As long as you keep the lamp far enough away, it will not dry out the canes. I saved 3 bushes with it, just raising their temperature for four days each. Put your hand on the rose; if you feel warm but not uncomfortable, so will the rose. The plastic might work, but I didn't use it. How about the plastic with a bowl of water to raise humidity? Anyway, I clipped the heat lamp to a milk carton, posed it at least a foot away from the bush. They are doing quite nicely, one of the three former sticks will break color this week. I lamped them about a month ago, when July showed no signs of heating. I did not harden, as I live in a mild, 60's climate. Beth

It might have bothered me if I had been home, but I worked. In winter, I went to work in the dark and came home in the dark, and during the day I was so busy that I didn't have time to think about it. During the summer it was fantastic. A lot of women got serious cabin fever in the winter and some people would have to put foil on their windows so they could sleep. I found winter to be fun because the cold is dry and you can play outside. We loved to tube down the hills, and ice skate. After we moved to Oklahoma (east of Norman), my children said they all needed to talk to me about something. I thought they had a serious problem so we planned a time later that night so we could talk about it. Their problem.....they all wanted a new winter coat because they were freezing at the bus stop. We went the next day and bought longer coats that were water resistant and would stop they wind, and that solved the problem. Our boys love it there and would love to go back. I have never had a desire to live anywhere cold since I broke my back. I have 9 inches of steel going down both sides of my spine and it gets cold. I never had trouble with the cold before I got Harrington rods in my back, but if I get too cold now, I just shake all over. Valdez is a nice place to visit....ends there for me. Alaska is the one place that I have lived where no one cares what anyone else does, or wears, or how much money they make, etc. If you went 'out on the town', one table might be in formal wear and the next one in blue jeans, and no one cared. It was a place where everyone lived their own life the way they wanted to live it, and if didn't hurt someone else, they were just left alone. I loved the sled dog races. Of course, in Anchorage it wasn't a sure thing that you would have enough snow for the beginning of the race. We still had a house in Wasilla for several years after we moved back to the 'lower 48'. After Al retired from the USAF and we were living in Ohio, he and our son drove back to Wasilla to work on the house. The repairs took 3 days, but they were gone two months. I think the fishing was just too good. LOL

1. How many cards will we mail this year ? 747 2. Who will receive first card ? me(detroitgirl77)--I received my first one today! 3. How many cards total have been sent in the 5 years ? 6,275 Here is a link that might be useful: Secret Santa Swap 2012 continuation thread This post was edited by detroitgirl77 on Wed, Dec 5, 12 at 17:45

Well of course there's those who want to believe and those who want to try to make something out of fun that simply isn't so. If I saw children who were so traumatized that they would distrust their parents over Santa Claus, then those are clearly incompentent parents and should not have children in their custody. Clearly there's a lot more reasons why those children distrust the parents and I dare not even ask what they're doing to those poor kids. We grew up without a lot of the Santa hoopla. But there was "Santa". We all figured it out at an unusually young age. Maybe the hints? Maybe we were smarter or more able to analyze things? Maybe dumb luck? I don't know and I don't care. We were raised with more of the spirit and meaning of the holidays than on the giftwrap. But like mashed potatoes and gravy, Christmas and presents were part of it. My mother died at an early age. The last couple weeks of her life, two cousins, both LPNs stayed with my parents to help out. I knew my mother appreciated this since it enabled her to be at home when she died. I knew I had to do something special that year. Didn't take long to figure out a present for each of them. One enjoyed photography and used instamatics all her life. Easy choice, eh? Yep a camera. The other just got a new car and had just an AM radio. A car stereo. So they were wrapped up and the tag said who it was from. Need I say? Santa. They were both kind of mystified why I was giving them a present and saying Santa until I asked them you DO know who Santa is, don't you? One blurted out YOU! and all of a sudden the other's jaw dropped and a tear came to her eye and said "I know who she is". I've done a lot of things in my life for which I'm proud, but this one rates up there toward the top. I know I brought true JOY in this world, but this I'm sure brought a lot of happiness in another world if there truly is one. So whether you believe in other worlds, Santa, "good" and "bad" vibes, karma or whatever, it's the spirit in the person that matters. So whether you want to traumatize your kids or celebrate with them, here's hoping every good person here has a happy Christmas (yes even if you don't believe in Christmas) and a healthy and prosperous new year. Gledelig Jul! BTW, Joyful, since you Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving about a month before we do in the States, have you already celebrated Christmas??? One other thing I've often wondered... for the people who are so "honest"... do they also tell their kids that Christmas is about retail greed and refuse to accept any presents, cookies and goodies or the Christmas dinner? Just kind of curious. :D