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We're running late this year with our Christmas tree.
Most years it seems as if we get it the first weekend in the month, although
it may take us a couple more days to get it into the house and decorated.
Having this online journal means I can look back and (at least some years)
see when we put up our tree. I've just looked back at a few previous years
and confirmed that we usually get our tree around the beginning of the
month but then usually a few days go by before it is in place and fully
decorated. For example. in 2001 we got our tree on Dec. 1st (a Saturday), rearranged the living room furniture on Sunday, and set up the tree and strung the lights on it on Monday... and on Friday night we finally got to decorating it. (We had to do it that night because the next day I had to fly to France on a two week business trip.) And in 2002 we actually got our tree on November 30th, set it up on Dec. 1st, but
took another day or two to decorate it. Last year took a week between getting
the tree and finishing decorating it, but we had Jill's tonsillectomy keeping
us busy that week.
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We always cut our own tree -- have been doing it that way for more than twenty years now, so I guess that counts as being a tradition. This is the tenth Christmas tree we've had since we moved to Rhode Island (not counting Christmas '95 when we were staying with Nancy's mother while waiting to close on our house) -- most of them came from a farm where you got a wagon ride from the farmhouse out to the groves of trees. Last year and this year we went to The Farmer's Daughter (yes, a different location but she is the daughter of that tree farm family and owns her own plant nursery, etc.).
At The Farmer's Daughter Christmas Tree Farm. |
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So Jill and I brought home a tree. Later, Nancy and I got the living room
furniture moved around and got the tree set in place. And there it waits,
with no decorations... We've all just been too busy (right now Jill is
with friends, Nancy's at a church meeting, and Jeremy is at a dance with
Katie at her college.
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Jill and I talked about going to see Narnia tomorrow night, but then I
remembered I have an appointment for an eye exam in the afternoon and I
will probably end up with dilated pupils from eye drops -- not ideal for
watching a movie. |
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So Jill said "Okay, if you can't watch a movie, we'll decorate the
tree instead." Okay.
There is a weather advisory that says "A coastal storm will bring
a mix of winter precipitation late Thursday night and Friday. A mix of
snow, sleet, freezing rain, and rain is expected across southern New England
from late Thursday night through Friday afternoon. Strong gusty winds are
also likely over coastal sections of Massachusetts and Rhode Island."
Of course that just means that things will be warming up. (Always look
on the bright side.) It was around 9° F (around minus 12° C)
this morning (but with a slight breeze that made the wind chill equal to
zero).
Yes, that is an outdoor water fountain -- about seven or eight feet tall
-- taken on Saturday outside the Umbrella Factory (no, not really a factory
that makes umbrellas; it's a place that sells just about everything: arts
& crafts, odd toys, candles, insense, posters, black lights, books,
music...) the water was trickling out at the top and freezing. The air
temperature was probably just below freezing at the time so it was warmer
than today, but it is a very cold looking picture, suitable for today.
Last night Nancy and the three other teachers in the district who achieved
National Board Certification were briefly honored at the school board meeting.
The board meetings are televised so I was going record the meeting but
I think my DVD recorder is not hooked up correctly (there's our cable box
plus a VHS tape machine plus the DVD recorder/player... oh, and an X-Box...
and a lot of cable!). I know had everything hooked up and working correctly
a couple of months ago...
However, the camera was pointed at the school committee the whole time,
so I'm glad I didn't get too involved in trying to trouble-shoot those
cables. After she came home, instead of decorating the tree, we watched
an episode of Firefly -- *sigh* -- there is only one episode left that
we've not seen. If only they'd make more episodes straight to DVD we would
certainly buy them. |
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And someday real soon now we'll get the decorations put on our Christmas
tree.
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| jimsjournal
-- on the Web since September 26, 1996! |
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