O (NAKED) CHRISTMAS TREE & AN ELF STORY

Friday I went to my favorite garden center and bought our Christmas tree. This has always been one of the highlights of the season for me. Walking down all the paths surrounded on both sides by trees in all sorts of shapes and sizes, the Christmas music wafting through the air. I feel like I am in the proverbial winter wonderland. That day I stood examining a rather nice specimen when a tall young man in a red velvet cap trimmed with white fur came up to help. I gestured to the tree. "Oh," he said. "Fir Elton John?" I thought I hadn't heard him correctly. I looked around a bit helplessly. Santa's helper thought I was eyeing the tree across the path and darted over. "Spruce Springsteen!" he declared. I noticed we seemed to be the only ones in the tree section and it made me a bit uncomfortable. I took two steps back into..."Douglas Firbanks, Jr!" Santa's elf was beaming from his seven foot head to his toes. I quickly settled on Fir Elton John and while the elf made himself busy writing up the ticket and tying up my purchase, I walked toward the beckoning warmth of the shop, and stopped on my way to look at the wonderful array of wreaths, already decorated with ribbons and pine cones. "And that would be Wreatha Franklin!" a voice behind me said, pointing to the one I was holding. I didn't have to turn around to know who it was. He was standing with my tree, wrapped in cording, the stem covered in burlap. It was then that I noticed the ears. Poking out from under his cap...they were baby pink and pointed. I gasped, but he didn't seem to notice. I pointed out my car to him so that he could begin tying it to the roof while I went inside to pay. A few customers milled about and the employees, though wearing the red and white fur caps, looked decidedly normal. I did a quick check of their ears. Everything looked fine. When I got to the counter I said I had a ticket for Fir Elton John and Wreatha Franklin and the shop girl started laughing. I joined in. Then she repeated it to the girl at the next register and she started laughing along with the customers in line. I was feeling pretty merry by then, garnering all that attention and all. I handed my ticket over. "See," I said pointing to where my friendly little helper had written down my order. Well," she said. "You have a Douglas fir from aisle 16 and a decorated wreath from aisle 2." She then picked up a microphone sort of thing and requested an employee to go outside and ready my tree for pick up. "Oh, no!" I said. "There is a nice, er... man out there helping me." The girl continued ringing up my order and said "I'm sorry Miss, we have only one person working this afternoon, his name is Earl and,....oh! There he is now!" I walked outside in disbelief. Earl was a short balding man with a cigar clenched between his teeth. "So where is your tree ma'am?" he asked in a gravelly voice. I told him it was probably tied to my car by then, but looking through to the parking lot, I could see it wasn't. He snatched my ticket from my hand and growled for me to follow him. There was my tree in aisle 16. It didn't look like it had moved. I looked around in all directions. No sign of a seven foot elf. "Yes, this is it," I said weakly. "Fir Elton John." Earl gave me a sideways glance as he started tying up my tree. "Yeah, and I'm the Earl of Spencer!" he said hauling the tree over his shoulder. He followed me to my car and after a lot of heaving and grunting, managed to get it tied to the roof. I got in my car to drive away and looked back at all the trees, the overhead lights beaming and making it look like a lit up forest, an enchanted forest if you will. Then I caught sight of something bobbling in and amongst them. The tip of a red and white cap over the top of the trees. And then a pink face with pointed ears poked out and with a wave of his hand I heard, "Have a magical Christmas!"
Hello snow!! I woke up to this beautiful sight. Unfortunately, it is the slushy type that will probably be gone soon. But the first snow is always exciting. And that is my little car that didn't make it in to the garage last night (and I just had it washed last week). But it is the first snow and that is always special. As long as it stays on the ground for a little while... And as you can see, I have my tree. It is a little loppy on one side but this actually works for me because I have that part near the wall where the radiator is and it doesn't block it. We had a busy weekend, including an Open House for my brother in law and his wife who are visiting from Vancouver, so we did not get the lights on. I say we but I mean HE. I do not do lights and until HE comes home tonight from work, I can't trim the tree. But I am going to do my decorating. I have invited said brother in law, his wife and her parents over for dinner (oh, why do I make things hard on myself?) so I really must rush. And I have heard some bloggers say that they are scaling back on their decor because of time constraints and so they can relax this season and I am going to pay some heed to that. So I am off to carry my boxes upstairs and start to decorate. Now, if only I had a seven foot tall elf to help me...