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The Charlie Brown Tree
The Charlie Brown Tree
I decided I needed a Christmas tree this year. I do believe this is the first
time in my short life that I have decided such a thing; once before I put up
a tree, but that was in San Carlos when Mom and Dad and Kathi and Rainer were
visiting.
I wanted to get a 3-foot Charlie Brown sorry-lookin' tree and I think I came
close. But it's sweet and it smells green and rich and sweet and I think it's
perfect and I love it.
According to the orange plastic tag that was wrapped around the base
of the tree, this tree was grown FOR ME in Oregon's tree-farm-forests;
the tag assures me it did not come from a "natural" forest. It is a
"noble fir", preferable to your ignoble firs.
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John pries the wooden stand off the base of the tree. I foolishly let the man at the tree lot hammer a pine crossbar stand into the tree - he used 4 long nails and it took John a good half hour or more to get the thing off. (I couldn't have immersed the tree in water with it on that large pine stand.)
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Ryan's wreath, with a postcard of Kirchberg tucked in the middle.
-
When in trouble, get out the duct tape. The smallish tree was too small for the stand, so John secured it to the stand using duct tape. (The IDEA to use duct tape was mine; I grant you that John did the design and implementation. I consider myself the architect of the solution.)
-
Ta-daaa!
On the left: brown box from Mom and Dad, on the right, brown box from
Kathi, in the hallway, recently-used hammer ... In front is a
mysterious white box from my financial advisor. I think they like me
since I just rolled over my 401k into an IRA that they manage. Plus
I'm sure there couldn't be a more laid-back client than myself.
Whenever there's a question, I just tell them, "Oh I trust your
judgement, you know more about this than I do, whatever you think is
fine!" I am curious what they sent. Shaking the box does not reveal
the mystery.
-
Close-up
of the Austrian hand-made angel. Mom might recognize the
green-star-portrait-ornament; she made it! It's a picture of me
holding Lara inside a green sparkly star. In the background is the
red funky wild psychydelic flower power candle holder that I bought in
Castelfranco, Italy. It sits next to little Mr. Buddha. I'm not a
Buddhist but I like Mr. Buddha and his principles of equanimity and
meditation and acceptance and peace and love and so on. That particular
Mr. Buddha came home with me from Japan in 1978.
-
Perspective - this angle shows the height of the tree (between 4 and 5 feet; taller than the 3 feet I was looking for, but this was the shortest in the lot).
-
Glittering tree lights in the dark.
Marianne Mueller
Last modified: December 18, 2005
John pries the wooden stand off the base of the tree. I foolishly let the man at the tree lot hammer a pine crossbar stand into the tree - he used 4 long nails and it took John a good half hour or more to get the thing off. (I couldn't have immersed the tree in water with it on that large pine stand.)
Ryan's wreath, with a postcard of Kirchberg tucked in the middle.
When in trouble, get out the duct tape. The smallish tree was too small for the stand, so John secured it to the stand using duct tape. (The IDEA to use duct tape was mine; I grant you that John did the design and implementation. I consider myself the architect of the solution.)
Ta-daaa!
On the left: brown box from Mom and Dad, on the right, brown box from
Kathi, in the hallway, recently-used hammer ... In front is a
mysterious white box from my financial advisor. I think they like me
since I just rolled over my 401k into an IRA that they manage. Plus
I'm sure there couldn't be a more laid-back client than myself.
Whenever there's a question, I just tell them, "Oh I trust your
judgement, you know more about this than I do, whatever you think is
fine!" I am curious what they sent. Shaking the box does not reveal
the mystery.
Close-up
of the Austrian hand-made angel. Mom might recognize the
green-star-portrait-ornament; she made it! It's a picture of me
holding Lara inside a green sparkly star. In the background is the
red funky wild psychydelic flower power candle holder that I bought in
Castelfranco, Italy. It sits next to little Mr. Buddha. I'm not a
Buddhist but I like Mr. Buddha and his principles of equanimity and
meditation and acceptance and peace and love and so on. That particular
Mr. Buddha came home with me from Japan in 1978.
Perspective - this angle shows the height of the tree (between 4 and 5 feet; taller than the 3 feet I was looking for, but this was the shortest in the lot).
Glittering tree lights in the dark.