A year ago

We were so happy when poohbearjim moved to San Francisco.

And so devastated when he received the diagnosis of the colon cancer that would eventually take his life, a year ago today.



Jim Daniel, 1965-2007.

Not such a bad tree ... it just needs a little love

Normally our Christmas tree is huge and green (and fake*) and covered with hundreds of ornaments, many with deep personal meaning to qbear and myself. Teddy bears, shiny globes, vintage balls of varying colors, etc.

This isn't that tree. We were planning to visit my sister in Oregon this Christmas, so we obtained a silver mid-century model, which we thought we'd put up in lieu of the big tree. This was to be our "travel tree," the tree we'd put up when we weren't going to be around the house at Christmas:



Turns out my mom and aunt are visiting, starting this Friday, so we won't be traveling this holiday season after all, but we decided to put up the silver tree anyway (with help from the visiting quirkstreet). The tree came with a color wheel, just like the aluminum trees from our childhood, so it's extra nostalgic that way. What's not nostalgic are the LED lights, which are on the chilly, sterile side. All in all, I prefer the looks of the green tree, with normal colored bulbs.

* Odd how, in our childhoods, if you had a fake tree, people would say, "What's the matter? Don't you like nature?" Now, if you have an actual chopped-down evergreen, people say, "What's the mattter? Don't you like nature?"