Today, I started off with great intentions to get a lot of work done here, since the cob webs on this web page have become very noticeable. Let's face facts here...... I've been incredibly remiss with my posting obligations, and the ton of hate mail that I get each day is starting to overwhelm my postman. Only kidding! I should be so lucky as to have a fan base who misses me so much. In fact, I should consider myself lucky if I can hold onto the few remaining friends, family and the occasional fan who even bother to stop by at all. I don't blame them at all, after all, no news.......is NO news! So if I were stopping by here to see what's new, and got an occasional note that said someone will get back to you just as soon as possible, I'd head for new frontiers as well. There are plenty of fish to fry.........or is it fish in the ocean, in any event, I'm sure you get my drift. So having said all of that, I'm going to work like the dickens to earn back your respect, friendship and hopefully the occasional naughty comments that some of you loved to leave behind. After all, it's one for all, and all for one, and lately I've been at the airport when the ship has come in. So, let's get going..........to work that is. I don't have to be at the marina until Monday to catch my next flight.
First up, I'm going to quickly share with you my Christmas tale of "The Three Trees", and then with lightning speed fast forward to something else that has nothing to do with a recap of 2008 or the holidays whatsoever. It's not that I'm anti-holiday or don't enjoy a quick visit to yesteryear, it's just that I'm sure you've all had your fill of everyone's Recap of the Holidays and 2008. I know I have.
This year I found myself receiving three trees for Christmas, none of which were expected whatsoever. Normally I head out to find the perfect tree early each year, but this year there were so many things that kept popping up.........family issues, bad weather, charitable obligations, etc, that by the 18th of December I was still treeless and not sure if and when I'd even get one. Now this was hard for me, since I love the holidays, and always make a full day of decorating the tree and tossing holiday cheer all over the place. I'm not talking about liquid cheer. We do try our best to keep all of that well contained in their proper vessels! Well that day the Christmas Tree Fairy left a small Christmas Tree on my back deck, and after the initial surprise wore off, I set about trimming off the bottom and setting it up on the interior porch to defrost and then decorate the next day. The next morning, my contractor who had noticed a day before that I still didn't have a Christmas tree, decided to surprise me and left another Christmas Tree in front of my house. This tree was so glorious, huge and well pruned that it blended in completely with the shrubbery in front of the house, so that I actually had to do a double take before I even saw it. My God, I couldn't believe my eyes. I was convinced he had stolen that tree off of the White House lawn! It was absolutely spectacular, about 12 feet tall and the exact type of tree I always buy each year. Suddenly I felt very uncomfortable, because now I didn't know which tree to set up. They were both very special and given with love, but one of them was clearly the size and type I always displayed, and the other was much smaller. Well, I decided to put up the big one and donate the smaller one to a local charity. I trimmed the bottom of the big beauty and set it up, and called the local charity to let them know I had a Christmas tree if any of their clients needed one. The next morning I walked into our great room and saw the tree spread out in all of her majesty. She was absolutely flawless, smelled divine and had perfectly moist needles. I reached into the center to remove what I thought was a piece of straw or other matter that could have been part of a bird's nest, and suddenly came out with a hand full of dead brown needles and tiny brittle branches. Upon further inspection, I found that the entire interior of this tree was deader than dead, and that if one were to put lights or any other heat source near this tinderbox interior, a tree fire of huge proportions was guaranteed to take place. I was totally shocked. Never before had I encountered this type of situation, but knew it was time to take this tree down and replace it with the other one that was thankfully still without a new home. Long story short.......(I know..... this story is already using up more bandwidth than allowed by law) the small tree worked out just fine, was perfectly moist inside and out and looked beautiful when it was finally decorated. The big tree wound up getting plunked into a huge snowdrift, decorated with white lights and looked absolutely regal outside where it glowed and safely belonged.
On Christmas evening I celebrated the holiday with friends and family, and was given many special presents, including a lovely rosemary tree. This tree was not only very useful, I could use it to cook and bake with, it was also very much alive, green and also had an incredible aroma all it's own. Feeling like a proud parent, I took this tree home to show it off to the other two that had stayed behind guarding the fort. I can't prove it, but I swear there was some serious tree envy taking place in that room after I went to bed, since the rosemary tree had also been decorated with delicate little ornaments, and I'm sure words to the effect that "I'm here to stay.........you're just visiting for the holidays" were exchanged. I guess, we'll never know.
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