Tree

Ann, nice place settings. I have some myself but am too lazy to use them. I have my grandma's 12-piece Lenox setting, beige and gold, and have never used them. If it can't go in the dishwasher...

alice wrote:

How sumptious!

Hope so, Alice. The menu will be salmon balls, hush puppies, and crudites with red-pepper hummus. I made salmon croquettes a few weeks ago, and Linda and Clint could not come that night. They've been hinting for them ever since. I will make them up in bite-size balls. The hush puppies (little round ones) will replace the corn pone, and we will have crudites instead of cabbage. We normally serve just plain ketchup with the salmon, so that will be there, but Lynn really likes hummus, so there will be both the dip and a hummus sauce for the salmon from a recipe I found in Fitness mag that I've been eager to try.

Ann

LC wrote:

Ann, nice place settings. I have some myself but am too lazy to use them. I have my grandma's 12-piece Lenox setting, beige and gold, and have never used them. If it can't go in the dishwasher...

I know what you mean about those gold bands. The dishwasher can erase them. It did that on some Fostoria plates we got as wedding gifts back in the sixties.

I got this china some years ago. Hallmark designed them. they are dishwasher - freezer-to-oven safe. I haven't used them as much since I moved to SA. My little house doesn't have much storage space, so they stay in a box in the garage.

I gave the "good stuff" to the kids when I moved here, and have replaced it with fun buys from places like Marshall's and Tuesday Morning, but I'm thinking about giving some of that stuff to Goodwill so I can keep this set in the hall closet so it won't be such a pain to bring in every year.

Ann

What Do We Keep? (My Christmas letter 2007)

At this time in my life, as I try to downsize not accumulate, I ask myself: What treasures do I keep? What do I throw away? What artifacts of my heritage do I tuck away in boxes and drawers in hopes others after me will value them as I do?

Among my archival treasures are my grandmother’s china, thousands of photos, old letters, the painting of roses by Aunt Betty, my mother’s and my wedding dresses, medals and jewelry, the dollhouse my grandfather made many years ago, and a little purse I got at Niagara Falls in 1946. Then there are those treasures from my own children such as the blue ceramic letter holder with “Mom” engraved on it that sits on my desk, the precious handmade Christmas ornaments, the carefully beaded necklaces, the poems written on scraps of paper, the shelves made in shop class, and special greeting cards.

There are so many questions I wish I had asked of my family members, but would I have remembered the answers? Sometimes I see the look of recognition on the faces of my grandchildren as I begin a story, and then I say, “I know you have heard this before, but you’ve got to hear this story again so you remember it.”

I remember a friend who said she kept her mother’s recipes just because they were in her mother’s handwriting. I love the handwriting on the old letters I have. Some of the writing is perfectly formed and some is haphazard.

And life goes on, and more treasures will accumulate, and somewhere decisions have to be made to make our lives simpler and easier. I get rid of the clothes I do not need, the books I have read and know could benefit others even with my highlighted parts, and all the little treasures in the junk drawer that I will never figure out what they are supposed to be used for.

And the best is to value each moment, to live each moment and watch those sunrises and sunsets and smiling faces of family and friends, to sing songs and thank God for giving us the ultimate treasure of life for however long we have it!

As I said, I gave much of that accumulated stuff to Lynn and Susan shortly after moving here. More has been set aside for Dave and Lyn as soon as we can find a way to get them from SA to NJ at a reasonable cost.

Sometimes I wonder, though, if that was a good idea. It was just after I did so that Lynn and Susan split for a few years.

I am reminded of Shakespeare's King Lear. He gave everything he had to two of his daughters, thinking they would be grateful and look after him, but they sent him out into the cold.

Things are better now, but I still wonder if they would have acted as they did if I had held on to the "stuff."

Maybe, if there were more "things" here that they wanted to have someday, I wouldn't be settling for "Christmas" on the 20th instead of Christmas Day.

Part of why I'm humbugging.

Ann

LC wrote:

joefrank wrote:

I have to do my Colorado
blue spruce that's out in the garden tomorrow...

That will be the only real tree on this thread, lol. Notice how everyone has fakes? The last time I did a real tree I remembered why I used fakes. Too much mess. Pine needles falling off, and you can't bend and twist real branches to display the ornaments like you can the fake ones. Sure, that real pine smell can't be beat, but I guess there are tradeoffs for everything...

