I know, I already mentioned the holidays once. Get used to it for a little while, ok?

Since moving here three years ago, we haven’t bought a tree. In my family, it was always a real tree, in hubby’s, it was the same fake one. Growing up, we always got a Douglas Fir the day after Thanksgiving and decorated all weekend. It was always an 8 foot tree at least, because Dad has always needed to look “up” at the tree because of course, you did that as a kid, and Dad is over 6 ft tall.

So anyway. Our first Christmas here, we cut down a scrubby little tree that was growing in an overgrown section of the backyard that was going to get removed anyway. It was our Charlie Brown Christmas tree, and it was fun, if really shabby.

The second year, we didn’t have a tree.

Last year, I took a tall potted palm tree (a drachena), wrapped it in lights and a few select ornaments, and called it our Florida tree. [I looked for the pictures but haven’t found them - once I do I’ll add them in]. It was fun, but not what I want yet.

I’ve considered the beer bottle tree - surely you’ve seen that email floating around during previous holidays - a “tree” made from green beer bottles all stacked up in the shape of a Christmas tree. Only… we don’t drink beer, we’re winos, and even if we had saved all the bottles we drank this year, they wouldn’t be enough to build a tree out of. And, we oughtn’t forget, we live in a Baptist community where drinking is a terrible sin - putting a stack of empty bottles in our window might cause more pastors to come knocking on our door.

Our ceilings are tall, and I did inherit Dad’s desire for a tall tree. I’ve also come to like skinny trees. For all the height of our living room, the house is not very big and a wide tree would expose what I have so carefully tried to make seem otherwise - but I have yet to find a fake tree I like!

I might be making one. I’m open to suggestions. I’ve considered finding a decently long tree section with bark, buying cast-away fake trees at yard sales, and drilling and gluing the upper branches into my log to create the tall skinny tree. Sort of a borrowed idea from those fake Ficus trees that were so popular 15 years ago. I figure I can fit the bottom into one of my galvanized buckets, painted red, to ensure stability.

Other than that, the Drachena might be up for the fun again. Though, I might be better off decorating an old wooden ladder than having a repeat performance like that. Small town, I’d rather keep people guessing. Ha!

I love the holidays.  I love the parties, the decorating, the yummy baking and good cooking and the fact that I can hide the inevitable weight gain with bulky sweaters. I love the crispness in the air, the music everywhere, and the smells of woodsmoke as people light up their fireplaces at night.

What I don’t like is the blatant commercialism of the holidays. Every year it seems the stores are putting out their Christmas trees earlier and earlier - Target had two isles dedicated to Christmas at the end of August - and I was there looking for tiki torches for a summer party! Not a tiki torch to be had, either.

All this commercialism has made the holidays a financial nightmare. It’s too easy, even on a budget, to find yourself charging $2,000.00 on your credit card just for gifts for everyone. The holidays shouldn’t be about digging yourself into debt and waking up on January 1 with a hangover and a stress attack as the bills come in.

That’s not what the holidays are about. Not that long ago, gifts were handmade - and if they were bought, there was usually one gift for each child - not 10 or more and one BIG gift.  So, as often as I can, I make presents for my friends and family. Last year I made aprons, other years I have made placemats, ornaments, painted Santa Claus figurines, formulated dry soup in a jar, and given out herb sachets. The hardest part, of course, is finding the time to do these things. I always intend to start making presents in September so I have all of December free to dedicate to baking and fun activities like stringing lights in our trees outside.

I haven’t started yet. I’ve known what I’m making for just about everyone for several months, but haven’t managed to create the time to sit down at my sewing machine and get started yet. Pretty soon you’ll see the light in my art space on pretty late at night. Come December, I’ll have the holiday music on to help light a fire under my kiester to get faster at them.

So what are you making this year?

I just bought a bike. A good bike, a bike that can take me long distances. But not a good bike for grocery shopping or hanging around town. I need a rack on the back, and I need it to be old enough that theft is unlikely and if it did, I didn’t spend more than $30 on it anyway. I’ll probably cover it in greenie stickers to make a great theft deterrent anyway.

The buzz on bikes to reduce gas mileage for local runs makes total sense. Not only can you leave the car parked in the drive, but you can cancel your gym membership too. Bicycling is great cardiovascular activity, health insurance plans should offer a discount to people who ride 20 minutes or more a few times a week (in that case, my health insurance should be nearly free because I spend about 11 hours a week in the saddle and about 3-4 more hours walking, and I don’t pollute my body with bad food, but that’s another post).

Now, for anyone else who’s thinking about finding a bike for this purpose, what are you looking for?

Some of it will depend on your local terrain. If the lay of the land is very flat, then you can get away with a fixed-gear bike (meaning, no shifting, just one big cog and one little cog). In my area, I need at least a few gears because we have a few hills.

The next thing is, you’ll likely want fenders in case it’s wet out - nobody wants roadwater splashing up their back or all over the goods sitting in the rear basket. And brakes - front and back - because you never know when you’ll need to stop quickly.

From there comes the fun! There are a multitude of baskets and panniers available. In my case, for grocery shopping or running local errands like dropping packages off at the post office, I’d need a good secure basket in the back - something like this: http://www.tahoemountainsports.com/store/folding-bike-basket.shtml.

But you can still be cute too - they do make wicker baskets for the front still, such as this one: http://www.tahoemountainsports.com/store/kruzer-baskets.shtml. And really if you have a rack on the back anyway, you can likely locate a wicker basket that will fit on it for the back as well - maybe just by taking your new used bike around the neighborhood garage sales.

You can also MAKE your own panniers, see this site for great ideas on using old cat litter boxes (um, clean first?) or surplus army bags. I think with a little creativity, you might find other things around the house that would make great bags for your bike - old purses, lunch boxes or bags, school backpacks, etc.

Bells are not outdated either - they warn people at fairs and streets of your presence. You can even put up a fun flag to increase visibility and make a statement. Ribbons, stickers, paint… there’s nothing wrong with getting a little artsy with your new mode of transportation!