Not so Grinchy

I told my bell choir about my experiences with the messy Christmas tree. They responded by giving me their Christmas present early, several ornaments to go on a replacement tree. A few days later one member gave me a separate present of lights and ornament hooks. So I just had to get a tree -- and do it before Christmas, not after. They demanded photos as proof.

I had lunch with my friend and debate partner this past week and he fulfilled the first half of my name for him. He went with me to the Home Depot near the restaurant. He figured they would have some Christmas trees. There was one on display at 7.5 feet and one at 4 feet. Neither seemed quite right. I spotted one box containing one 5' 2" tall, but there wasn't one on display. My friend kindly placed his hands at the appropriate height, stuck his elbows out for the proper width, and put his feet together, suggesting he now represented the tree upside down. I declined to stand on my head, and so did he. He then looked at the nearby package of ornaments. One pack of 35 contained a bell, but the container was damaged, as were a couple of the ornaments (but not the bell). My friend found a sales assistant and bargained the price in half. He also tried to bargain down the price of the tree, but that didn't work. He then surprised me by paying for the ornaments and a good portion of the tree.

I wrote a thank you note to my friend and bell choir for their gifts of ornaments and tree and included photos. I might as well share the photos with you.

The tree came with white lights and I added the gift of colored lights. It looks like I now have enough ornaments. Here are the promised pictures.

One of the whole tree. As you can see I now have enough ornaments and lights.

Here is a close-up showing the London Bus from the bell choir and an angel holding bells. I think I bought the angels when I was visiting a Spanish mission near Los Angeles maybe a dozen years ago. I didn't lose them in last year's basement flood because I had stashed them in the spare bedroom and only discovered them a few months ago.

This photo shows two more angels, and three more items from the bell choir -- a model of Parliament Tower, a London phone booth to the upper left and a passport in the bottom center.

One thing I bought in the after-Christmas sales last year was the Peanuts gang as a nativity scene. I thought the only place I would see them a lot would be across the top of my computer monitor. So here they are. Alas, they're a bit wobbly and when Sally was on the end she kept falling off.