Hooray!--- My tree is up

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to post a update on our household. Other than posting a few quick memes, I have been rather scarce in blogland. The needs of this time of year seem to leave little free time. We finally finished all our outdoor decorations and got our tree up. I snapped the attached photo as soon as we were finished. The blue in the window is the lights on the shrubs outside.

As you all know I seldom leave my house without my camera, but as luck would have it, everytime I have seen something blogworthy of late it was one of those rare times when I was driving and my camera was out of reach.

Last Saturday I had to make a quick trip to a neighboring town to pick up crickets for our lizard. On the main highway out of town I was suddenly passed by three identical black Toyotas, each with two live Christmas trees tied to the roof. There were already two other vehicles with a tree attached in front of me. I wondered what the odds were of seeing three identical SUV's much less eight live trees on the road at once? Then, yesterday we went to help a friend decorate her house and passed twenty-five different vehicles with christmas trees attached on the road to her house. We quickly decided there had to be a very busy tree farm in the area. I love the look of a live tree tied to a car and missed both photo opts.

Our family tradition of "Secret Pal" is in full swing also. I have written about this event in previous years. It is a custom that started when we were all children and required us to do a good deed for our "secret Pal" each day without getting caught. Since we have all been long out of the nest, the rules have changed many times over the years and has grown to include many of my nieces and nephews as well. Those that choose to participate, are constantly trying to come up with unusual, creative and often humorous ways to outdo the things done by others in previous years. Currently, our "Secret Pal" custom has grown into more of a gift giving game.

Our little game starts on Thanksgiving and goes until our reveal party three weeks later. In this photo I am modeling the "Frosty the Snowman" hat I received on Thanksgiving Day. Since then I have been finding notes on my door instructing me to go to certain places (wearing my hat) to receive a surprise. So far I have been "surprised" with two lunches and some nice holiday themed kitchen items.

It is time I got off this computer and got busy surprising my secret pal.

Besides, there are cakes to bake, shopping to complete and many gifts to wrap.

I wish each of you a fulfilling and joyous holiday season. But, please do not over do on the preparations. Be sure to take some time to remember the reason for this season and share some quality time with those you care about.