The Great Christmas Tree Hunt

Last Saturday, my family and I ventured to the land from whence Christmas trees come.  No, not the parking lot where the local Kiwanis club is selling pre-cut trees.  Nope, we went to the great Northern wilderness that those in the know call the Poconos. 

We’ve been going to the Poconos to get our trees for years, only missing a few years when, yes, we went to the parking lot where the local Kiwanis club was selling pre-cut trees.  When I was little, my family joined a bunch of other family friends to make the trek from suburban Philadelphia to Hill’s Tree Farm in Jim Thorpe to find the perfect Christmas tree.  I’m not so little anymore but “going to the mountains” to chop down our tree is still one of our most important family traditions. 

Now, I use the term “chop down” loosely.  Although there is an option to use your own saw, we never actually chopped down our own trees – we let the workers with chain saws do that.  Chopping trees down is a hard business!  I should know.  Two years ago, I had to saw off a few low hanging branches of my tree and it took me five hours.  Granted, all I had was a drywall saw…but still – a girl can break a sweat doing that kind of work! 

When we go for Christmas trees, there are a few things that never get old…no matter how old we get.  First – as you drive into the tree farm and are still on the outermost perimeter of the acres and acres of trees, it is a given that someone will say – “That’s the tree I want!  Right there!”  Which is always hysterical because like we’re really going to walk the 19 miles from the parking lot back to that tree.  But we say it every year…it’s tradition, after all.

Every year, my dad always makes the same joke as we’re walking around the field trying to find our trees – now three trees for the three households in our family.  When we’re calling to one another to say, hey, I found a tree, where are you?  My dad will pipe up and give this helpful answer – I’m by the green tree!  He said that 427 times last Saturday.  And it never got old…for him.    

Also, every year, we can never quite remember what kind of tree that we get – it’s as if we’ve never gone Christmas tree hunting before.  Do we get a Douglas fir?  Or do we get a Fraser fir?  And oh my gosh, how tall of a tree can we actually get?  My height factor is problematic for two reasons – one, I’ve got low ceilings; and two, any tree that I get has to fit inside the Silver Bullet to make the trip back to Maryland.  For the record, a 7 foot Douglas fir fits quite nicely in a Honda Civic.  Getting it out is another story altogether…

This year, the story of the trees that my brother and I chose to bring home for Christmas was rather special.  We picked trees that happened to be standing side by side.  I said that they mirrored our relationship.  They were planted together, they grew up together, they got chopped down, and one moved to Maryland.  Our life-story brought to you by a couple of evergreens.  Sweet, right?

A lot has changed over the years as we’ve carried on our tradition.  We’ve seen tiny trees grow into great big Christmas-tree worthy trees.  We used to walk from field to field but now there’s a cute little trolley that will take you to the field of your choice (I’m not that lazy, I still walk!)  And we no longer go with those other families; but sometimes if we’re lucky, like this year, we’ll run into one or two of them and they’re doing the same thing we are – carrying on a family tradition and trying to find the most perfect Christmas tree ever.  Just like every year before. 

7 feet of evergreen wonderfulness

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Join me tomorrow for a virtual tree-trimming party!  But bring your own eggnog. 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I was at the movies a couple of weeks ago and saw a preview for “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” a film based on the book of the same title.  When I saw the title, I immediately thought to myself – that totally describes my family!  We’re extremely loud and incredibly close.  Or incredibly loud and extremely close, if you want to look at it that way. 

Granted we’re extremely loud for a reason – two of us are hearing impaired; one of us doesn’t listen…or is ignoring the rest of us, I’m not sure which; and my mom, well, my mom is just loud.  When the four of us are together, the decibel level of most of our conversations usually gets pretty high.  There always seems to be a lot of yelling.  Sometimes it's good - like at Thanksgiving when we played a new game that involved money.  Sometimes it's bad - like at Thanksgiving when we played a new game that involved money.  Hey, it's a mixed bag with us.         

It doesn't matter how extremely loud we get; at the end of the discussion argument day, we're still incredibly close.  

I don't think I'd have it any other way! 

What Happened to November?

