Thursday, December 27, 2007
Local Christmas Tree Recycling:
The City Waste Department and the Keep Tyler Beautiful Program want you to give your tree to them. You can drop off undecorated trees at the Golden Road Park and Fun Forest Park.
Communications Director Susan Guthrie says recycling your tree is a lot better than just trashing it. She says that "those trees will end up in a landfill and they'll be picked up as a space and time will allow."
Ms. Guthrie says local fisherman will put the trees in lakes to attract more fish. The Christmas Tree Recycling Program ends January sixth.Labels: Christmas, East Texas
.: posted by
Dave
6:23 PM
Christmas at Our House:
This year, my mom managed to make the trip here to Texas. Last year, we had gone to Michigan and Tennessee on a two week jaunt. Readers of this blog know that there is one less family member (my Granny, who passed away in August) and one more family member (my 4 1/2 month old son, Dylan). I'm really glad that my mom was able to come. I didn't want her spending Christmas alone.
We procured a 10' Douglas Fir this year, which didn't take to water very well, so it has slowly withered away. It's still mostly on the green side, but the orange smell that accompanied it at first is no more.
The boys and my wife made the tree decorations out of oranges, popcorn, pine cones, cinnamon, and cranberries. Mostly, it turned out well, although the dog and the middle child both wanted to eat the ornaments.
Gifts began arriving weeks ago, mostly from Amazon. Some though still have not found their way here. Needless to say, this has been a very frustrating logistical Christmas. Mom is leaving this weekend, so hopefully her gift arrives before then!
I won't go into the litany of gifts that the kids received (because they are too numerous), but my wife's favorite thing is probably her new anodized pots and pans. She cooks a lot, and she was in great need for some well-made cookware. Apparently, I managed to fill that need adequately.
As for me, I was given some cash, and I filled some of my own software needs. I purchased a nice little suite called Evernote (for 60% off). Evernote allows me to quickly clip documents, websites, etc. and save them into a local database. This comes in handy for blogging. I also paid for my licensed copy of mSafe, which allows me to remotely lock my Treo and wipe the contents of the SD card and the device in case I lose it or in case it is (God forbid!) stolen.
I was also able to purchase some long needed replacement parts for my Swiss Army Cybertool and my Startech watch.
My wife also got me a wet-dry shaver that, so far, seems to be working quite well, although the trimming option isn't much of a trimmer. I've definitely needed a new shaver.
Apparently, I also have some other gifts on the way (like I said, this has been a logistically challenging Christmas season), and that's great. However, having my family together, seeing their faces and their smiles, and having free time to catch up on housework, and to be with my boys, and my wife, and my mom... there's more joy in those things than any gift could bring. I hope your Christmas was as good as mine was.Labels: Christmas, Family, Holidays
.: posted by
Dave
5:13 PM
Monday, December 24, 2007
Gasp! It's Christmas Eve... time to start tracking Santa.Labels: Christmas, Holidays, Santa
.: posted by
Dave
12:34 AM
Friday, December 21, 2007
A Brief History of Christmas... and Saturnalia. I find it curious though that in a treatise about the origin of Christmas, there is no mention of Mithra.Labels: Christmas, Holidays
.: posted by
Dave
3:55 PM
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