It is that time of year when Elvis, Martina and I put up our Christmas tree. Tommy doesn't want any part of decorating the tree. I understand and that is alright by me. I put on my favorite CD's, make fudge and think of all the Christmas' past. There is a memory for every thing on our tree.
Tommy bought me this tree last year. Without a decoration on it, it is beautiful. In fact last year I didn't decorate it. Tommy was sick with the shingles and there was no Christmas spirit. Instead we enjoyed the beauty of the tree itself. However when 2016 rolled around, after two days I decided I wanted our story displayed on the tree again. Every ornament on our tree is a memory of some part of our life.
We have three decorations from our Christmas wedding that are always close to the top. Actually, every year the angel goes on first then our wedding decorations are randomly added next.
Beneath the wedding bells and Christmas balls, is Tami's first baby bottle.
The little red Christmas stocking to the left is 45 years old and was the only new ornament on our first Christmas tree. We were living in Yuma, Arizona while Tommy finished his last two years in the Marine Corps. We were pregnant and so broke. We bought a small artificial tree about two feet tall and sat it on top of our black and white television. We also bought a Christmas boot for our baby. We thought it was the prettiest tree we had ever seen. The bassinet was located by the t.v. and was filled with baby gifts from Mama and Daddy and family back home. We were excited and extremely nervous. Lisa was due on Jan. 4th and I had no idea what to do with a newborn baby; but that is another story.
As we move down the tree we find
Lisa's Christmas Santa that was added when she was almost two. We were living in Marietta, Georgia and she had a kidney infection with 105 degree fever. We were terrified. The doctors performed a small bladder surgery and she was fine in a few days. We purchased this Santa Clause as soon as she came out of surgery.
When Melodi was small she added a dragon to the tree. It always goes close to the top as if it wanted to eat a chunk out of the tree.
This is Jacy's first ballerina shoes. She was about three when she took classes for awhile. She was such a little doll.
Logan's baby bottle is added. Now all we need is something for Rowan, Lacey and Lisle and we are all there somewhere on the tree. The rest of the tree is decorated with souvenirs from all our adventures. We have moose and wolves from Alaska. Starfish we found in Florida, and 40 million memories that would take to long to describe. Mama is there and I have a Christmas bell from Mamamae and Granddaddy's tree. It is priceless to me. In fact it is probably older than I am.
While the tree is full, we still have a lot of places to go and things to do on our bucket list. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful Christmas. Much love to all. . .
Transplanting volunteer cherry tomato plants never entered my mind when I woke up this morning. Seven hours later that is exactly what I was doing.
Tommy and I worked long and hard yesterday. Today was to be a laid back sort of Sunday. That is pretty close to what we had. The things we did were small chores we wanted to check off our 'to do list' before I have knee surgery in December.
We built a hand railing for the steps in the laundry room. That took about an hour. While in there I did several loads of laundry. Tommy was outside piddling in the garage, when he yelled for me to make a pot of coffee and come outside. He wanted a fire in the fire pit and some company. We stayed out there all afternoon. Conservation was sparse. Both of us were lost in watching the fire and our own thoughts. The coffee was good and the sky was perfect for cloud watching.
This was my favorite cloud of the day. It morphed back and forth between a dragon and a mermaid with hair three miles long.
While I was thinking about dragons and mermaids, Tommy spotted volunteer cherry tomato plants growing all over the back yard. They erupted everywhere a rotten or split tomato had been thrown. I couldn't believe it. Some of the plants had blooms on them and one plant had two cherry tomatoes that will be eaten soon.
I am not a high maintenance kind of person. It never did take much to make me happy; finding these little tomato plants all over the back yard did just that. . . they made me happy. I dug up three plants and re-potted them so I could watch them grow and perhaps enjoy some red cherry tomatoes later this winter. Right now they are living in the bedroom window of Logan's room. I checked on them first thing this morning and they seem to like their new surroundings. It was a good day in my neck of the woods. It took my mind off the election for about four hours. That was time well spent. I needed a break from the three ring circus we call politics.
The photo above was taken the other day while we were on a road trip in search of the prettiest tree in our part of the state. We took photos of trees from one end of our county to the other. As we made a right turn on this road, I got out of the car and had a 'Robert Frost Moment'. A line from his poem, "The Road Not Taken", slammed into my mind. The last verse,
"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
As I stood in the middle of the road, all I could think about was the comparison of this line of poetry and our nasty, foul election of 2016. I am sure Robert Frost would turn over in his grave at that thought. However, folks that is exactly where I was and where I am; six days away from the election. I am still at a crossroads concerning our Presidential candidates. I know who I am voting for unless something else happens between now and next Tuesday causing me not to vote at all. Am I happy about my decision? NO I AM NOT!! It is the best decision I can make out of this mess we have to choose from. I honestly think one candidate could possibly go to prison, the other one could be assassinated. How did we ever reach such a devilish place? Why would these thoughts ever come to mind in a normal election?
I have a hypothetical theory on this matter. While most of us in the United States were being good citizens, working, raising families and voting when it was election time. We did not dig deep enough into what went on in Washington D.C. Years ago we believed men and women sent to Congress, the White House and State positions had America's best interest at heart, even if we disagreed with some of their positions. However, we did not have the twenty four hour news coverage then that we do now. Most of us did not know how corrupt things were getting. We should have instead we let things slide. Unknowingly, we allowed lobbyists to gain power to buy and sell our elected leaders and their vote. Elected leaders became career politicians. Follow the money was what we overlooked until it was too late. Lobbyists are embedded now. We took the elected officials at their word. In the process they sold out our country to any and everyone around the world who could afford a piece of us. And now we are reaping the rewards of crooked politicians for the past sixty years or more.
What is so discouraging to me as an American, I really do not think our country can be fixed. And I love my country. I love the one I thought existed. I love the one that exists now. I am angry at us for letting America down. I love the Americans after 9-11. We were united for weeks following the attack on our country. I love the United States I believed in as a little girl. When good and bad, right and wrong were easier to identify. Now we live in a gray era. There are seven sides to every question. Political Correctness is an insane idea. Truth has become rubberized. It can be stretched in any and every direction until it looses its shape and tears apart. We often forget what the truth was about.
When I was a little girl, I went to church all the time. I remember getting scared every time the minister preached from the book of Revelations. I always wanted to know why the United States wasn't mentioned. Now I think it is because by the time Revelations is fulfilled the United States as we know it, will not exist. That thought scares me and makes me sick but I believe it. With all my heart I hope I am wrong. I am wrong a lot... I hope I am this time too.
Perhaps, if we as American citizens had paid more attention to what was going on in Washington D.C. things would not be in this mess. Perhaps if we had demanded more of our elected leaders to follow the constitution, or decided that it is a terrible idea to have a Supreme Court Justice sit on the bench for life. Perhaps the President's right to use his pen and write Executive Orders should be taken away. Perhaps American's should have taken to the streets all across the United States when Benghazi happened and when the Iran deal was made. Perhaps we should have stayed in those streets until the right thing was done. Perhaps if we had taken a different road we would not be in the mess we are today. Perhaps, but we will never know for sure because we didn't take the road less traveled. Instead we played a loosing game called, 'Follow the Leader.'
God bless and protect our military. Sooner or later they will have to pay for all the 'pay to play' crap, and the poor decisions made by men and women who knew better but did not care. And that my friends is a crying shame.
As we move down the tree we find
This is Jacy's first ballerina shoes. She was about three when she took classes for awhile. She was such a little doll.
