Holidays 2010

I figured that I ought to post on my blog before I'm charged with neglect and stripped of my guardianship status....

The last month has been one thing after the other. Always something to do, from the everyday maintenance tasks required in the household, to setting up all the trappings of the holiday, to dealing with the unexpected.

In the second year of our artificial tree, we got some new ornaments to fill out the increase in coverage area --- and replace ones that dated from the 70s and 80s and were in sad condition. I also had to string in some new lights to cover for half a string that wouldn't light. That's really disappointing, but it's not unexpected in these days where all the 'Made in China' products are designed to break in short order so we have to buy more 'Made in China' stuff. I try to 'Buy American' when it's possible and worthwhile, but that's often a fruitless and frustrating search.

We got our Christmas shopping done in spurts. Lincoln Log sets for my nieces along with some educational books and a snow tube. I'm not someone who believes in buying baubles for people, so my gifting is almost always things that are of everyday use. Mom & Dad got a set of 10" and 12" Calphalon nonstick frying pans. My brother got an apple peeler/slicer and a stainless steel food mill (the type for making tomato/apple/pear sauce and, come to find out, can be used for mashed potatoes). Also, we gave some maple cream ordered online from Sugarbush Hollow farm in upstate New York. Otherwise, we're filling in with some gift certificates that are earmarked for books or home wares.

I've been preparing quite a bit of comfort food and trying to maintain some sense of order in the refrigerator as things have been coming in. As one example, I've become something of a pusher for the bottles of beer that have accumulated and encroached on my leftover storage space.

The woodpile needed some replenishing, as we burn about 4-1/2 to 5 cords of wood per winter. We have plenty of unsplit supply at our woodlot, but the seasoned stacks are getting pretty low. I hope the two trailer loads we got will hold out. "Gettin' in the wood" and doing some splitting for next year's supply would seem to be the next project. That's going to be a little challenging, what with the near blizzard that is currently dumping a projected 12"-24" of snow by tomorrow morning. This isn't the best time of year to be outside splitting wood in terms of the weather, but I suppose it is the best time in an effort to avoid ticks and Lyme disease, which has a high incidence in this area.

So, onward and upward as we close out this year. I suppose I will be back shortly to post some New Years' resolutions. That's not something I've ever done with any seriousness, but it might not be a bad idea to list out some goals for 2011.

Christmas Trees

By Robert Frost (A Christmas circular letter - 1920)

The city had withdrawn into itself
And left at last the country to the country;
When between whirls of snow not come to lie
And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove
A stranger to our yard, who looked the city,
Yet did in country fashion in that there
He sat and waited till he drew us out
A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was.
He proved to be the city come again
To look for something it had left behind
And could not do without and keep its Christmas.
He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;
My woods — the young fir balsams like a place
Where houses all are churches and have spires.
I hadn’t thought of them as Christmas Trees.
I doubt if I was tempted for a moment
To sell them off their feet to go in cars
And leave the slope behind the house all bare,
Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon.
I’d hate to have them know it if I was.
Yet more I’d hate to hold my trees except
As others hold theirs or refuse for them,
Beyond the time of profitable growth,
The trial by market everything must come to.
I dallied so much with the thought of selling.
Then whether from mistaken courtesy
And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether
From hope of hearing good of what was mine, I said,
"There aren’t enough to be worth while."
"I could soon tell how many they would cut,
You let me look them over."

“You could look.
But don’t expect I’m going to let you have them.”
Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close
That lop each other of boughs, but not a few
Quite solitary and having equal boughs
All round and round. The latter he nodded “Yes” to,
Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one,
With a buyer’s moderation, “That would do.”
I thought so too, but wasn’t there to say so.
We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over,
And came down on the north. He said, “A thousand.”

“A thousand Christmas trees! — at what apiece?”

He felt some need of softening that to me:
“A thousand trees would come to thirty dollars.”

Then I was certain I had never meant
To let him have them. Never show surprise!
But thirty dollars seemed so small beside
The extent of pasture I should strip, three cents
(For that was all they figured out apiece),
Three cents so small beside the dollar friends
I should be writing to within the hour
Would pay in cities for good trees like those,
Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools
Could hang enough on to pick off enough.
A thousand Christmas trees I didn’t know I had!
Worth three cents more to give away than sell,
As may be shown by a simple calculation.
Too bad I couldn’t lay one in a letter.
I can’t help wishing I could send you one,
In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas.

(image (c) Four Winds Ranch)