A Very White Christmas!

Flannery and Ryan ventured off to Canada for the holidays, to visit his family. Thoughtful as she always is, Flannery offered to stop at Lake Louise, which is located in the beautiful Banff National Forest, and take a photo for me, knowing that Lake Louise is one of my most favorite spots in the world. Wow! It sure looks different in the winter! Apparently, it was sooooo cold, the rest of their party stayed in the car while this photo was shot. They were headed to Vernon from Calgary, and the trip was a beautiful one, albeit a very chilly one. Thanks, guys!

Photo credits: Title photo for blog - Ryan May/Flannery; Photo of R & F - Steve May

Ice Cream

I'm not sure why I'm writing about ice cream at this time of year. Brrrrr! It's cold! But, I was thinking about ice cream when I made a special trip to the grocery store to buy little Johnny's favorite flavor of ice cream on his birthday last week. I got to thinking about how great ice cream is. Although I don't eat it often, we seem to go through an awful lot of ice cream at our house, thanks to little Johnny's nightly habit, and Taylor's frequent trips to the freezer. Anyway, thinking about ice cream reminded me of Eddie Murphy's ice cream, or actually, ICE CREAAAAAAAM skit, and I thought you might enjoy listening to it. Beware for those easily offended, though. There are many cuss words in his routine:

O Tannenbaum

As I was watering, decorating, ooohing and aaaawing, and generally primping over my beautiful Christmas tree this weekend (and wondering how long it will take the cats to destroy it), I thought about all the Christmas trees I've welcomed into my home over the years. Sorry, folks. We're about to take a trip down memory lane and you'll just have to get over it, or stop reading right now and either check your facebook account or pour yourself a drink, or both.

Anyhoo, my very first Christmas as an adult I remember well (don't worry, I'm getting to the tree part of the story eventually), because my then-boyfriend worked at night guarding a Christmas tree lot, so he could buy me an engagement ring. Isn't that just so sweet? This was back when the dinasours roamed the earth and people didn't have cell phones. They had regular, plug-it-in-to-the-wall type phones (quaintly referred to as "land lines" now). Well, because we were just so much in love, we spent the majority of each night, all night, talking to each other on the phone while he was supposed to be "guarding" these trees. So, just so you get the visual here, the trees are outside and he's inside this trailer with the heater cranked up. I remember one conversation we had went something like this: Him: "Hold on. I hear something." Me: "Be careful!" Him: "I'm not going outside. Hell, no. It's too cold out there and I can see the guys stealing the trees. They are about twice my size!". So much for hiring someone to "guard" the trees. We did get engaged that Christmas Eve, and my ring was very simple, and very lovely.

The first actual tree I remember buying as an adult cost me all of $5.00. We were very broke and waited until Christmas Eve to buy our tree, when most of the lots would practically give the trees away. We truly had a "Charlie Brown" tree that year, for a whopping $5.00, but we excitedly hauled it home to our little apartment and decorated it. It was a real beauty!

Large and majestic, or small and sweet, all trees are great to me. The fact that you get to bring one into your home for a little while just sweetens the deal.