Here is a possible answer:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2009/11/for-eco-friendly-christmas-rent-a-live-potted-tree/1

Ann,

Christmas on the 20th? You are cutting it close.

My husband's job often took him away from home on Christmas. So we got creative. One December 22, the airline called for him to go out for a four day trip in the morning.

So we got all the presents out and under the tree, filled the stockings, and woke up our soundly sleeping children and told them Santa had come to our house that night.

We spent the next few hours with a great Christmas celebration with happy little kids.

The only problem was the neighbor children were a little miffed Santa hadn't come to their houses.

Carol

2007 seems so very long ago. I was a different person then. We all were. Everything and everyone changes.

I have a real tree. We used to go out in the swamp and cut a top off a long-leafed Florida pine. Then we got a little more well off and got a tree that could support ornaments.
Small. It sat on a little table. We made the ornaments out of stuff.

When we got lights, I smiled. I do love the sparkle. In my blindness, those little lights expanded and the refraction was lovely.


In my youth, I tried to make bells out of can lids. Circles, they were. Cut four slits, poke a hole in the middle, hang a chinaberry, bend it all down and there you have a bell. It did not work very well. It did not ring, it was not pretty.

In my older age, I found that can lid bells do not make Christmas.

Love,
Betty

We used to cut trees from our land. However, they kept growing, and the last year we cut a tree, we have movies of dragging this tree home and my husband's breathing sounds like he is on verge of a heart attack. Never again.

We did go to Christmas tree farms and cut down small reasonable trees.

Now we have an artificial tree, I think. I can't wait to see it, but nothing more has appeared after the nutcracker I found in the hall last night.

Carol

In Germany we learned to put real candles on our tree and stand by with the spray bottle in case they lit a branch on fire. We continued that practice for years in the states. It required a spindlier tree or one with singular branches that stick out far enough not to light the one above - and certainly a very green tree. I still have some of those clips that hold candles, but I don't use them. I didn't set out a tree this year because I'll be driving most of the holiday to and from Michigan.

Dear Diane,
You brave, brave traveler! If I had to drive in snow, I would need emergency help. I have not seen snow since Indiana, and that was a good 15 years ago. In fact, snow is not something I long for, or sleigh rides, or snowmen, or shoveling walks, or freezing toes off walking to school.....I remember that part. I do love Florida. It is nice. Did I say NICE. In case no one heard me, it is Nice, Warm, stuff grows willy nilly all year.

Love,
Betty

We heard you Betty!!!!

I like snow but don't like worrying about family driving in snow.

Carol

Dear Carol,
Today, I picked the green beans, the squash, the cucumbersand took all of that and a vat of frozen strawberries, jars, lids, Sure Jell and sugar to David's mom. She is 76.
She has a houseload of freeloading family there.
Let that be the beginning of this message. I cannot tell the rest this night. I was so angry.

Love,
Betty

Betty,


How about the gators who hang around on front porches?

Dear Alice,
I know that was a joke. There are no aligators on the porch. All that is on that porch is rotting plywood flooring, the old grandpa who is waiting to die, and three 400 pound grand children who do not even take out the garbage, wash a dish, cook a meal, and always say, "I'll do it in a little while."

I blew up at that last statement, and am now hated by all of the clan.

Christmas will come in spite of all of that. I have already considered the presents they will get.

Love,
Betty

Betty,

A lump of coal or an ugly stick?

I hear Floridians get lots of gators on the porch.

Fortunately it's rare; but one home had one come into the kitchen.

DK,

A little more of this story please. Hiow did the alligator get in?

I wouldn't want my knife sharpener in the kitchen. He might sharpen his too many, too sharp teeth with it.

Do people leave their doors open? How frightful!

It was around here somewhere out near the Everglades. Actually, the thing opened the screen door - you know how some of them don't latch well in older houses. It was in the dry season - the poor thing was looking for water. Animal control got it and no harm was done.

How scary!

Love, love, love the pictures of the trees and decorations! This year, I don't have the real tree...I only put up a large tree every other year. This year, it's the fiber optic, pull-it-from-the-box tree, only three feet in height.

But my stuffed Santa collection is taking over the house.

Knock, knock.
"Who's there?"
"Alligator."
"Alligator who?"

Madhatter, I love Santas

Abe, Alligator freaks me.