Estoy Nueces

I love my Christmas tree! Yes. Traditionalist that I am, I have my tree up before Thanksgiving. I bought a new tree last week on the spur of the moment. But I got a good deal, it seems. I was at Lowe's yesterday and they didn't have anything nearly as nice as cheap as I got one. I have two (or three) trees in the garage. The most normal one is very broken around the bottom. It still looks okay, but the limbs sag to the ground. I bought another one last year, but it was that fiber stuff and it flashes colors so fast someone could have a seizure so I had to put it in a room where the street could see it, but I didn't have to. So I wanted a real, normal, big tree. I got one. This one is taller than I can reach, over 7 feet, and wider than a doorway. AND it is prelit with multicolor lights that don't blink. Multicolor lights are hard to find, it seems. The white lights on this tree (it has them too if I want) are not that pretty or bright. I much prefer the color and they are so nicely spaced. I never get them this nicely spaced on my own.

I hope to pull in a box of ornaments today and start hanging some and clearing out my Christmas collections. I have boxes of my own that I haven't opened since the move and now I have Mom's Christmas stuff, too. It's not very much, but I need to see what I have.

Yesterday I bought a poinsettia for me and one for my in-laws who I will see Thursday. I also bought old-fashioned incandescent colored lights to try to put on the house.

I went to the library yesterday to return a book. I didn't intend to check any more out, but I looked at the new books and there was the Tom Hanks novel that isn't available to check out as an e-book so I snagged it. Then I went to the non-fiction and found a book about drawing by Lynda Barry that has been on my Amazon wish list for a long time so I checked it out. I forget there are good reasons to wander around the real library.

I called a friend yesterday, like I never do. Especially this one. It's her mother that has dementia and I will be with for Thanksgiving. The younger friend lives in Washington DC and we haven't talked in literally years. We aren't that kind of friend, more the kind of friend we send Christmas cards and see each other when we are all with her mom and stepdad (my former in-laws). But I called to wish them a happy Thanksgiving. I was so glad I did. She seemed happy to talk and had just had a hysterectomy so she was pretty immobilized for now. She didn't know I was going to see the folks and she was very happy to hear that. We discussed how her mom got so disoriented when they went on a vacation to Galveston this summer so she knows now that vacations are off the table. The mom will just have to remain in her home where she is comfortable and familiar.

But making that call kind of made me think about others I should catch up with. It is good to have friends, after all.