#brithdays

We received these yesterday (Feb 10th) and she said thank you! :)

The aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg drifted from beneath Mia’s barely cracked window, making her stomach growl. Her next-door neighbor must have been baking Christmas cookies again. The scent reminded her of the legendary pastries that appeared on doorsteps each Christmas Eve—creations so perfect they belonged in a museum rather than on someone’s doorstep. The cotton sheets rustled as Mia rolled…

It’s our first straight-up Christmas purchase of the season. We bought this a week ago at the Seattle GoodWill on 145th NE. Ten Bucks. All the lights already strung around it.

The ornaments come courtesy the Dollar Tree where you can actually buy Christmas ornaments for, you guessed it, one dollar. It’s a heckuva deal and our first dip of our toes into this end of the season. 

Now we’re not going crazy here. We’re not even outta November, after all. This is just a little tree for the outside. Maybe it gets folks passing by to indulge a smile for even just a moment. Who knows.

Indoors, we’re still in Fall mode. The tree’s still up... it’s been up for more than a decade. Our immortal tree ;-) that we dress appropriately for the seasons and holidays. 

So... still Fall.

One thing about leaving a tree up like that is, eventually, the lights burn out. It is amazing, though, how long they do last. Years, as it turns out.

But yeah.

Eventually, they die. 

And so I pulled a string of colored lights from the tree... only it wasn’t that simple since the string was wound around the trunk and betwixt and between another string of lights.

So yeah.

Chaos.

Patience was not my first response, of course. But patience is where I eventually arrived, had to arrive, in order to untangle what I’d tangled together in the first place.

Then I replaced that string with another in such a way that I’m hoping Future Dave will remember and appreciate.

Anyway.

It’s fun to think about this little GoodWill tree out on the porch as traffic flows by.

Because if nothing else...

It brings a smile to my face.

:-)