It’s December 1^st already?!  Where in the world did the November days go?  It seems like just yesterday I told you about my grand plans to do both NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo.  50,000 words for the former, 30 posts in 30 days for the latter.  How’d I do?

Well, obviously you can tell that I didn’t manage 30 posts in 30 days.  I had a pretty good run for the first nine days of the month and then I went back to my old sporadic ways.  But you should read all the posts in my head!  I swear, they’re really good. 

That brings me to the novel.  I didn’t hit 50,000 words…I’m about 30,000 short.  But I do have, what I think, are some pretty good chapters and I’m going to keep working on it.  Just because we flipped the calendar to December doesn’t mean the novel writing has to stop, right?

Maybe trying to do both NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo was a crazy, unrealistic goal.  Maybe other people were able to do it.  I couldn’t.  There were so many other things to tackle this November and some days writing just fell off the list of priorities.  Granted, I probably should’ve put writing before naps…but you know how I love my naps. 

Am I disappointed because I didn’t meet my goal?  Nah.  For me, the victory – the satisfaction – comes from attempting it in the first place. 

I can always try again next year.  Besides, November will be here again before we know it. 

Just Desserts

I’m writing this post to for a single reason – to tell a joke.  There's no hidden meaning or personal life lesson in today's post.  Basically, it's total fluff.  I told this joke earlier today but I think it’s so good that more than three people deserve to hear it.  And really, we need more jokes especially in light of the sad demise of the Demi Moore-Ashton Kutcher marriage. 

Here’s the background to the setup of the joke.  A few years ago, I went to Cambridge, Massachusetts on a business trip with my supervisor.  While there, we discovered Finale Desserterie and Bakery.  It wasn’t exactly your mother’s bakery…it was an upscale restaurant that only served dessert, so, uh, it was a desserterie.  I’m actually not a huge dessert person but even I found something delicious to eat…and maybe to drink too.  I liked the place so much that I started thinking about opening my own dessert restaurant in the future and calling it “Just Desserts”.  I actually got some flack for the name but I think it’s a pretty cool name.  So does a bakery in San Francisco.  But that’s a story for another day… 

 Anyway, today, I had to ask my now former supervisor a question regarding that trip to Cambridge.  We reminisced about Finale and she explained to another colleague that two friends opened it after they graduated from Harvard Business School.  And I said to them, “You know what that makes them?”  (Get ready.  It’s a good one!)

Two smart cookies.

You’re laughing.  You know you are. 

For This I Give Thanks

Every year at Thanksgiving dinner, everyone at the table says what they’re thankful for.  Since we’re a bit of a sarcastic bunch, it’s usually not very heartfelt.  But I thought this year, I’d list some of the things for which I’m grateful on this Thanksgiving Day.  With not a bit of sarcasm. 

A clear blue sky after a night of hurricane force winds.

Driving through a forest in the Pacific Northwest and finding my inner Goonie. 

Chocolate milkshakes and sweet potato fries. 

Starting lines and finish lines and the friends who are there to cheer me on.  

SPF-50 sunscreen.

Barbecuing at the beach.

Second chances.

Being allowed to figure things out on my own.

Open door policies.  Even when the door’s closed.

A hundred different mentors who mentor me in a hundred different ways.

Always having someone to go to lunch with. 

Sleeping in late on the weekends.  Both days. 

Walks around the block.

Neighbors who have become friends. 

Cuddly kittens and a large, in charge cat.

Texting (but not when you’re driving!)

Naps.  Mid-morning, afternoon, and early evening.

Friends who I can get into trouble with.  And friends who I can call when I’m in trouble.

The people who believe in me even when I don’t believe in myself. 

A table set with my Nanny’s china and the three most important people in my life sharing this day of thanks with me.  (Oh…and the food isn’t too bad either!) 

Wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving!   

ORLLs

In military records, there’s something called Operational Reports – Lessons Learned or ORLLs (pronounced orals).  Fun to say, right?  Basically, they’re what they say they are – reports of lessons learned from military  operations.  Last night wasn’t exactly a military operation but I definitely took away some important ORLLs that I’ll keep in mind for my next soiree: 

1.       One turkey is actually enough for 17 people, especially when you have a couple vegetarians in the mix.  No one actually eats a pound of turkey like the magazines say.  Making two turkeys just means more stress and more…turkey.  Who needs that?

