“Christmas was on its way. Lovely, glorious, beautiful Christmas, upon which the entire kid year revolved
The saga of the Christmas tree began yesterday. I went to the garden center and bought my tree. It is a concolor tree. I read about it in the flyer from Agway. The tree has long needles, a bluish tint and smells of citrus. It lasts a long time so we may even be talking about my valentine tree. I hadn’t ever heard of a concolor before, but my Colorado sister had one last year and has it again this year. I also did some shopping and bought decorations for the house and chocolates for stockings. This morning Skip, my factotum, arrived with Bobby, his factotum. I had wrestled the tree out of the trunk and leaned it against the fence. Skip cut more of the trunk so it fit into the tree stand. Right now the two of them are moving the tree in the stand to make sure it’s straight. I laughed at them discussing the tree’s position, “No, my left. Go the other way. Move it back. Move it forward. Okay, that’s it.” It took far longer than it sounds. Right now they are putting on the lights, as may sets as can fit. Christmas music is playing. The house is getting festive.
My Christmas to do list is shrinking. The Colorado presents went out UPS yesterday. They’ll arrive Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. Tomorrow is shopping for ingredients for baking. It is also wrapping my other sister’s gifts. Saturday is make fudge and maybe date nut bread for my sister. The marathon baking starts next week, and I have gifts for my cape friends to wrap.
When I was a kid, I never saw my mother wrapping gifts. She must have done them when I was asleep. We didn’t have a real attic. We had a Christmas Vacation attic with boards and insulation. A small ladder came down when you pushed opened the attic board. My mother used to hide gifts from Santa in the attic. I found that out one year when my father was in the attic passing gifts down to my mother. My sister was young then and she was getting a push toy which played music, and that’s what I heard, that’s what woke me up. I waited until my mother and father went downstairs for good then I sneaked down the stairs and looked through the bannister to watch my parents putting out the toys around the tree. I saw it all, and they never saw me. When I woke up and saw my gifts, I gave an Academy Award performance filled with wonder and surprise.
I love Christmas, and the tree is like the icing on a chocolate cake.Β
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
December 13, 2018 at 1:55 pm
Nostalgia kicked in to high gear this morning and it is something of a surprise.
As I had previously mentioned, it was my responsibility as a choir boy at St Mary and St Nicholas Church to step out of the choir and on to the top step to read the first lesson on Christmas Eve. The Church was dark, my Mum was out there somewhere and the words of Isaiah filled my 10 year old lungs and our Norman church in Leatherhead, Surrey.
Today I received an email from St John Fisher Chapel asking if I would read the first lesson at the 6.00 pm Mass on Christmas Eve.
And so it will be that 55 years on I will once again speak the words of Isaiah, think about those that have gone before us, express the joy of the season and His coming.
December 13, 2018 at 4:47 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I think Christmas is the most nostalgic time of any. All the memories and feelings come rushing back with the first scent of pine.
I love your memory of Christmas Eve. I can see your church in the memory of mine. I remember how lovely the church looked with poinsettias on the altar, the boys choir in their robes, and the candles lit and glowing.
What an amazing invitation. No wonder nostalgia kicked in. How remarkable you get toby My Dear Hedley and a young Hedley on the most wonderful of nights.
December 13, 2018 at 6:19 pm
Iβm practicing this evening….but honestly I do know it !!!
December 13, 2018 at 6:55 pm
MDH,
I had no doubts about your knowing it by heart.
December 13, 2018 at 3:10 pm
Nova and I were in Gothenburg at the animal hospital today and I hated every minute of driving there. She will be in surgery next Thursday but can thankfully come home with me later that day. Today I didn’t have to drive in rush hour traffic but must do that next week and I am already hating it.
I remember the first christmas tree I bought myself, I actually think it was one of those You call concolor, we call them Kings spruce. What I didn’t realize when I bought it as that they had dug a hole, rather deep and then put the tree in it. I remember thinking it was way more heavy than I thought it would be when I carried it home. It was huge π π π It was so big that even without the stand it made brown-green marks on my ceiling π π
Have a great day!
Christer.
December 13, 2018 at 5:01 pm
Christer,
Like you, I hate going to the city. I hate the traffic, the constant red lights and the crowds. It will be the longest week for you waiting for the surgery. I’m glad Nova can come home the same day.
I couldn’t find any reference to Kings spruce. I did find white fir is an alternate name for the tree.
https://awaytogarden.com/beloved-conifer-the-concolor-fir/
This year’s tree is slightly shorter than the usual trees I get, but it is a perfect height so I don’t have to cut any off the top.
Have a wonderful day!
December 14, 2018 at 2:21 am
Here’s a link to photos showing how it looks. Abies nordmanniana.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Abies+nordmanniana&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQhsb8457fAhUjtosKHcZRCS0Q_AUIDigB&biw=1366&bih=626
December 14, 2018 at 2:22 am
So they are obviously two different species but very alike.
December 14, 2018 at 10:45 am
Your variety is just a bit more fir like than mine which is billowy. They do have similarities though.
December 13, 2018 at 3:39 pm
Hi Kat,
My father wrapped the gifts. He was good at it and he liked to do it. My mother was not good at it and she didn’t like doing it. I take after my mother. It always feels like wrestling alligators.
I don’t remember how old I was when I figured out the Santa Claus thing but it was when I found some presents hidden on an upper shelf in my brothers’ bedroom closet. Why my mother hid them there is a mystery but my brothers weren’t really into exploring their closet all that much so maybe her instincts were good. Those very same presents showed up on Christmas morning as “from Santa”. 2+2 = Santa’s Your Parents!. π I didn’t tell anyone, though.
I spent a couple of hours making pizzelle today. I will spend a couple of hours making more of them tomorrow. After that the pizzelle iron will go into its box for another year.
The weather here is slightly warmer than it has been but the sun has gone missing.
Enjoy the evening.
December 13, 2018 at 5:33 pm
Hi Caryn,
In my house it was the opposite. Everything my father wrapped was messy, but he loved to wrap, and my mother was glad for the help.
I also don’t remember when I found out Santa Claus wasn’t real. I think someone must have told me as I never found hidden gifts. I never told my younger sisters either.
Somewhere I also have a pizzelle iron, but I have no idea where it is. I think it may be in a drawer so I’ll look if I ever get the urge tomato them.
I never even went out today, but Henry felt cold when he came inside so I knew it was cold. They did predict it would be a bit warmer today.
Have a great day!
December 13, 2018 at 8:50 pm
When I was a little kid, five or six years old in NYC, my parents were friends with an Italian family that lived down the block. I got to enjoy their Christmas tree and decorations during the holidays. They had an electric train that ran around the base of the tree. My dad bought me a Lionel train set which we would set up in our living room sans tree in December. π They came to our house and helped us celebrate Chanukah and we visited their house on Christmas Day. The wife worked at Capital records and gave me a 78 RPM recording of βRudolph the Red Nose Reindeerβ by Gene Autry. I played it every year and enjoyed it all through elementary school.
This morning started out with cloudy skies with mist and drizzle. The temperature was in the low 60s. When the cold front came through around three this afternoon it brought a line of thunderstorms and ten degrees cooler temperatures.
December 14, 2018 at 12:52 pm
Bob,
You had a great time at Christmas when you were a kid. You got to have it all as a guest. How cool that you shared each other’s holiday. Rudolph is one of the oldest and best Christmas songs.
We had such cold weather that any water outside froze.It really didn’t get above the low 30’s. Today is the exception. Finally warmth at 40Λ.