Christmas Trees for Jeff!

As requested a few days ago by Jeff Hudelson -- the Prince of Saxe-Bearstein -- here are a couple of quick photographs of the Christmas trees here at Stollen Central. I tried using no flash at first, but the pictures came out too dark for you to see anything, so flash it was. Still, you can see some of the little white lights, so it's not too bad.

The top photo is the 8' plus tall tree in the library at the front of the house, and the lower photo is the 31/2' tree to the side of the dining room table. This is the "family tree", which has mostly ornaments made by Sonja when she was a girl as well as a few decorations given to her through the years by her mother and father.

The taller tree is the "fancy tree", which has all kinds of shiny glass and metal ornaments on it as you can see. Just out of sight in this picture are the gifts already beneath this tree thanks to Sonja's mom and sister really getting on the ball admirably early this year and wrapping/sending things at the beginning of the month. Tomorrow, I'll get busy myself, wrap a few things for the Grand Duchess, and add those to those presents already under the tree. That way, we'll be able to enjoy "the look" of the thing (a nod to Charles Grant Sr. here) for a full week before Christmas Day.

We have about two inches of powdery snow outside and more is falling. I don't think we are to have quite enough to strap on the ol' cross country skis, but you can't argue that it sure makes the neighborhood beautiful. Why, I can almost hear those sleigh bells jinglin'!


Finally, I just had an unexpected phone call from an old, old friend in Pennsylvania a little while ago as he was driving home in the snow falling there. "Donny" and I go way back. We met on the first day of school when I was in first grade, and he was in second grade in 1973 and have stayed in touch all these years.

We used to work together in the 80s and early 90s and played together in a number of rock bands during that period. He played drums and sang while I played bass and sang. Ah, those were the days. So much hair and such small waistlines ago! ;-) Anyway, isn't it funny how hearing from an old friend out of the blue like that can brighten your spirits? Even when you already feel pretty good. Have a nice afternoon everyone.