2.      It doesn’t matter how small it is, people will hang out in the kitchen.  The only solution I can come up with is to buy a house with a bigger kitchen.  Yea!  More room for more people!

3.      Set your bar area up away from the kitchen.  This helps alleviate some of the kitchen crowding and also allows you to live out one of your teenage dreams.  Also, come up with a kick-ass name for your bar.  My bar was called “Turkey Landing Bar” because…it was on the landing of my stairs and there was a turkey on display.  It’s no nightclub in Sydney, Australia but it was the most rocking bar in the neighborhood. 

4.      Wine gets better with age.  Except if it’s been open.  So, the year-old opened wine that I set out…um, no good.  I’m sorry to anyone who drank it and/or got sick.  Whoops.

5.      People supplying their own alcohol is the best idea EVER.  Everyone brings what they like and, yeah, okay, my wallet says thank you. 

6.      The person who supplied 90 proof bourbon is the best guest EVER.  Yeah, yeah, it was for the cider.  I’m not a fan of apple cider.  I’m a huge fan of bourbon cider.  You know that gal is getting a return invite. 

7.      When you make a craft with feathers, you’ll find feathers everywhere for days on end.

8.      When pouring anything into another container, do it over the sink.  Actually, I should just not pour, period. 

9.      Some people do enjoy getting their inner Pilgrim on and will voluntarily wear Pilgrim hats.  But nobody likes to wear bonnets.  Not even the ladies. 

10.  Save all your receipts so you can return all the excess stuff you bought.  Or just save it for next year.

Give Thanks or Eat Pie Trying

Three things you should know about me:

1.   I don’t like Thanksgiving.  It’s not one of my favorites (which for the record are:  Fourth of July, Christmas, my birthday, and St. Lawrence day).  Thanksgiving for my family is just another turkey meal with a bunch of extra vegetables.  And rolls.  And dessert. 

2.   I very rarely, like almost never, cook – especially if it requires opening the oven door.

3.   Until last year, the thought of having people in my home who weren’t related to me by blood in my personal space home filled me with intense anxiety – and not because I’m a closet hoarder, I swear.  Seriously, the four years that I lived in my apartment, I had one friend over and that was for like fifteen minutes. 

With all that in mind, how is it that tonight there will be 17 people gathering in my house for our Second Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving (PTT) Feast eating turkey that I cooked in my oven?  Yeah, I still can’t figure it out either.

Actually, to understand let’s go back in time.  So, last fall sometime I was eating a Healthy Choice frozen meal – the turkey dinner – for lunch.  Yum-yum!  I thought, well, gee whiz, this is really delicious…IDEA!  Let’s have a Thanksgiving potluck at work and we could all bring stuff in and eat a Thanksgiving-y lunch together.  I had the whole plan in my head – my contribution would be anything store-bought because like, seriously, was I going to cook?  No way.  There are people much more adept in that area than me.  Yea!  Thanksgiving lunch idea, woo-hoo!

Then I told other people and they got the crazy idea that the Thanksgiving potluck should be at my house because I never had a house-warming party and then it kept snowballing and before I knew it I was taking turkey-makin’ lessons at TopChef’s house, watching YouTube videos about carving birds, and preparing for invaders visitors. 

Except for one minor snafu, I survived last year’s PTT feast.  I even had fun and enjoyed having my friends in my home.  I know, crazy, right?  I jokingly said it would be an annual event (although I was pretty sure I said it would be a moveable feast…) 

I haven’t been in much of a celebratory mood lately so I wasn’t really planning on having a Second Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving.  I waffled on the decision and then said, what the hay bale, let’s do it.  If my friends – even some from the city – want to come and share food and fellowship (I totally stole that line…), wear Pilgrim hats, and give pre-thanks at my house, they’re more than welcome. 

By the time you read this, I’ll have cooked (and carved) two turkeys, set a table for 18 people, and convinced my friends that to really experience Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving like the Pilgrims, we really must don bonnets and Pilgrim man hats.

Hey, anything’s possible.  

And a Happy Harvest to you and yours!