It was all about getting close to trees today and we found one at Lowes, a modest little beast but well formed for all that. Next up, get it trimmed by a friendly face tattooed shave head Latinx and chuck it in the bed of the rig. Thank God it's a long bed.
Once home, set that tree up in its stand and behold the regimental posture of the thing. Straight. Put lights on it and an angel, recall your dad sweating over lights on Christmas Eve and think how much easier life has become. Yes, we can get Christmas lights from any dollar store, no need to sweat it.
Then put some ornaments on the tree, there's lots and this little fella won't take them all, still, not bad for all that. Mission accomplished, behold your work and scorn the NWO. Globalist excrescence aside, do you remember when we didn't decorate our trees till right before Christmas? I do, and there's a beauty in that. Mind you, must've been stressful for the Paterfamilias.
In other news, a gang of multimillionaire socialists got frozen to Munich's tarmac in their private jets on the way to a climate enrichment scam. Oops, the world's getting hotter which is why it's colder, so give us all your money or we won't be able to chip all this ice away from our jets.
On topic, have you noticed how our green leaders bay for moar war? Sure you have, because, you know, it's so good for the environment. Just ask Raytheon or Lloyd "Totally Not A Diversity Hire" Austin. Whatever, the tree is up and that's grand.
Cheers,
LSP
War is the continuation of the racket of "let's you and him fight" by other means.
ReplyDeleteVery nice glass ornaments - that was Big Ben...
ReplyDeleteDid you indicate you were learning Spanish? Sabes, El Señor es The Lord.
You are welcome to visit next time you happen to venture further Northeast Dallas, closer towards escaping the county.
I like that translation, Wild.
ReplyDeleteThanks, GenX, feel free to DM, it'd be fun to meet up. lonestarparson@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteI had my tree and window lights up by last Saturday, but didn't turn the lights on until Sunday. This is so foreign for me as I usually wait until almost Christmas. And, guess what? Nothing bad has happened.
ReplyDeleteYou tree looks lovely (what we can see of it.) I was at Home Depot a few days ago and was shocked at the prices on the trees.
Before 1970, our family would go get a tree from a cut-yer-own lot, and then Dad would hang it upside down for a few days to shake all the loose needles and bird nests and such out. Decorate Christmas Eve, then go to Midnight Mass and then the tree comes down on the day after Twelfth Night. With ornaments that had been in various family's holdings since the late 1800's.
ReplyDeleteThen we moved to an island and got an artificial tree (on sale because the trees were 6 1/2' tall and a good portion of the island housing was trailers with lower roofs. (So those in trailers just bought the trees on sale and cut the bottom short and left off the bottom row of branches. But we were in a duplex house so...) and that tree lasted into the mid 1990s.)
Tradition is very important. My wife and I have the 'buy or select a year ornament that signifies something important' tradition going on. From the lean years to the finding of the German ornament store at Epcot (where they sold traditional real style glass ornaments) and to today, where we carefully select the finest the internet can provide within our budget.
But since we live in an apartment, the artificial tree that I bought on sale (it's tradition!) for the house didn't fit, so we put the branches on top of the bookshelves and curtain rod that line the room we are in and hang the ornaments from those branches. It's like sleeping under a Christmas Tree (which I used to do as a kid, lay back and look up into the tree and fall asleep.)
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.
ReplyDeleteThere are thousands of plastic trees assembled in China that go unsold every year. They have lights integrated into their plastic frames. For $799.99 one of those magnificent green plastic trees accompanied by a can of "pine spray" to give your home that festive smell could have been yours.
It's simply a more woke option and when the lights don't work next year, you ship it off to the landfill, knowing that one just like it can be yours (but the price will be higher, obviously).
