My late mother warmly reminisced every year about her Christmas stocking which included a Clementine, unshelled walnuts, a few hard candies and in the very, very bottom a quarter. Those stockings were the sum total of their material gifts but the traditional Italian Christmas Eve seafood dinner and Christmas day feasting with relatives coming in and out (they all lived in close city neighborhoods) was the real deal. And the love...the feeling of being cherished and belonging to immediate and extended family. When we four daughters were young my mother didn't drive and then didn't have her own car for years. When I was 4 my parents moved us to "the country" in northern Jersey so we could grow up with wondrous woods behind the house in new suburbs. Dad did all the shopping then including for our Christmas presents. After pestering him, a few weeks before Christmas my father would call all four girls into the living room one night after dinner to "make the lists." We would run and jump up to sit on, over and around him on the couch where he fell asleep reading the newspaper after a late dinner every weeknight. He took a pad of paper and divided it into 4 sections with our names. We went around in a circle naming one thing we wanted at a time until we were done. Descriptions were elicited from my father as there were no circulars in those days and my father had not a clue what we were naming. Dad would end by saying he'd make sure Santa got the lists. Probably because it wasn't easy to get 4 girls up, washed & dressed with one bathroom into the car for Mass and then a long day of shuttling between "city grandparents" and family we always opened our presents at a most special time...midnight. We went to bed with such anticipation Christmas Eve and before we knew it my mother was softly waking us up at midnight telling us "Santa was here, come see!" after which we scrambled out of bed with a mixture of grogginess and excitement. I'll never forget the absolute magic of stepping into the hallway and seeing the glow of the lit Christmas tree emanating from the darkened living room with what seemed to be sparkling packages all laid out under the tree in four piles. Once into the living room we'd each find our packages and start to open them. My parents would be slumped in a chair thoroughly exhausted but with the warmest smiles at our delight and their joy. There was always a plate of the butter cookies (pink stars and flowers & green Christmas trees) we'd made with my father one night the week before Christmas to eat while we opened gifts. My paternal grandmother always made an Italian knot cookie with red, white and green lemon flavored icing. I somehow came to be the one out the four girls who took on that task as adults. Now all my nieces and nephews would disown me if I didn't have a huge rainbow platter of those cookies for them on Christmas. Then there's the Italian Wedding Soup...home made chicken stock with tiny meatballs (ground veal & chicken base) with the finest hairs of pasta. The meatballs for so many take one whole day on their own to make but they can be frozen ahead of time thank goodness. The kids would riot if their Nanny's "little meatball soup" wasn't on the Christmas day menu. The granchildren are now aged 21-27 but it was intentional on the part of my mother and we four sisters to make sure we passed on traditions to them so they'd have a bond to their past and each other. "Christmas Cookies" started out with each of us 4 girls making one or two batches to bring to my parent's house for Christmas day dessert along with a cake so the kids could sing "Happy Birthday Jesus." They must have learned that in their parochial schools as they demanded it but I went through 12 years of Catholic school and don't remember that particular thing being taught. Of course we did it for them as requested anyway. As my sisters started their families and ran short of time I started taking on more of the cookie baking. It's one of those things that just creeps up on you over the years until you don't know how you ended baking up to 14 varieties of cookies, each of which is someone's favorite, plus the traditional iced Italian knot cookies. The traditional Italian Struffoli (feather light honey drizzled balls) have been bought from an Italian bakery for years. My older sister and I tried our hand at them one year decades ago and they came out like lead cannon balls...LOL. The many batches of cookies get divided up into tins everyone brings and taken for enjoyment back at everyone's respective homes all Christmas week. My father's favorites are the Linzer Tortes my older sister makes for him every year. Everyone loves her Neopolitan cookies (3 colored layers, apricot jam in between & boiled chocolate icing all around) which are worlds beyond the ones you get in the store. This will be our fourth Christmas without my Mom and I naively thought missing her as the heart of our family would be tempered each successive year but it's not. Keeping the traditions she gave us is some comfort and seeing the kids faces as they scoff up multiple bowls of their grandmother's "little meatball soup" is one of the most touching times of the whole day. My older sister is farthest along in keeping a "family recipe cookbook" on the computer for her 2 daughters. So much of the cooking of my grandmothers and mother were never by "written recipe" and I'm thankful my older sister and father took the time to record recipes while those amazing women were still with us. How ironic that the one out of four daughters who never cooked much(me) has ended up "doing holidays" since my Mom passed away. I don't know how women do it continuously over decades...kind of like how I'm constantly amazed at how women here on the forums do so much with their gardening among all their other responsibilities. The holiday traditions are for generational continuity and priceless memories. It's a sense of "place" and belonging no matter where family members scatter through the years. Sorry I rambled so...time of year with so many memories.

