Second Night of Hanukkah

HAPPY Hanukkah, everyone! We - the Mister and I - are lighting the Menorah candles at our house and I'm redecorating our Christmas tree. Freezing rain predicted for tonight and we've lost most of our plants in the sunroom. So sad, but this only means we can begin again next spring with brilliant, healthy new specimens.
Pictures from last December have lots and lots of snow in them. This year, so far, there have been blue skies. We awoke this morning to gray skies again and a different mood in the air. Resignation, I guess. That's what these candles, bright lights and warm fires are for, though. Get us through the winter that's not even officially here yet!
I think this second time I decorated the Christmas tree I did a much better job. Here's good old Santa Claus. I was wondering about a game with the granddaughters to count how many angels are on the tree. How many dragonflies can you find? Can you find two beady black eyes? How many snowflakes do you count? (Hands behind your backs and no digging through the tree branches, first!)
So many things I would like to do; so much time flying past! This story is an old one. Sorry to subject you to it once more. I have been thinking about the gelatin prints I did this summer and wondering if it isn't time to take them out and have a look. Some of them might make great wrapping paper. Waste not, want not.
I hope your days are going well, with good food, a sturdy roof over your head, good health and warm toes at night. Please remember those who do not have those luxuries, and if you have the money, donate. If you don't have the money and can make the time, volunteer to help those less fortunate - femminismo

What a Way to Start the Day

IT WAS 4:30 a.m. and my eyes crossed as I gazed at the red numbers on the alarm clock. Fortunately I fell back asleep for a while until something woke me again. I opened my eyes and knew I must have gone blind while sleeping!! The room was totally dark! No glowing red numbers on the bedside table and none across the room on the dresser clock. Wait! There was a faint glow from the bathroom window.
It was then I realized the electricity had gone off. What a pain. The third time in two months. The Mister woke up and asked what was going on. Nothing, I said. The electricity's off. We discussed the last time we had seen the time on an alarm clock, I asked where his cell phone was and he said "Oh, it can't be too late. It's still really dark outside."
Well, since I wake up at 6:30 a.m. each day and he continues to stay in bed, since he's retired now, I didn't have the option of going back to sleep and waking up at 9 or 10. Then I heard a distinctive noise from somewhere at the other end of the house.
"(expletive deleted)! The Christmas tree fell over!" I exclaimed.
"No," the Mister said. (The tree above is the Grand fir the Mister bought for me.)
But it was - yes. With a small flashlight in hand we shuffled around the tree kicking aside ornaments in the dark. The door to the garage was close by and the Mister, in bare feet on concrete, went out to look for candles and matches as I shone the flashlight on him. (It was around 10 degrees outside this morning.)
"Oh, I knew it, I said. I should have taken all the decorations off last night. I saw it was wobbly and pitching forward. But I didn't listen to my intuition."
Then all we could do was laugh as we realized how poorly prepared we were for an emergency situation: candles and matches should have been closer by and we should have had a bigger flashlight.
I wondered which ornaments were broken but there was little we could do for the time being. We propped the tree up with a small stepladder, put a towel down to sop up the water and went back to bed - the only warm spot in the house. Laughing still, the Mister asked, "Do you think it was the dragonfly I bought you that tipped the whole thing over?"
This pin is a joke with us. Anyone who knows my husband would never take him for the type who orders things from those television jewelry shows. (It doesn't involve a mall and live salespeople so it worked for him.) I adore dragonflies and have lots of dragonfly jewelry - rings, earrings, pins - and so he wanted to order me one. It was very flash, very glittery, very large. Well, here it is, above. (Along with a "priceless" Beanie doggie that was sitting under the tree before the watery deluge.) The pin really needed someone larger to carry it off sufficiently, so I started decorating the tree with it each year. And it was on the side of the tree that pitched over. Hmm.
Anyway, this morning I took ornaments off the tree and perhaps Thursday, tomorrow night, will have a chance to redecorate it. And it was mostly replaceable objects that got broken. The one-of-a-kind items - including the dragonfly pin - seemed to make it through just fine - femminismo