Oh Tannenbaum!

My creative juices aren't flowing so well today. I think I've been staying home too much since I've had some days off. But I needed to - finally - take down the Christmas tree. I hate to do that. I love having a tree in my house, especially one that smells so good. I couldn't find my tree stand so I had used my ash bucket filled with cat litter (cat litter is like duct tape, there are so many uses for it!). Only problem is I didn't use the cheap stuff. I had some of Lilly's regular litter in the closet and used that but it's the clumping kind, so when I added water to the tree, the litter became like cement! It held the tree really good. Just hope I can get it out of the bucket. Oh Tannenbaum! Maybe some people think it's schmaltzy but I think Christmas trees are magic. I never get tired of looking at them, and when I was young I used to sleep on the sofa just to watch the tree till I fell asleep. I love those little lights and the smell of pine. I really feel sorry for those misguided people who insist on fake trees, yuck! They hate the mess of cleaning up the needles I guess. Miss out on the magic.

So apart from the dismantling, I've been tidying up, as they say in England, taking naps when I feel like it, and reading my latest Elizabeth George "Careless in Red". She is my favorite mystery writer, and I just saw in the book jacket that she has moved to Washington State. Now that seems more conducive (sp?) to getting an English atmosphere for her stories than Huntington Beach, California, near where I used to live. I've only gone out into the world to get my mail and exercise at Curves. Then I spent an hour on the phone with my sister planning our much anticipated trip to England and Wales in March. Maybe tomorrow, if it doesn't snow again, I'll drive down to Santa Fe and window shop. Cheerio!