Christmas preparations in Florida

Hanging the lights - Sorry, Lis, that you're freezing in Virginia. We hung the lights today and I got a bit of sunburn. It was so nice today although it was chilly yesterday, by Florida standards. Yesterday was in the 50s and windy; I wasn't really dressed for the chill. Today was back to warmer temps. This morning Loni and I wore jackets to Curves, long sleeves late morning to buy our Christmas tree (see below), and switched to short sleeves to put up the house lights in the afternoon. It was probably in the high 60s or even low 70s. I'm liking Florida weather! Sounds nice to y'all, too, doesn't it? Down here they wear winter jackets, gloves and scarves in weather like yesterday's and this morning's. We probably will in a few years, too. Today, in between other tasks, I even did a little weeding and planting. I planted a poinsettia in the front flower bed. Lowe's is selling hanging baskets still. The downside of this still warm weather is that the wasps are still making nests, too; Bob had to spray in the eaves so he didn't get attacked.

It's always "fun" (a bit of sarcasm in the voice - hear it?) to hang the lights. I understand why some folks leave them up year-round. They are so pretty, though, that it's worth the trouble. We plugged them all in first indoors and thought we had way more than we needed. Not so! Just enough. Our previous house was a ranch style house; this one has gables which Bob had fun going up and down and all around! He's such a good sport.

Buying the tree - There are tree farms in central Florida, but we have a particular kind of tree we like that doesn't grow in Florida (or New Jersey), Frasier Fir. (They are the softest needled trees with pretty strong branches and arranged nicely for ornaments to hang well.) They sell cut ones at the local tree farm, but they sell them at the Publix grocery store, too, and at Lowe's, both around the corner. Why go all the way to a tree farm to buy a cut tree when you don't have to? We settled on Lowe's.

Finding a place for a tree in our house - There really is no place for a tree in our house. I measured and moved and removed furniture. I discovered that IF I moved a chair from one corner (by a doorway, the only doorway into the computer room; we could block it if we were willing to go in and out through the window!) to another spot where there's room for it (but not really), and IF we could find really skinny tree, it would fit in that corner. We did. It's taller than any tree we've ever had and very slender. It's not bad. I'll try to post a pic after it's decorated. For such a lean tree it's really quite full.

Fresh Florida fruit - Last week I told you about the just picked strawberries we bought, and this week I ate a grapefruit from a tree in our back yard! (It wasn't so sweet, but I think it was the variety of grapefruit and how fun to eat one right off the tree.)

A wreath for the car - While at Lowe's I bought a wreath to hang on the front of the van. Loni thinks this is quite weird. (I should have listed this as one of my weirdnesses!) While I was in the house hunting for wire, Loni and Bob hid it, messing with my grey head. (I'm going to retaliate by sneaking wreaths on Loni's Eclipse and Bob's pickup! Sh! Don't tell!)

More to come? I'll post more Florida Christmas prep as events occur, if they're interesting. I wish I could post that we watched the shuttle launch. We could have watched it! We tried Wednesday night but it was scrubbed. We forgot that it was rescheduled for tonight. And apparently the nighttime launches are pretty cool. We did see a rocket launch last month. The shuttle is said to be much more spectacular.

Have a wonderful Lord's day!