...things that we don't do any more. Sigh, I think it's true that it seems to take small children to make the decorating worthwhile. Or maybe it takes a child-like pleasure in seeing the colored lights, decorating a tree, shaking the presents, grabbing a warm cookie from the rack... DH isn't into all that, and I'm tired of swimming upstream against his non-participation and aggrieved sniffs at having the living room rearranged. Less [conflict] is indeed more [serenity]. But, yes, I remember the tinsel... one bro would carefully drape one strip at a time off each branch tip; the other bros tossed clumps which often slithered down to the floor. We made paper-chains (teensy-tiny links too small to fit your finger, not the big, clumsy ones today's kindergartner brings home), and cut out lacy snowflakes and stars from precisely folded paper, and strung popcorn with a cranberry every tenth place. Long before it was fashionable jewelry, we pasted and rolled colored paper into beads to be strung together, a necklace for the tree. One year Da surprised Mum with a couple strings of multi-colored bubbling candles... goodness, I remember those clearly, and I haven't thought of them in decades. The tree was set into a bay window and the lights reflected in each pane. For a week, each night after dinner, we would sit with only the tree lights on, nibbling cookies and luxuriating in the sight. Sometimes mum would play the piano, and we would sing all the old carols; going la-la-la until we learned the words. From the time I was very small, bro-1 would give me a box of kumquats and I remember counting the sweet-tart globes, and doling them out to myself carefully to be sure I had enough to last through the season. Many gifts were hand-made... there was the faintest implication that a 'store-bought' present was considered an indication that the giver hadn't really given much thought to the givee. Considering that even the fastest knitter needs a month to make a sweater, there was certainly some validity in that attitude -- It's much faster to run into the store to buy a sweater; and if the preferred color isn't available, it doesn't seem to matter. Sometimes I look at all the catalogs with their seasonal 'specials' stuffing the mailbox, and remember the single Sears catalog that arrived in September, which allowed enough time to choose, order, and receive something... and that it usually took about 3 weeks for the shipment to be delivered. Shoes, boots, and winter coats would be ordered, and it was toss-up whether the bad weather or the package would arrive first. And the grown-ups opened the package after the kids were in bed, because that was the box that might contain a surprise gift [a pocketknife for bro-1, or the trumpet bro-2 wanted] to be hidden until wrapped in colored paper and put under the tree.

I could tell you got one by the message on my machine the night of return, even though only the last couple of words came through. Can't wait to see more pictures, although don't you know that you can find pales in northern Jackson county, MO, where they intergrade with syspila? In northwestern Jackson, you can find syspila/gentilis/multistriata that blow the common multistriata out of the water -- long live Marshall. May this week's adventure be so successful... oh me oh my am I excited.

You guys are freaking me out. Long time ago when I was in the Air Force the girl across the hall used to tell me about the ghosts in the family home outside Philadelphia. She said both her parents were dr's and her mother could also read aura's and see ghosts and she once had some sort of wild nature ghost bothering her and they had to call people in to evict it etc. etc. and I just didn't believe any of it. Why would the daughter of a doctor be enlisted in the Air Force? She didn't even have a car. Anyway one weekend I went home with her. Oh my. Big old huge white elephant just off the Main line, mother comes home from volunteer teaching CPR and tells us to get bread from the freezer in the basement. I'm down there trying to get their dog to come down and she yells down "oh the dog doesn't like it down there because of the ghost" She reads her sons friends aura at dinner and tells me on the way to the train the next day that at the present time my guardian was a woman. Man I didn't get ANY sleep. The girl also said the more you think about spirits the more they are drawn to you. So I used to lie in my barracks bunk thinking "i'm not thinking about spirits I'm not thinking about spirits" like some sort of idiot.

Here's a spoiler if you're not sure... https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5971310/old-links-quick-and-dirty#c12