I swear...it has to be a Christmas tree

I really don't make it a point to stare into my neighbor's house through their window. It's just that their Christmad tree...check that, their LIGHTED Christmas tree (one of those fake (I hope) white flocked kinds) is staring right back at me.

Now. There was a year that I was sick with anemia. Not your mama's anemia either. I'm talking "pass out, knock your head on something, no insurance but something is cleary wrong so lets got to urgent care" anemia. Well, on the day I finally became eligble for insurance at my Top 100 employer. Yes, that is so tongue in cheek becuase if you're a top 100 employer I'm thinking all your employees should have health insurance. No it wasn't Wal Mart. Someone with a much better rep than them. Next time they make it as one of the top grocery stores in America, ask yourself why it is that every year they are pegged as this great employer, they won't allow any of their store employees to interview on the local news stations. Think about it. Still love their pasta bar though. And sushi in upstate NY. Who knew??

I digress...but on another digression, I have tainted my poor sweet innocent nephew. He loved sushi in El Paso. Yes, I know. But wait for it. SO that is all he wanted to do when he came to SEA. Go eat sushi. We took him to a couple of places--last time to our fave place. I swear he could have been a plate champion. And he eats the real stuff...unlike me. Soybeans and fried dumplings...maybe some imitation crab. Shrimp...I can do that too. Yeah... But so my mom takes him to the chinese buffet and he grabs a plate of "sushi" (it IS El Paso after all). He ate one piece. She asked him what was wrong. He said (and I quote)

"Grandma [pregnant pause]. It just...well...it's just not the same as in Seattle."

I've scared the boy for life. Gave him a taste of the good life and SNATCHED IT AWAY. Oh to have part time kids (smile). Hope he still loves me.

But back to the tree. I swear by all things I know. That HAS to be a tree. And I brought up my anemia because back some odd years ago, I too had a Christmas tree that made it to April Fools Day. But it was because I was hospitalized with anemia. Granted, that was in Feb of that month and I still had a couple months that I could have gotten up and taken it down. But really...I was just too tired. Maybe they are too tired. And I presume their's is dead. Which makes them better people than me because mine was a "live" tree. It was kinda dried by the time we took it down (April 3 folks) and really, we took it down one needle at a time. Or, I should say, we swept it up (no vacuum cleaner folks...we couldn't afford that with our no-health insurance having selves either) needle by needle.

My better half says that they still have the tree because the kids were too sad to let it go. When we took our's back to Ikea, we saw too very sad kids in the back of a truck waving goodbye to their tree. And I'm such a scrapper at hear that in the midst of all their angst and sorrow I thought to myself "I hope I have cute kids that act like that so I can take a picture and scrap it".

Heartless. I know.