'TIS THE SEASON

'Tis the season to be jolly! Fa la la la laaaa, la la la la!"

It is Christmas time, after all.

Here is a picture of the Hardy House Christmas tree. Yes, it looks a little quiet and forlorn and it is. The tree skirt is not on, the bottom is sparse and the angel is crooked. It also has few ornaments. There is a reason for this this season, if I may rhyme a bit...

We have a wonderful Christmas tree farm a couple miles from our house. Its name is Urtz's Christmas Trees. You can cut your own or they pre-cut daily. Dave and I have become accustomed to popping over there, picking a pre-cut, and back home with it in less than 20 minutes. I kid you not. Last Sunday we did just that, in the pouring rain. The trees last a very long time.

Next, we had to go through box upon box in the barn to find our Christmas decorations. We never planned things real well as we only planned to have things packed like this for 6 months tops. Guess again. A year and a half later we are hunting for decorations.

So what has happened is mice have nested in some of our boxes and have created havoc in our decorations. This gives me great sorrow as some items were family items that I cannot recover. But they are things and we will build upon old with newer.

What this means, however, is that our tree is a little sparse and not terribly pretty. All the same, it is the first tree in a rebuilt Hardy House and for that we are thankful.

You know what's really cool? With the new electrical, I plugged the tree lights into a particular outlet and now we can turn the tree lights off and on with the flick of a switch. We've never been able to do that before. We usually crawl around on the floor looking for the on/off switch. No more.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Hardy House to your House.