Christmas Tide Rolls In

Advent Sunset

I managed to get all of my remaining working Christmas light strings (some of these go back to the 1970's) strung out along the hedge next to our front windows and the remaining strands wrapped around one of the two large ash trees in the front
yard by the First Sunday of Advent.

A few of the old 1970's Christmas lights
wrapped around the frontyard ash tree

The Interior of the house got a later start and a minor Christmas Season decorating treatment just before Christmas Eve and the hoped-for arrival of St. Nick himself.

 Our 'whispering pine' came home from the traditional Kadee Christmas Tree Farm and was placed in its spiffy new tree stand.  Getting it to fit and sit upright is a balancing act.  After several iterations, we had her straight and proper, moved the stand into the dining room corner - a new location for our tree, made possible by our new kitchen and the subsequent furniture rearrangement that placed the hutch formerly in the dinning room, into our remodeled kitchen.

We now had room to place the shiny and bedazzling Christmas gifts under the boughs of the decorated tree.

Now the house is all fancy and decorated for Christmas.  Let us celebrate with a good meal and a bottle of wine.

Merry Christmas.

Whispering Pines, "Take Me Home Tonight"

 Doesn't it just always seem that the holidays get here really quick?
And those holiday things that I should get done, or even want to get done, I am quickly behind.  How does this keep happening?

It was only days until Christmas when we noticed we did not have a Christmas Tree in the house.  I hope I never go for a plastic Christmas Tree, seems like a mockery of the holiday magic to me, kind of like a plastic Jesus on the dashboard of my car.  But if we wanted to keep Suneson Family Tradition alive, that means a drive into rural East Texas' Hunt County to Kadee Farms to select and cut a live tree.

It was Saturday.  Christmas Eve would be upon us in a week.  It is now or never, do you really want Suneson Family Tradition to DIE from mere lack of effort?  The answer is no.  Well then, get your twinkle toes into the SUV and let's go fell us a Christmas Tree!

Sue with hack saw at the ready - Ponders, which tree is the right tree?

The walk among the Virginia Pines is part of the pondering process, part of the tradition.  
     How about this one?  
     "Maybe", is the appropriate response.  
     Let's keep looking thought.  So we do.  

We walk, we ponder.  Perhaps it would be appropriate to get a 'ponder'-osa pine for our Christmas tree?

    How about this one?
    Maybe.
    Well maybe not.  It has a forked top, a bit off-center and I think it looks kind of wan.
    So, what I hear you saying is that this is the 'wan' tree for us?
    I wish I didn't have to hear that.

We walk. We ponder.  Sometimes we pun.

I think we need to go back to that one we liked over by the big tree.  I think I need to see that one again.

This  beauty has just whispered, "Take me home tonight, I'm all yours"

    Is this the one?
    Yes.  I hear this one whispering, "Take me home tonight".
    Are you accustom to having trees talk to you?
    I said "whisper", not "talk".  And yes, in my day, I quickly became accustom to well-shaped beauties whispering to me, "take me home tonight".  So for your information, I am accustom to hearing these 'pining' breathless pleas.
    I wish I didn't have to hear that.
    Too late Ethyl, you can't unhear.

Stand back.  I'll make the cut then.  And within a few seconds she was down on the ground and ready to be carried back to our home.

And with a few swift strokes, she fell into my arms

 

Triumphant Lumber Jill

Suneson Tradition mandates a stop for Texas BBQ on the way home.  So with the scent of a pine, pitched in the back of the SUV, we pull into the gravel parking lot of Big Daddy's BBQ.  It is a two-meat plate for me with ribs and sliced brisket.  

As we lick the lingering sauce from our lips, Sue say, "Now - it's Christmas."

A Suneson Tradition secured for another Christmas Season.