DECEMBER SCENES

Enough already!!! Snow and cold day after day. I love Michigan and the changing seasons, but hey - you get cold or snow, not cold and snow!!!! And not every day. It is supposed to clear up for any holidays and only precipitate on the grassy areas. Snow blowers are pulled out on occasion and winter sports are confined to gentle hills and open fields. There's a reason I settled in Lansing. Surrounded by rivers is supposed to protect us from tornadoes and the hot air over the Capital is supposed to protect us from the excesses of winter weather. The politicians need a good controversy to keep the heat on. Lame ducks apparently produce no gas....

Deer are being massacred every day as they forage for food or lick leftovers from bird feeders. The car/deer war is providing overwhelming casualties, much business for the body shops and the deer are losing! Hard to find deer organ donors.

The bird condo we are running on the back porch is seeing its usual varied supply of desperate renters who scramble for position on the narrow ledges of the bird feeder. We finally had to scatter some on the bench so the 6 pair of cardinals could catch the largess tossed by their bigger bluer brothers who hog the feeder. The doves have basically given up and are scarfing anything anywhere. Though their sheer bulk afford them the best positions, the crazy chickadees are completely fearless. Meanwhile the resident hawks just hang tight and pick their meal at their leisure.

Amidst all the frenzy of Christmas and end of the year projects, I found myself contemplating fairness and the lack thereof. As I curse the inconvenience of the weather and the work that I do, I saw a man today who struggled to move his wheelchair through a store. His legs shriveled up and useless. I saw the smile on his face as he excused himself for asking others to make way so he could maneuver his chair among us. Not a person complained or was less than accommodating. Hopefully we all felt "but for the grace of God that could be me".

Reminded me of my Grandfather who through the ravages of arthritis lost the use of his legs before he was 40. Though I never saw him standing, I always thought he could and I never questioned that he could not do everything everyone else did. He was smart and funny and he took us to places who never realized they should have to accommodate him. They found a way or he explained how they could. He never made me think that he was handicapped. He just moved differently.

FOREST FOR THE TREES, CHRISTMAS TREES THAT IS

Made the big trek to Tannenbaum Farms to select a tree this weekend. Last year the Burt man went by himself during the week. Much less hoopla, no fancy wagon rides to the fields and no hot chocolate anywhere. We used to go there when Kristen was small and even once or twice as a teenager. Schlepping through the tree fields, cutting your own tree with a dull knife errr hacksaw. Dragging the girl on the cart when she wanted a ride. Check out the reindeer, wash everyone's face in the snow, warm up at the fire and sip hot chocolate. Oh yes, you also get an extremely overpriced tree out of the deal-which if you make the people pick, it out, cut it down and drag it out,you would think it would be a little cheaper. No handling charge!

This year Kristen and Matt wanted to pick out the first tree for their house. They moved in the weekend before Christmas last year, so not exactly conducive to creating the whole Christmas thingee in the midst of moving boxes and no furniture. Plus their furnace went out Christmas night which kind of takes the romance out of the holiday-although I suppose cuddling up for survival does often lead to an exchange of body heat.

General hilarity when Burt finally emerged from the pick-up. We had been dancing around, oohing and ahhing at all the fancy cut trees and wreaths wondering what in the heck was keeping him. He is garbed head to toe in bright orange camouflage looking like a puffed up robin. Amazing he could move. We waxed silly over his "over dressing".

Two things proved prophetic however. First, the fact that we admired all the trees wayyyyy uppppp at the building before heading into the tree fields and wondered who would buy these, scoff, already cut trees and miss the whole woodland adventure; and secondly, Matt's words that we will all be begging Burt for some of his attire before we finish today. Well both prophecies came to fruition.

Strangely enough, Matt and Kristen bought the first tree they saw (beautiful) at the building wayyyyyy uppppp front after wandering through the fields for an hour and secondly, we about froze our patooties off. Burt was the smart one. Took the magical wagon ride, after shivering on the platform for a while, way out to the fields, looked at the lone reindeer (a boy) left in the pen and wandered and wandered and wandered looking for that perfect tree. We found many perfect trees. However they were penned up like convicts complete with their green and black striped uniforms. No one knows why these perfect trees were not free to be hacked down by an eager public and carted off like a trophy buck.

Another little Tannebaum joke. After you wander and wander and wander looking for the perfect tree, you find you have wandered all the way back the first building you came into. No magical wagon ride back holding your perfect trophy tree, which spends the ride slapping you in the face with very prickly and cold little green fingers, and obviously no hot chocolate. We remedied that lack with a run to the local Old Chicago restaurant where we enjoyed something a little stronger than hot chocolate. However the warming properties are the same. Plus yours truly kicked a---- in trivia!

Rumor hath it, the younger set have their tree already set up. We "gifted" them with all of Kristen's ornaments accumulated over the years and a nice set of jingle bell ornaments that we assured them were "cat friendly". Heh Heh Heh. : )

(make sure you click on the pics to see them in their full radiant glory)