14 years ago I bought my Deere STX 38. At the time I knew nothing of lawn tractors and I can't say today that I know very much more... I wanted a Cub Cadet as for years Cub Cadet was the offical lawn tractor of the Chicago Cubs... Yes, I know it sounds silly now. Problem was there wasn't a CC dealer anywhere near me. As it turned out, I mentioned wanting a tractor to our banker when we closed on the house. He happened to be best friends with the gentleman that owned the local Deere dealer and made a call on my behalf. As I stated, I've got the STX 38, 5-Speed, mulch kit, rear bagger and trailer delivered all for about $2k. My lot is almost an acre and I live in Chicagoland so my season is limited. I do all the regular maintenance and to date I have replaced the carb, and the PTO. My daughter thought the hood was a metal car hood so she dropped it after checking the oil and that has been replaced once as as well. After 14 years I don't feel I'm trying to justify a purchase, I know what I bought and she has been a great workhorse for me. I can see why folks fall in love with the green and yellow. I recently got the itch for a new tractor. I found this forum and several others and looked at several tractors I've never even considered before, Simplicity and Kubota. Both were amazing!! Looked at a X300 as well and was equally wowed. After all the forum lurking I've seen an underlying respect for well maintained old machines. Mine just finished the yard, got a good bath and a coat of wax. Looks like something new will not appear in my shed till this old STX just decides she's had enough. As for what's better, who knows... All companies made an Edsel once or twice, but all I can say is good maintainance and a little respect for your tractor, of any type, and most will last a long time.

The sun is wonderful, Jim, isn't it! We're probably a couple of weeks ahead of you into fall here. Thank you, ramblinrose, for the nice compliment! I was just feeling dreamy. I have festoons of spider web everywhere too. Makes it look very Halloweeny though! Mike, after all that cold, dreary, wet weather it feels like Indian Summer. I hope you're right about those buds but I'm not holding my breath. I have to get out to see your new place! It sounds like you've already done a ton of work. Turkey vultures? I don't think I've ever seen any of those around here. Must be inland birds. We get huge cormorants sometimes that might as well be vultures. They drive out most of the other birds. Glad to hear you got some welcome rain, Jackie. I'll bet the roses loved it too! Black Walnuts? My Aunt has some and they are a pain! Besides the fact that their roots are toxic and other thing won't grow with them they drop those huge green spikey nuts and when they drop their leaves they drop them in whole branches not just the leaves. No thanks, I'll keep our colorful maples. Our city doesn't clean leaves anymore but that's OK because I want all of mine to winter protect my potted roses. We had two huge elms here that we lost in the 70's too, Mike. As a matter of fact that's how my Aunt ended up with those black walnuts. But Mom was smart and planted different varieties to replace them (and none of them were ash) so she wouldn't lose them all again like that. I have two very different varieties of maples and two different apples and they're all huge now! Marianne, try burning bush (vibernum?) for some fall color. And one my friend just got that changes color several times a year is called coppertina. I don't know what's available in Sweden but there are some lovely Japanese maples that are red all year long too.

Hi everybody!! First off, Gretchen ((((( )))))!! I am so sorry to hear of your loss! Sending good thoughts and prayers to you and your family. NHSuzanne, CONGRATS on your 10 lb loss! That is wonderful! Jen, I hope those headaches are history! Well, Ahem..... Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes! I woke up this morning early and right after my 2nd cup of coffee there was a knock at the door. A big box was on my doorstep! Thank you, thank you, thank you Jen!! The first thing i opened was the lovely card with pictures of Jen's BEAUTIFUL girls Tara and Erica. These two are real Cutie Pies! Everything came so beautifully wrapped. There is a real garden theme here...Everything in pastels: a multi colored pastel picture frame with a butterfly and flower pot. Next was a package of tea candles to go with the darling potpourri burner that is also pastel and bedecked with butterflies. Then 5 different scented wax potpourri discs for the burner, all shaped like little pies, all smelling good enough to eat; honeydew/melon,french vanilla,golden spiced pear,fruitberry/spiced pear and spiced pumpkin. last but not least is a little ceramic crock which matches everything else! Jen said that her girls helped pick out the gifts and I must say, Tara and Erica have excellent taste! Jen, I love everything! The frame awaits the "perfect picture" and sits on my desk. The potpourri burner is in use as I write this, I chose honeydew/melon for today. The little crock sits on my bedside table.I have yet to master my digital camera. I will TRY to post pics. Thank you soooo much. I am enjoying our emails, too. I went out for breakfast with friends, lunch with DD, got my nails done and am getting ready for a dinner out with a some friends. Another friend has invited me out for breakfast tomorrow and there will be a small party at Sunday school. DS has been away at camp for the week (HIS birthday was Wednesday)and we have a family party planned for NEXT weekend.lol! So, you see, I plan to celebrate ALL WEEK LONG!! Marci, you have outdone yourself with that marquee. I printed it out. Who knows when I might see my name in lights again? DeeMarie, Age? I'm old enough to know better but too young to resist!! Ha Ha!! Raeanne, That ornament WAS tacky, but lets not overlook it's practical aspect. You never know when you might need "one of those"! Still no word from BJ. I hope she is having a good trip and that we can hook up here. Thank you all so much, Love, Tikanas