When we dip below zero it rarely snows. The high yesterday was 9 F or -12 C eh. It seemed much colder and last evening the temperature hovered right around 0 F or -17 C. It was COLD.
My baby brother and his bride cooked supper...chicken, baked potatoes and chili...it was great! We don't often go out after dark...and the car didn't have time to warm up between his place and ours.
Here is the Christmas tree on Main Street...it is leaning a bit. Hope it doesn't fall over.
Far Side
We would like to extend a Merry Christmas to all! We are having a cool white Christmas here in Minnesota…we got some fresh snow and it is way below zero.
The Shiny Brite tree is complete.
Here is our Christmas Letter 2017. I don’t have a photo of my finished Christmas card…I mailed them all off without a photo of the finished card… they were all pretty and glittery.
It is done! Actually I thought it was done once, took some photos and added just a few more ornaments. Typical for me.
Finished finally! Far Guy wants a photo from outside..there is about a foot of snow on that deck. It has not been a priority for shoveling.
The Gingham Ornament is one from Susan, this is it’s first year on the tree!
This is an ornament from Kansas Kay!
Ornaments and the snowy deck.
There it is…decorated before Christmas!
It is still cold here…brrrr. Headed for dangerous wind chills on Saturday and Sunday. Wind is expected and lows will be –20 to –30F or –28 to 34C eh. Winter Fun in Minnefreezeyourbuttoffsota!
The downstairs tree is done. Complete. Two weeks to spare. Yahoo for me.
We have Bubble Lights and Merry Go Round Horses at the bottom of the tree. We are still using the Christmas Tree Skirt that Far Guy’s Paternal Grandmother made, it is velvet and Far Guy used to use it as a cape. We are still using our artificial rendition of a Colorado Blue Spruce that we bought in 1996. Twenty years and it has served us well.
The Post Office was delivering packages on Sunday.
This ornament is from our friend Sue in Indiana. I love it!
The upstairs tree is still a work in progress. It needs a few more days.
It warmed up to snow but has turned cold again.
Several of the beds upstairs have been off limits…they were full of Shiny Brites.
When I am invited upstairs I know something is up. Can you see anything? Someone keeps telling me to wake up…look alive!
Can you see how handsome I am?
How about now?
I am just about the best model ever…too bad it isn’t a paying job.
Far Side says it is done for another year. She doesn’t know exactly how many ornaments are on that tree, she started to count and then lost track. A few years ago it was approaching 450. She added 48 new/old ornament this year. She might count when she takes it down. The tree is 9 1/2 or 10 feet tall no one can remember exactly…just like they can’t remember if they gave me a treat or not.
Just so you know there are no lights on the tree. Far Side is pretty darn fussy about her ornaments. If the ornaments have old strings on them or grease pencil 5 cents or 10 cent marks they remain. The ornaments are never washed. Most are Shiny Brites, some are Coby ornaments a competitor of Shiny Brites. Some are Polish ornaments and some are from West Germany. All are beautiful.
Recently Far Side had to take an ornament to an exchange…it took her forever to decide which Shiny Brite she could part with. She finally chose a plain gold Shiny Brite because she has just a few.
New this year are the Shiny Brite Red Icicle Twirls, they were a gift from Edie.
Far Side has ornaments from; Edie, Madeline, Grace, Minnie, Susan and Lillian, Jo Lynn, Sandy, Tom and Linda, me and Far Guy. (that is a Susan and Lillian in the photo it is the green one with the snow)
I am sure glad that tree is done now Far Side will have more time to play ball.
In December of 1975 our daughters Trica (3 years 8 months old) and Jennifer (3 months old) at our home in Moorhead MN. Thirty nine years ago.
We had a live tree…looks kinda like a Charlie Brown Tree. I still have some of those ornaments!
We should get a photo of the baby alone.
Not such a good idea. Poor thing…cried and kicked so hard she blew a slipper….but her sister is still smiling.
Trica, Julie (my sister) and Jennifer. Trica must be practicing her smile.
Far Guy’s sister Janice and Jennifer at Far Guy’s parents in Park Rapids Minnesota.
Far Guy and Jennifer
Far Guy’s Mom holding Jennifer. In the background we have Baby Snuffer, my other baby brother Jody, Trica near Jody and brother in law Ron in the red pants.
Jan and Ron must have come up from Indiana for Christmas. The tree was on the end table that year. On the coffee table I see amongst other things a terrarium. Far Guys Mom fussed and fretted with that terrarium…everything had to be just perfect…the layers of sand..the stuff inside…I don’t remember much of what was inside….but they were all the rage in 1975. We still have that granny square afghan that is on the couch, it is upstairs and hangs on the quilt rack.
Far Guy’s Mom had that streak of grey/silver in her hair on purpose…the rest she colored but that front part was natural. Not sure why..it must have been all the rage back then.
Far Guy worked on the downstairs tree one afternoon. It has lights.
