More about our birds. . . How we came to have the parakeet is a story in itself. Mother was out in the garden hanging up the laundry one sunny day and out of nowhere a blue & white parakeet flew right down and landed on Mother's shoulder. She nibbled lovingly on Mother's ear and mother said, "Well hello there" and the bird said, "Ooooh. Hello!" And Mother said, "So, who are you?" The bird replied, "Pretty Bird!" So, she kept her name. She never flew away after finding a nice home, having no desire to try living out in the big free world ever again. We never did find out from whence she came. I would like to add about the Mexican Love Bird. . . . . .that after cursing out the preacher and telling him to "Go to Hell!", and saying things like "Well, -uck a duck!", our love bird never said any of the really foul swear words ever again. Mother said it must have just been a cleansing thing for her, but I have always wondered just what Mother did to make her "repent" and come clean.??? And as for our parakeet, Pretty Bird? After her jello bath, she began saying, "Oooooh, Pretty Bird. Pretty Bird is a dirty bird!" We kids got so much fun out of her. She loved Orange Jell-O, not just for bathing but for eating it as well. She especially loved it when mother made it into a salad by adding grated carrots and chopped walnuts. Yum yum! She would walk across the table and sample everything. If she found something she particularly didn't like, she would make a mess of it and have a fit! So afterward she had to kept up during meals. She would fuss and squawk at us from her cage, demanding to be loosed at once! As you said, covering her cage was helpful in quieting her down. She would then say, "Good night Pretty Bird!" which would then of course, set us all into a round of giggles. ~Annie

Of course those that know me will understand one of my trees. I have a Disney tree with lots of timkerbells, characters and other unique Disney ornaments. I also have a tree that has the ornaments of my childhood and vintage ornaments from my grandmother. Ir is my memory tree. I add special ornaments to it to remind me of things Lee and I have done and I add ornaments that remind me of my parents and our old time Christmas. I try to hand ornaments on all my potted plants and I am beginning to theme them in Disney stuff and also in the ornaments from the various countries at Epcot. I also have a Christmas tree outside for the birds with special apples with peanut butter, etc. I am not feeling too well this Christmas and with the worry about Kurt I am finding it difficult to get into the spirit, but I am making an effort for my husband and Smokey. We do have a kitty tree. I collect angels and have an angel tree and adore glass ornaments and collect lots of them for a glass tree. I am going to attempt to take some pictures as I need them for my portfolio and also to share with you guys. I can take anybody into Disney for several weekends prior to Christmas week if you wish to visit the Biosphere and see the lights at MGM etc. Linda

Thanks Tart--that's a real handy list !

We've been slowly packing things away on the inside but haven't been able to get outside....too rainy and blowy. Tomorrow we should be able to undo the outside trees and put the front porch back to its pre holiday state. We've got some friends coming over on NYD for soup and chilli and I'll leave the tree that's on the back porch all decorated and full of lights. It's so pretty from inside the house; I will really miss it.