@LL...C'mon man, time to step it up...$799.99 is one of the cheapie ones, gotta go full Frontgate. Their handcrafted by China's finest child slave labor 10-foot Windsor Noble Fir Full Profile Pre-Lit (not MaryJane Rec-Med "lit") Tree, Item #178570 in case you were interested, - with 7432 'tips' (someone must have counted them, imagine having THAT job) plus 1700 lights that will never quit working (hahahah)...WAS! $3250, BUT NOW! - for a limited time only (might have something to do with excess inventory 2 weeks before Christmas...but maybe I'm just being cynical) is ON SALE for the low low BidenEcon price of $2474.25* (unfortunately NO FREE Shipping, could be a deal breaker). And don't forget the Rumi Velvet Tree Skirt for $149.25 (that the cat will pee on) or storage bag for $124.98, both on sale. Win! Win!
ReplyDeleteWe pay $10 for tree "permit" to go cut down one of our already owned public forest trees, tall and skinny as that fits our "decor" best, and I can put "Hope" on the top from the loft.
BTW, +1 to Beans. Us too...traditions matter.
Adrienne, it was a smallish tree, but a good one.
ReplyDeleteYears ago? Christmas Eve setup. This days we begin in Advent, not sure I like that.
Yes, Beans, tradition's important. We stand, and sit, on it here at the Compound as we pound the mahogany.
ReplyDeleteMa LSP didn't want a tree, she wanted some other thing, she might've liked an artificial variant. But no, we went down the wood and pine needle route.
I like the "sleep under the tree" vision. Nice.
Dammit, LL, you called it.
ReplyDeleteLook, it's just a TREE, even if it's not plastic.
Mr. Paul, I applaud you.
ReplyDeleteFelix Navidad.
One year, a lean year, almost a year without a Christmas, yeah, that bad of a year, my wife and I drove into the back beyond of Alachua County, FL, and found an abandoned limestone quarry. So intrepid me, armed with saw and rope, went down into said quarry and found a nice sized and shaped cedar tree, cut it, dragged it up out of the rather deep and large hole in the ground and that was our Christmas tree.
ReplyDeleteDecorated with what few good ornaments we had and the collection of weird wooden ornaments that my Grandmother Cone gave us our first real Christmas after being married. Seriously weird wood ornaments, including one horse-shaped one with the eyes where the neck was supposed to be and the mouth on where the chest was. We called it the 'Hiroshima Horse.'
Good times.
Going to the Epsicopal Church (Catholic Light we call them) to get our regular trees, until the City shut them down, so to a family-owned stand until the City shut them down. Sigh.
Then my wife became violently allergic to pine, so artificial was to be the future. Funny, the artificial tree branches shed 'needles' almost as bad as the real thing. One of these days I'll need to buy a new donor-tree (don't trust trees found in the garbage for some strange reason.)
I do miss seeing the extended family, but I don't miss the chaos and the long travel. So we here at House of Beans enjoy our snuggly Christmas traditions. (of which unboxing and hanging the ornaments, and talking about each one, when we got it, what was happening, as we hang them. And then do a repeat as we take them down (sometimes way too past the season, ahem...) I love this time of the year for all the promise and all the memories good and, sadly, bad... But the fact we can remember them is what is special.
Oh yes, Beans, those ornaments are like old friends and I'm intrigued by "Hiroshima Horse."
ReplyDeleteMy mom's decs are mostly glass and, to me, of great sentimental value. To her? Maybe not so much, she finds the tree a bit of a hassle, but got in the spirit while we were decorating.
What a beautiful time of year.
Somehow the box of family ornaments ancien has been lost by the eldest brother, he who took over the family homestead upon the death of my pere. Sigh. Ancient things lost, only living in memory, which is good as I probably won't make it to the family stead until after my wife passes, which I hope will be at least 20 years or more from now.
ReplyDeleteBut, you know, wonderful time of the year full of traditions (and working to get rid of bad traditions, of course.)
As long as it doesn't snow enough to shut the electricity off, I'm pretty fine with whatever weather we get (first time I ever saw snow in real live was Christmas Day, 1973, at Satellite Beach, FL (just south of The Cape,) little flurries that hit the picture window and melted.) (And I've lived through one hellacious ice storm of doom, thank you, no fun, especially with a water bed that was electrically heated...)
Beans, a few years back we had 12" of snow in Dallas for Christmas day, which I loved. Of course it melted.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Is heat worse than cold or vice versa? My personal vote's still out, though I verge towards heat.
I've never had a water bed!