Thanks, Ann!! Actually today I feel a LOT better! I was only on the computer today for a very short time. I plan on being on the computer a lot tonight...so I'll see if the computer makes it worse for the vertigo.

Warmest holiday wishes from PRM to the Houzz community!

For more irreverence, did you hear that when one of the apostles called to make the reservation for the last supper he said they needed a table for 26? The restaurant asked why if there were 13 in attendance. He replied, "Because we're all going to be sitting on one side."

RE artificial Christmas trees - I see many of those on the curb every year, because they start to shed their "needles" after a few years, long before they look shabby, or because the owners wanted to "upgrade". They can't be recycled - the scrappers won't take the ones with metal parts even. So they go to the landfill, to continue the march toward more farmland being converted to trash disposal. Whereas a live tree has come from a farm, (not overseas), will be replaced with another tree, and while growing is providing all of the benefits of trees in the landscape. In fact a tree farm is creating a "woods" where otherwise would be crops like corn or soybeans. Then the tree can be turned into mulch, composted, or simply broken up with loppers and piled in a corner of the yard to provide shelter for various wildlife. (I realize that many towns/cities still don't yet offer pickup and processing of Christmas trees, or other yard waste, but if citizens keep asking for that, it will come). On my walks around the neighborhood on trash day I often see things like sets of dishes, intact glassware, and other usable good condition household items of all sorts, including bedframes, outgrown clothes & toys, linens - from decluttering and downsizing I assume for the most part - set out for the trash pickup. We have 3 or 4 thrift stores within 2-3 miles, and a store (furniture bank) that takes furniture donations another 2 or so miles further. So the mindset is there, if not to the extreme of trashing rather than dealingwith an entire special occasion kit.