I'm back, I hope!

First THANKS to all of you who wrote such nice things and PRAYED for S'mee and the ward. I really really can not tell you how much we (s'mee especially) needed those prayers! Thanks for hanging in there with s'mee. Hug big fat hugs to you all!

Man! What a couple of weeks! As soon as we got home from Hawaii and the great time there things got really hairy here in my little home town. The funerals for two babies from two separate families in the ward was almost overwhelming and then there were some WAVES from the pebbles tossed into the lake by those events. Things are beginning to settle down, but I admit that blogging seemed rather ridiculous at the time.

So being nudged -rather frankly- by someone I am trying to get back in the mode.

Today I am am trying to get it back together and pull Christmas out of the shed and into the house. Each year when the kids were little we would get a tree. Thor grew up in a home where fresh trees were the norm every year. So we would pile the kids into the car and drive into a pass and up into a small canyon to pick out a tree. This particular farm was so great. They believed in natural farming, so although they planted Christmas trees in rows, they let them grow without pruning or shaping. You got what the tree gave; sometime complete with bird's nests and critters, holes and twisted trunks.

The farmer would give you a very long white and red striped pole, painted to indicate foot length. You would hike up and down his small mountain and find the perfect tree, subtract a foot from the base and yell like the dickens for the farm hands to find you. Sometimes it would rain, snow, or hail, so by the time the hand found you on his ATC and trailer, you were soaked, powdered, or pelted. He would cut the tree for you and haul it back up or down to the "shed". Leaving the stump would allow the tree to regrow the following year. (This method made the tiny "forrest" just that, no rows of five footers here and seven footers there...it was all jumbled and mixed.)

At the "shed" you would find Mr. Matthew (still don't know if that is first or last name) and his big smile. He would remember you from the year before and tease the kids about Santa. After trimming the tree, and tying it to the roof of your car he would always grab the "mom" and have her take as many discarded boughs from the ground as would fit in-between the kids "to make a nice wreath, while the kiddies decorate the tree." He was a real sweety.

When the kids were little they would clump all the ornaments at their individual eye level and the tree looked adorable! As they grew the decorations spread out and eventually the tree became more like a department store tree, gorgeous. When times were good, I went shopping through thrift stores for fake trees. Then other folks, seeing my Christmas habit, gave me their old trees. After a time, each of the kids had their own tree to decorate and it made the house so fun and full of Spirit. More and more trees came until now my house is filled to the brim with all kinds of trees. Big ones, little ones, in every room and numerous enough that #3 said "all we need to do now is sell a candle in here and we'll look like a shop in the mountains."

So this morning Thor went out to our shed (the one bought to store S'mee's Christmas boxes) and brought in a few of the trees. I have my assignment: GET SOME CHRISTMAS SPIRIT IN THIS HOUSE QUICK!

Tamale: photos of what I can accomplish today.