11.04.07
Christmas Trees and More Yarn
My sister called me this morning to go shopping at the Grove. First we had lunch, and then we hit the stores. They were already setting up Christmas decorations, and this time one of my mysteries finally got solved. . . How or where do they get such HUGE Christmas trees? The trees are real for sure. Not only are they huge, they are perfectly formed and taller than the two story department stores. I have always wondered, “where do they get those trees?” Well, today I found out. I’m sure other people have known this secret, but I’m slow, ha! This is what I saw. . .
Notice the crane. The tree was too tall to get the top in the picture. Uh, notice the “bottom” of the tree. Looks a little sparse, huh? Just to get a better idea of the size of this tree, take a look at the size of the man in the crane.
What’s he doing in there? I didn’t see any Christmas tree decorations. But what I did see were lots of these on the ground. I drew in a red arrow to show the base of the tree with no branches or needles.
And more stacked up here.
Cripes! It finally dawned on me that they were “assembling” the Christmas tree! First they plant a big tree “trunk” in the ground. Then they nail in live branches. Talk about living in fairytale land. We city folks aren’t only removed from where food comes from and where it’s processed, but even our Christmas trees are not what they seem, ha ha! And here I thought they find just the right tree and just decorate it, ha ha ha!
Okay, so moving along to something I know a little more about. . . yarn. . . My mom called me the other day and told me that she found some of my old yarn stash in her garage, ack! So I went down to visit her and sure enough, she had bags of more of my old yarn. One bag contained crocheted sampler squares that I was working on to make an afghan. I had completely forgotten about those squares! The receipt in the bag was dated January 1990, ha ha! But I couldn’t have found those squares at a better time. The ladies at my knit group informed me that they are giving away some knitted items for charity and wanted to know if I had anything to give. This particular group is for babies (oh, I love those little tykes!). But I really wanted to start my Christmas gift knitting instead of working for charity at this moment. Soooo,
now that I found those old squares which were kept clean in plastic bags, I decided to just sew a few of them up and “bingo!” instant baby afghan, ha ha! So fate has been on my side since not only did I find those made squares, today was the time change! One hour extra! Perfect! This morning while all were still asleep in my house, I picked out a few squares and started to assemble. Here’s what I decided to put together.
I know they’re not the best baby colors, but oh well, they should keep a little baby warm. Here’s what it looked like after I assembled it and put a border around it. Nine Lives and Clarence, my new knitting mascot, came to make an inspection.
Clarence is standing on top of the pile of the other squares that I can assemble for another blanket. But I think the nine squares makes a good size for a newborn or a stroller afghan. Nine Lives and Clarence decided to try out the afghan to see if it was warm and comfy enough. . .
Looks like I’ve got their approval! Yay! Now I can continue with my other projects, yet still be able to contribute with the other ladies AND put those squares to good use! 
Okay, I’m off to try to be more productive. Oh boy, oh boy, I love this time of year!
Marlakins
