No Country for Old Christmas Trees

The curious snowless winter continues. There has to be some downside to this, besides a loss in seasonal income for workers that specialize in snow-related activity, but I'm hard pressed to think of what. No ice lurking on the sidewalks, no biting winds in my face, lower heating costs: all good things. But maybe waves of vicious insects that a cold winter would have otherwise killed in their pre-larval stage will rise to plague us in the summer. Guess we'll have to take that chance.

It's the time of year to anthropomorphize your Christmas tree. "Say, what are those plastic tubs you've put next to me?" the tree wants to ask. "I seem to remember them from somewhere."

Christmas trees, as a rule, have poor memories. The last time the decoration storage tubs were near the tree was about a month ago.

"When is it going to be time again for another -- I don't know what it was, but I seemed to be the center of attention," the tree further muses. "The small ones came to me and seemed quite excited. They spent a while right there on the floor, opening boxes and eating something. I thought that was a good time. Let's do it again. Ah, you're taking a few things off me. Good. I felt a little cluttered anyway..."

So it goes for another year. I never did get a good picture of the '11 Christmas tree. So here's one from 2005, taken on Christmas morning. That tree looks about the same as this year's tree. The girls, on the other hand, seem a bit different now.