*I*B*I*L*I*T*Y

Yep, I'm back to that old mantra - "flexibility... flexibility... flexibility." If I say it enough, maybe it will be easier to just go with the flow and keep the panic down.

With just two weeks to go, I'm definitely getting overwhelmed. I'm a day or two behind on completing orders, something I'm hoping to get back on track with tomorrow. I'm definitely not ready for the company that's arriving on Monday (but I will be). My candy making committee (family) has backed out of Saturday's work session and I'll be on my own for a good part of the production. (Okay, they did come up with some really good excuses.) I do not have the gifts that need to be shipped ready, yet. (Again, hopefully, remedied this weekend.)

Then, today, I had a great plan for going to get the Christmas tree (Yes, we still get a real tree and, no, we haven't gotten it yet.) and the bottom fell out of that when, instead of being several hours early getting home from work, The Big Guy ended up running several hours late! I needed his vehicle for this task. (His muscles and arm strength usually come in handy there, too.) This was a two-fold obstacle, I had also figured we'd grab a bite for dinner while running that errand. With him running so late, I had to fix a meal, too. (Now, I'm all out of those "pre-fixed" meals that I stocked in the freezer for the last minute rush. So much for all that advanced planning.)

The crowning stroke was when he called to tell me he was running so late and asked if I'd looked at the front step at all during the day. (He figured I hadn't since he hadn't gotten a call from me during the day.) I had not. I had not even been out the door all day, moving from one indoor project to the next. It seems our wrought iron railing on our front steps had simply fallen off during the night. It broke off right where it's posts were sunken into the concrete steps ! As it had not seemed loose or cracked, it's quite a mystery. It had simply fallen back on top of our plastic garbage cans stored in that corner and would not have made much noise as it fell.
Ultimately, it creates the same problem no matter how it happened. We have no rail on our steps and quite a drop off on the top step which serves as our "porch." I'm guessing this will be more of a problem to me than anyone else. I'm the klutz in the clan and I'm the one who cautiously holds the rail as I go in and out.

While it does need to be replaced, it is not the highest thing on The Big Guy's list this week (or next). First, he needs to figure out just how to replace it. It's unlikely he'll be able to simply drill into the concrete block of the step to sink a new rail. The almost 40-year-old block is unlikely to survive such drastic impact and we're not ready to replace the entire front step area at this point in time. It doesn't help that the temps this week are the lowest of the year and not conducive to outdoor work. This is a problem that will need some brainstorming these next few days.

The upside of this latest problem : I can now cross putting garland and lights on the outside rail off my list.

All right!!