Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Day and I am alone.

Finally. When the whole clan gets together, it's a little much sometimes. I'm more accustomed, living alone, to a quieter nature than my family allows. The barking dog, the screaming nephew, the loud voices of my mother and sister, the snoring from the recliner in the corner where my dad sleeps the day away, it's just too much sometimes.

There was lots of food, some of which I brought back in Tupperware containers for the next couple of days. There were gifts, greatly appreciated because I needed or wanted them. There was a lot of rain. One and a half inches fell while I was away. The wood heater is getting fired up again to dry the water that collected in the basement from the leaking concrete walls.

When I got home, the second thing I did was to take a quiet walk through the backyard. I clipped a few butterfly bushes and stuck them where I want them to grow. I did the same thing last year with great results. I also collected the seed pods from the Gomphocarpus. Inside, lots of brown seeds were found. I hope they're viable. I'll wintersow them in a couple months. It's a host plant for the Monarch.

Tomorrow is a work day. I'm sure we won't be busy. 66 Christmas trees need to be sold at $1 each to fishermen who place them in their ponds or favorite spots in area lakes for Crappies to raise their young. I've got a couple seed trades to get out now that things are getting back to normal. Next week, I'll cut some more firewood and get it split for two coldest months ahead.

What started out as a cold Christmas has turned into a pleasant day. It's 57 degrees and cloudy. I'm beat.

8 comments:

Randy Emmitt said...

Tom,

We did Christmas and ate too much and it was becoming too much. Came home and everyone (Meg, Her daughter and I) took long naps while it rained like I have never seen on Christmas.Our snowy hillside was the snowiest place we saw today, it barely remains.

Have a restful evening my friend and you are not alone!

gld said...

Tom, this is coming from another perspective; rest assured your Mother is tired too and will be almost relieved when her house is quiet again too!

From one who knows...........

Darla said...

My husband and I tend to prefer the quiet too....(I got a 100 dollar gift card to Lowes!)

Jean Gallagher said...

It was a perfect, quiet day here too. I loved it! My grown kids all have their "own thing" to do.
I love that your trees are put to good use after Christmas. Did you see on the news that there is a man who rents live trees for Christmas then picks them up and tends to them for next year's holidays? Great idea. It's always sad to see Christmas trees discarded by the side of the road.
Merry Christmas to you!

Anonymous said...

Tom, Merry Christmas to you. Thank you for the daily gift of your blog!

Renie
Tijeras, NM

L. D. said...

Because of the storm we will have guests in for Christmas tomorrow. I remember those days when I was glad to go see them, but it was time to go home too. My parents always wanted it to be like it use to be, but we all grew up and live our own lives now. Take care. I wish I had some of those Christmas cactus. I will head to Lowes on Monday.

janie said...

Merry Christmas, Tom. I am with you, glad to be home, where it is quiet and peaceful. We spent the day at the daughters home, and it is full of kids and noise, and food everywhere! We had a great time, but I am always happy to get home.

We are almost done with this phase of our remodel on our house, and I feel like I should own stock in Lowes. I will be very happy to have this done with. My husband is a perfectionist, drives me nuts with it, and I just want to be really mean to him. LOL, that he would inspire me so.

Looking forward to the new year. I will be sending you a 'shredded hankie' cutting soon.

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

Janie, I have a couple pink ones I can share with you. Only one is being stubborn. Another has already been delivered to Austin Texas. It's doing fine.