Thing One:
The Trees. Yes, plural. Last year after the remodel, my youngest adult child (see yesterdays post) didn't have to say much more than "We should get a tree for the room downstairs this year", for me to concur. This of course meant more lights, more watering, more ornaments (though actually not really) and oh my... colored lights! Much as I loved colored lights as a child and hung them around bedroom windows from the time I could push a tack into the hard wood trim or find enough tape that would stick through colder temperatures, colored lights have not been a part of our family tree in 22 years. I take that back, I think I relented one year and knew right away that THAT would never happen again. But it could now... on the DOWNSTAIRS tree. <yes indeed>
So on our yearly escapade in 2010 to Camden Ranch we trodded around in the snow to find not one, but two "perfect trees". And we did. Granted, while the young men trounce around in the snow with footballs... and snowballs, not enough clothes (usually) and often rarely escape taking out other people with their running around as if no one else was around - it is usually the dad and I walking around looking for the trees. Scratch that. I look, he cuts. Once upon a time the dad would whistle for the kids, we'd force them to stand in front of the tree before we cut it down, pretend to let them approve it, quick photo and off to the races they were again. We drag our tree out to the area where the tractor or truck picks it up, hands us a tag and slowly we walk back to the barn to pay for it, get some cider, while the boys make their way back down the hillside and road to meet up with us.
The car smells of wet shoes, boots, hats, gloves as myself and the three boys warm up in the car, giggling at Jeff as he maneuvers the tree (or trees) on top of the car. It's always the same and always funny. Good lord is that guy a trooper! He makes it so easy! Once secured and the giggling over, this is about the time something because "stupid" or "bullsh*t" to one of the boys and the ride quiets down until we hit The Ram in Riverside for chow! All the running around in the snow and among trees, dodging snowballs and parents "Watch out for other people" looks brings on an appetite and we have found that as the boys are all over 6 feet tall and energetic, athletic, busy boys, dang - young MEN - they usually eat more than a tank of gas costs on this outing.
Ahhhh, memories.
So that day is nearing. Saturday has been named the official "Minnerly Trip to Camden" day. Their website boasts that they have sold 65% of this years quota so we're good to go on that. I follow their online sales progress each year from Thanksgiving on and when we get our tree largely depends on this:
I distinctly remember going on a Saturday one year... and finding out a few days later one of little Jeff's friends and their family had gone up the day after us and been turned away. (People, it's an hours drive north. Imagine driving up there with three kids only to find you, they - don't get to pick out a tree and now you GET to drive an hour home, empty handed. Bum deal.) I so prefer the argument and bickering in the car on the ride home when I have a beautiful, wonderful smelling, symbol of Christmas tied securely to the top of my car. Because when I get home, the bickering and punches will all go downstairs while I direct the dad on how to get the tree standing straight in the stand. Due to a tree about 16 years ago that hatched a few hundred spiders, I try to touch the tree very sparingly. I am the one that puts the lights up, but while the tree is still cold and has ice on it so that I *know* spider eggs can't have hatched yet. (We haven't had another "spider tree" since, but I'm not a fan of them, so the memory lives on... and on and on.)
But all of this is leading me to Thing Two that's missing:
The snow. Now I know I've cursed Mother Nature for last years' 9 month winter here, but this stagnant weather crap is crap. It's cold and pretty, but it makes the trip to Camden less entertaining. The boys don't have snow to fall in and throw at each other, they really don't care what the tree looks like or how tall it is (well, one of them cares how tall it is) so this makes it a "Are we done yet?" kind of tree search and that bites. Besides, it's way more fun to watch the boys tag their dad with snowballs while he's on his back sawing down trees... when he is most vulnerable at the ranch. I have always said it can snow from Thanksgiving to New Years and then - just STOP. It doesn't, but that would be my preference. So she screwed us with an unbelievably long cold streak from November 2010 to July 2011 - and now she appears to be giving us the No-Snow cold shoulder. I would call her a name, but she and her counterparts already know what I'm thinking about this!
All this messing with my mind is making Los Cabos look more and more like a live-in destination versus a Spring Break destination. I know it doesn't snow there, but at least I wouldn't have to wonder if it's going to make or break a holiday!
The only other real difference this year is that the house is mostly decorated except for the trees (obviously) and stockings (these are the very last thing to go up). In the past I've done it all after putting the tree together, but this year I was nesting a bit and love the coziness that the holiday lights and decorations brings about on a cold night!
I guess the last, but most important ingredient is getting the other two Minn boys home for break. The food bill and "there's no food in this house" comments will both skyrocket, the projector now fixed means the XBox noise will go up, the energy will pick up and all will be well with the world. For now. Tis the Season!
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| 2011 Progress |
I distinctly remember going on a Saturday one year... and finding out a few days later one of little Jeff's friends and their family had gone up the day after us and been turned away. (People, it's an hours drive north. Imagine driving up there with three kids only to find you, they - don't get to pick out a tree and now you GET to drive an hour home, empty handed. Bum deal.) I so prefer the argument and bickering in the car on the ride home when I have a beautiful, wonderful smelling, symbol of Christmas tied securely to the top of my car. Because when I get home, the bickering and punches will all go downstairs while I direct the dad on how to get the tree standing straight in the stand. Due to a tree about 16 years ago that hatched a few hundred spiders, I try to touch the tree very sparingly. I am the one that puts the lights up, but while the tree is still cold and has ice on it so that I *know* spider eggs can't have hatched yet. (We haven't had another "spider tree" since, but I'm not a fan of them, so the memory lives on... and on and on.)
But all of this is leading me to Thing Two that's missing:
The snow. Now I know I've cursed Mother Nature for last years' 9 month winter here, but this stagnant weather crap is crap. It's cold and pretty, but it makes the trip to Camden less entertaining. The boys don't have snow to fall in and throw at each other, they really don't care what the tree looks like or how tall it is (well, one of them cares how tall it is) so this makes it a "Are we done yet?" kind of tree search and that bites. Besides, it's way more fun to watch the boys tag their dad with snowballs while he's on his back sawing down trees... when he is most vulnerable at the ranch. I have always said it can snow from Thanksgiving to New Years and then - just STOP. It doesn't, but that would be my preference. So she screwed us with an unbelievably long cold streak from November 2010 to July 2011 - and now she appears to be giving us the No-Snow cold shoulder. I would call her a name, but she and her counterparts already know what I'm thinking about this!
All this messing with my mind is making Los Cabos look more and more like a live-in destination versus a Spring Break destination. I know it doesn't snow there, but at least I wouldn't have to wonder if it's going to make or break a holiday!
The only other real difference this year is that the house is mostly decorated except for the trees (obviously) and stockings (these are the very last thing to go up). In the past I've done it all after putting the tree together, but this year I was nesting a bit and love the coziness that the holiday lights and decorations brings about on a cold night!
I guess the last, but most important ingredient is getting the other two Minn boys home for break. The food bill and "there's no food in this house" comments will both skyrocket, the projector now fixed means the XBox noise will go up, the energy will pick up and all will be well with the world. For now. Tis the Season!
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