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December 25, 2005

Got it! Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukkah

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On Friday night a dear and close personal relative brought home a scraggly, potted evergreen, which had been received as a gift. No doubt it had been left over at the Stop and Shop, purchased by an adolescent with a big heart, and rejected as pathetic by the staff -- so home it came. Would that I had a "before" photo, but it was too ugly to consider shooting.

On Saturday, I went to get vegies at the farmstand and discovered that there were only about ten trees left, none of which was below seventeen feet. They cried for an extravaganza that I was not prepared to create, especially with the Beef Wellington pending.

The Unitarian church had evidently delivered what was left of their tree lot to the deserving, since it was empty, so, at 1 PM, I turned to our local nursery. They had at least three hundred trees to chose from, and I found a short, plump balsam that looked like a good choice, but it was $49.95, which seemed steep, given that it wouldn't be worth a penny in twelve hours (except to the new owner, of course.) I asked if the trees had been discounted yet, and I was told to come back at five -- which I would have had to do anyway since I am a little old lady with a compact car who needs help (to get a big tree, that is).

Then I checked with the gathering. They told me they considered decorating a large Christmas tree rather like greasing the paper bag in which to roast the turkey for Thanksgiving -- a big messy job, traditional, but odious. Someone remarked that they thought I would have already thought of something much better.

That was the challenge. So I took the scraggly potted evergreen and made it into a Christmas Carmen Miranda, with what I had sittlng around the house -- a considerable assortment of things, I might add. Now we have a Christmas tree - the first in 28 years. It's just the right size, and took just the right amount of time to make.

Since Chanukkah and Christmas fall on the same day this year, something that I never remember happening, I can redecorate my tree in blue and white for the afternoon.

Happy holiday!

Posted by Dakota at December 25, 2005 08:25 AM