No decorations yet…but hey I like the lights! I am thinking that the one older stringer needs to find another spot besides on the tree.
The tree upstairs is a work in progress.
I go upstairs and grab a box of ornaments and hang them…and repeat until life interrupts. It will take a few days to accomplish…for sure I will have it all decorated before Christmas.
We have been busy.
I made some “cookies” for a cookie exchange.
We helped set up the silent auction and attended a benefit for Far Guy’s Cousin who has a rare and incurable disease called Arachnoiditis. There was a great turnout…she was a Chemotherapy Infusion Nurse so she has touched many lives.
Slowly but surely we are getting the Shiny Brite tree up.
The Shiny Brite tree is assembled. The top is decorated and then lifted onto the bottom section because a person could kill herself going up and down a ladder and break more ornaments than she could hang.
The Shiny Brite Tree Topper, Far Guy bought it for me a number of years ago. It is always the first thing I put on the tree….the beginning.
The beds and the couch and every other available space is used for the staging area. Each box has a sticky note. I like them to go back into their own assigned boxes. It is an OCD thing.
The four boxes and the small group on the bottom right are the new old ornaments this year.
Here is another bed full. Good thing no one is coming to visit.
I won’t show the couch or my work table or any other area for fear you will call me a ornament hoarder.
The top has been decorated. We have a system and it was lifted successfully onto the bottom part yesterday.
The bottom part takes a number of days to decorate.
This is the box of New Retro Shiny Brites that we added to the collection this year.
I have six boxes of retros now one for each of my grands and a spare just incase some are broken. Well you never know.
I walked around looking at other shorter fake trees the other day…ones that the elderly can easily put up. I am considering a smaller shorter tree….no big decisions have been made yet. I had a brilliant thought that if the tree was smaller I could decorate all in red one year…blue the next…silver…gold…pink...
Dragging the tree to it’s spot in the living room, leaving behind a trail of needles and possibly some pine pitch. (our house)
Every cat in the house is interested, of course the dogs are smarter and act like they know that it is perfectly normal for a tree to be in the house. (our house)
After the tree has unfrozen and sucked up an undisclosed amount of sugar water it can be decorated. (our house)
The lights are first…remember patiently waiting whilst your Dad checks every bulb for the one that is bad and must be replaced before the lights work? (My parents home and Far Guy said until all the appropriate cuss words were uttered nothing worked at his parents house.)
Then it is time for the garland…sometimes gold or silver or colored strings of bead like baubles. (my parents)
The ornaments one by one are taken from their hiding spots amongst the tissue paper…remember this one? Remember that one? (me)
The Star was placed on top (my parents). The Angel was placed on top (our house).
Mom placed the tinsel on the tree in exactly all the right places. (my parents house) I tried tinsel one year…cats pooping tinsel was not a good thing…(our house).
We turned off all the lights in the house to see the lights on our tree.
At our house…the cats thought the tree was brought in especially for them. They would tear down the hallway and run up the center of the tree. One year I thought Shadow was going to electrocute himself because he kept chewing the light stringers. I would catch him and put the ends back together with electrical tape. Eventually those light stringers were used outside because they were a hazard, a few years ago I threw them away…thinking that darn cat…and smiling.
The tree this week is one from Far Guy’s parents home. The year remains unknown.
Most likely from the 1950’s. A tree with a bit of sprayed on snow and some Shiny Brites…red if I recall correctly from later years.
Each year the tree on Main Street it lit on Friday evening after Thanksgiving. You can donate to Hospice in memory of a loved one and one of the lights will represent them. We donated in memory of Far Guy’s Mom who received Hospice Care the last two weeks of her life.
This year we both noted that the tree was moved down a bit on Main Street. I will take a photo one day soon. I don’t recall it being that far down the street last year…but hey I am getting older.
Alrighty then…the tree is always donated by someone.
In 1967 it was donated by Far Guy’s Paternal Grandparents Jim and Tracie.
Far Guy says “It was a beautiful tree and it came from the grove just north of the house.” he doesn’t remember going to the lighting ceremony.”
We were dating back then and I don’t recall it being mentioned at all. That was 47 years ago…uffda.
This giant Christmas tree will be officially lighted on Friday evening in ceremonies to be held in downtown Park Rapids. The tree is annually donated to the community by the Park Rapids Lions Club and decorated by Minnesota Power and Light Company. Jim Henderson of Osage gave the tree to the Lions Club, who erected the tree on Tuesday, November 22 (Photo by Salter)
Grandma wrote the year and month December 1967. I wonder if anyone out there has a photo other than this one that appeared in the paper and was saved by Grandma Tracie in her Purple Agricultural Book made into a scrapbook.
In 2008 I took a photo of the tree on Main Street.
In 2009 I also took a photo.
You have until 9 PM my time tonight to make a comment and or a guess to be in the Ornament Giveaway! Here is the link.
