Pam: . Initially, I thought it was an incredible hybrid... then I decided it must be dyed through its circulatory system... upon closer inspection, I noticed there were some leaf-shaped non-blue bract sections and a bit of overspray on the leaves. I concluded it was a white poinsettia variety that had been sprayed by a fine blue dye mist. I considered it beautiful and it lasted several months. I think I paid $10 for it at Target. I saw some blue and purple ones at an upscale florist the other day but the price was too silly to tempt me. Calliope: While the water-meter-inspector dude from the village was here last week and I was chatting him up as he worked, Izzy fetched up what I assumed to be a half-eaten catnip mouse to me... but what turned out to be a semi-dessicated, heavily masticated real mousie (or parts of one anyway) that had died of apparently natural causes in our basement. Don't ask me how or why, but I maintained a calm conversation with the inspector without revealing my horrific discovery, whispered to Izzy to fetch up the other pieces, calmly tossed them, washed my hands, and re-joined him in the utility room as though nothing had happened. I don't know if I was more horrified or amused... or why I felt I needed to hide the presence of ex-mice from the utility dude... Blech! As for Christmas preparedness... I pick and choose what I do. I'm waaaaay too susceptible to holiday rage otherwise. I made a simple wreath for my front door with sugared fruits, gold and pearl "berries," a pretty bow, and pheasant feathers... and that is the sum of our holiday decorations. I have bought numerous gifts for my niece and nephews, my parents, and a couple small but meaningful ones for my siblings. I made several batches of bourbon balls, and intend to give a container of them to each of my coworkers. I finished a batch of Crema di Limoncello and Crema di Orangecello (from the recipes posted here) and bottled them up tonight. I will give a bottle of each, along with a container of bourbon balls, and jars of the stuff I canned this fall to several of my neighbors. Steve told me he wants to baked stuff with me, so we'll do that this weekend, and freeze it for our upcoming trip. Other than that, I have three parties to attend, and then we're off to ND to visit my family (including the CT residents) for over a week. I have to be very careful not to overdue stuff or it triggers insane anxiety in me. There's lots I choose to not do during the holidays so I can enjoy it. I'm about as done as I'm going to be.

I wondered where I was when the blue rose thread came through the Forum and guessed I was painting the kitchen White. I'm glad everybody agrees that the Pansiose is not blue but my question is does it smell like pansies and did they remove the repeat blooming gene to get the color? Everybody knows that grocery store roses don't smell. The other day my husband said there was a lot of nice Mr. Lincolns at the store and I said, they weren't Mr. Lincoln because Mr. Lincoln has a nice scent. I've just got a vision of those Pansiose seeding down into tiny little Johnny Jump Up roses alllllll over the place. Now that would be cool. Seriously, I did not think much of those trashy colored poinsettias this Christmas. I think way more mileage could be obtained by breeding some scent into our grocery store roses. As for growing them at home, my unsung heroes are those like the company in Michigan which is testing and offering hybrid teas on their own roots. Mr. Lincoln is now on his fifth winter in my unheated greenhouse, graft planted eight inches down. Carol, those Iris are beautiful. It's always interesting to me how big flowers get in warmer climates.

RE: dino garden-- When I've seen dino dioramas and drawings, so many of the plants look subtropical to tropical that it seems like a natural fit. I've even seen some fossilized rock out in Colorado that had imprints of palmetto leaves in it-- from back when the Rockies were underwater (!). For a dino garden, I'd just use things like palms and cycads with some funky dino statuettes-- I hadn't gotten too far past that, with the exception of some sort of "rock pit" or sandbox where a child can "dig for fossils." (I've seen the fossil dig at some different park/nature expos, and kids do think it's pretty fun to dig in the dirt anyway.) I was toying with it after reading about using cardboard palm which supposedly dates way back or is related to some ancient palms (can't remember). Then I read that parts of it were poisonous. That's the downside of using some cycads in a children's garden-- though I believe some are safe. That's about as far as I got...given all the mini-dinos we have in this state, they'd certainly add to the atmosphere too! I think you have a rudimentary start with Godzilla there! --Shelbey

I just want to enjoy Christmas with a couple of parties and friends this year, instead of traveling. This is me every Christmas! Family and friends. Memories of years past with all our parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I love the big family get togethers. Most were at my grandparent's. My mom usually did Christmas breakfast and my grandparents came. Aunt, Uncle and cousins (mom's brother and family) would come to my grandparents later in the day. Many of the extended family (my grandfather's siblings and families) would gather at another relative and we'd drop by there late in the day. It's much different now. My husband and I have one parent left between us and I have two siblings. My sister and BIL moved this past year. They will be here sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas but not Christmas Day. My brother is here in town. Of course many of the aunts and uncles are also gone and cousins are all over, but I do still have a few in the area. So, our group is much smaller these days, but I still love to have us all together, as many as we can. We have great friends and their children/grandchildren, who are truly family to us, and we will gather with them Christmas evening. Christmas lunch, I will host. We never travel on Christmas or Thanksgiving. The long Thanksgiving weekend, sometimes and between Christmas/New Years, sometimes. But Christmas Day, I want to be home.