Picture 62

"I repeat," cried the Lorax,
"I speak for the trees!"

"I'm busy," I told him.
"Shut up, if you please."

One of my all-time favorite books is The Lorax, by Dr. Suess.

One of the things that bothers me the most about what I refer to the Cashmiss holiday is the amount of waste that takes place during the season. From spending money that we don't have (hello credit cards) to chopping trees to decorate our abodes for a few weeks. We waste a lot of money on a lot of things that we don't really need.

I don't need anything for Christmas. I'm a big girl with a sexy little salary. If I need something I can afford to get it for myself. The things I want? Trust me...my Santas cannot afford those things.

This year for the holiday we are trying yet another new family tradition by having a living tree instead of a plastic tree or a dead ("fresh cut") tree in our house. What you see pictured is a potted Norfolk Island Pine and it will live in this house so long as I am able to keep it alive. The actual plan was to get a living tree that we could plant outside in the spring but we had one helluva time finding one of those this weekend. We did however find a tree farm that will let us find the living tree of our dreams next fall. They will then harvest it and its roots from the ground and keep it for us until we are ready to claim it at Christmas time. Then, come the following spring, we can plant it in our yard.

Merry Christmas, Mother Earth.