Christmas in 2015 was to be our first "Empty-Nester" holiday.
-- Or so we believed.
Grant, working as Digital Content Producer at Newsy in Columbia, Missouri was, per company policy, to get 1 of 3 end-of-year holidays; either Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years. He chose to come back to Texas for a few days over Thanksgiving, and as noted in an earlier blog post here, we three enjoyed being hosted by the Gaul Family at their home in The Woodlands, north of Houston for a fine Thanksgiving feast.
Grant, ever a considerate human being, figured that many of his co-workers at Newsy had young families, and it would be more important and meaningful for these parents to be able to have Christmas with their families, leaving Grant the bachelor, to voluntarily take work over Christmas while others spent time at home. Making holiday pay-scale and earning bonus vacation days as he worked on the 24th & 25th watching the events the world and keeping the figurative "presses" running. He said it was not too bad working on Christmas.
Inga, was planning on flying back to Dallas for about a week of Christmas, but she started as Tobacco Education Specialist with the Marion County (Oregon) Health Department on December 7, and her boss stipulated that she had not yet earned any vacation days, so no go. If she had to miss a Christmas at home, this was about as good of a reason as any we could come up with.
Even Strider, our dog of 14 years who was rumored to speak at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, he too was not to be with us this Christmas.
It looks like just the two of us babe, you, me and the tree makes three.
What to do for Christmas here in Garland? When faced with change, we decided to hold fast to tradition. And the tradition says - go out to Hunt County and cut down a Christmas Tree, stop for Texas barbecue on the way home, put up Christmas lights and hang our stocking on the mantle. This is the basic Christmas tradition around here.
We have selected and cut our Christmas Trees at Kadee Farms for 23 years. We have cut trees in snow and we have cut trees in 80 degree heat. December weather in Texas, it can be said, is like a box of Christmas chocolates - you just never know what your going to get. In 2015 we had a gray sky with mid-50's temperatures and some mud and standing water from heavy rains a couple of days before. The two of us roamed the farm, and finally settled on our 6 foot tree and made the cut. Back at the Cider House and processing station, it was discovered that we had a bird nest built in our tree. The hands at Kadee Farms all assured us this was a sign of exceptional good luck to bring this tree into our house. We'll take it, and they didn't even charge extra for the luck that came stuck in our boughs.
We thought that Christmas 2015 was going to be our first "Empty-Nest" Christmas - but after we cut the Christmas Tree of our choice, it turned out that we did not have an empty nest after all.
It is a Christmas Miracle - or at least a holiday oddity.
-- Or so we believed.
Grant, working as Digital Content Producer at Newsy in Columbia, Missouri was, per company policy, to get 1 of 3 end-of-year holidays; either Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years. He chose to come back to Texas for a few days over Thanksgiving, and as noted in an earlier blog post here, we three enjoyed being hosted by the Gaul Family at their home in The Woodlands, north of Houston for a fine Thanksgiving feast.
Grant, ever a considerate human being, figured that many of his co-workers at Newsy had young families, and it would be more important and meaningful for these parents to be able to have Christmas with their families, leaving Grant the bachelor, to voluntarily take work over Christmas while others spent time at home. Making holiday pay-scale and earning bonus vacation days as he worked on the 24th & 25th watching the events the world and keeping the figurative "presses" running. He said it was not too bad working on Christmas.
Inga, was planning on flying back to Dallas for about a week of Christmas, but she started as Tobacco Education Specialist with the Marion County (Oregon) Health Department on December 7, and her boss stipulated that she had not yet earned any vacation days, so no go. If she had to miss a Christmas at home, this was about as good of a reason as any we could come up with.
Even Strider, our dog of 14 years who was rumored to speak at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, he too was not to be with us this Christmas.
It looks like just the two of us babe, you, me and the tree makes three.
What to do for Christmas here in Garland? When faced with change, we decided to hold fast to tradition. And the tradition says - go out to Hunt County and cut down a Christmas Tree, stop for Texas barbecue on the way home, put up Christmas lights and hang our stocking on the mantle. This is the basic Christmas tradition around here.
We have selected and cut our Christmas Trees at Kadee Farms for 23 years. We have cut trees in snow and we have cut trees in 80 degree heat. December weather in Texas, it can be said, is like a box of Christmas chocolates - you just never know what your going to get. In 2015 we had a gray sky with mid-50's temperatures and some mud and standing water from heavy rains a couple of days before. The two of us roamed the farm, and finally settled on our 6 foot tree and made the cut. Back at the Cider House and processing station, it was discovered that we had a bird nest built in our tree. The hands at Kadee Farms all assured us this was a sign of exceptional good luck to bring this tree into our house. We'll take it, and they didn't even charge extra for the luck that came stuck in our boughs.
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| First Stop: The Petting Zoo The Goat was happy to see us and was rewarded for her enthusiasm with a handful of hay The pony, on the otherhand, was said to be a "Biter" - no hay for the pony |
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| A Possible Candidate in the Swamp However, we kept paroling and found another tree to take home |
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| A strong woman makes A Merry Christmas |
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| Kadee Farms Processing Center Shake the dead needles out |
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| A Cup of Hot Cider at the Cider House A Bird nest from our Tree - It is Good Luck AND Looks like we will NOT have an "Empty-Nest Christmas" after all |
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| Momma Bird got a late start this year She must have gone south before the chicks could hatch |
It is a Christmas Miracle - or at least a holiday oddity.
2 comments:
SWEET!!
Bob,
Thanks for leaving a comment. Heartening to know that at my readership numbers in the 1's or 2'!
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