Christmas Bliss and Blog Biz

This is my tree before all the gifts got wrapped and scattered beneath it. It's fun finding inexpensive ways to decorate it each year. Did you know if you choose a non-traditional color/theme, you can get decorations for next to nothing? The pink feather boas came from a party store, the pink ribbons were from my wedding almost 25 years ago (tied together now to form garlands), there are some plastic fruits, stuff from a clearance sale at a plant nursery, and some gold mesh wedding gift bags (10 for $2.50) with drawstrings that I put curled ribbons or plastic ornaments inside of and hung on the tree.

I hope you are enjoying spending time off from "real life" to be with friends, family, in quiet and serene relaxation, or doing whatever it is you love doing. Our family gathered last night for our traditional Christmas Eve, and a good time was had by all. After church and a huge potluck, we always play Dirty Santa with gag gifts. For the last 10+ years, a black silk teddy and rabbit ears have been wrapped and re-wrapped to circulate to the "lucky" winner. Last night, Mom swapped the gift she picked -- a bag of toilet paper -- for the teddy, afraid it might make its way outside the family since there are more and more friends, Significant Others, etc. attending. Those velvety rabbit ears atop her chemo-bald head was a sight to see!

Now, for the blogging part...do you ever check the keyword analysis for your blog? I tell ya, it's simply and purely fascinating! Here are just a few of the phrases used to locate my blog last week:

strange growth on tree
what does shazayum mean
easy gumbo recipe
hurricane joke gift
gumbo writers

Do you look at your blog's statistics and see all the different countries visitors are from? Like me, do you wonder who all comes by your blog but doesn't leave comments? What's the one thing you'd like to add to your blog? And what do you like most about your little corner of the blogosphere? Okay, enough questions.

I'll leave you with a few more shots of my 2008 Christmas tree. Hugs to all, and to all a good day! {And if you haven't seen how the Ledbetters have "elffed" themselves just for you, zoom down to the bottom of this page and click on the video.}

Christmas Tree Contest!

"O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,Your branches green delight us." Remember that song? The original version is German -- "O Tannenbaum" -- and used to be one of the most popular holiday carols.

I wish I had some blue spruce or Frasier fir spray to spritz right now, sorta like smell-a-vision, to put you in the mood, but we'll just pretend we can smell Christmas all around us as we gaze at these lovely contest entries. There are a variety of trees (and other things) being represented in this year's pageant, but they all give us Christmas spirit, no matter if they're traditional or not. I just love the pencil cactus "tree" at my poetry professor's house {pictured above}.

Even the local weather is cooperating! The weathermen are reporting we may get snow and/or sleet tonight!! No biggie, you say? Well, it certainly is if you live in south Louisiana! Any kind of snow (or sometimes the mere threat) is enough to clear the interstates and cancel school. The last time we had a thin covering of snow was around 1989, and the vast majority of us Cajuns who chose or were forced to be on the roads, most likely ended up in a ditch. See...we can drive in rain, torrential storms, tornadoes and even hurricanes...but not in snow of any sort. Ah, every culture needs a downfall. *grin* Okay, enough of all dat, and on wit da show.

About the contest:

• Please vote in the comments section. Yap all you want to, feel free to oooh and ahhh, but be sure to put a NUMBER down as your selection.


• One vote per customer, please, but your blog friends are most welcome to come by and help plump the count for you.
• I'll announce the winner of the lovely Cajun ornament and contact you asap, then I'll get ya to send me your snail mail info.
• I'm afeared I left somebody out of the contest, so if you sent me an entry, please let me know I messed up, and I'll add you in pronto (with two bonus votes for my stoopidity).

Ready? Here they are, in no particular order:

#1 Melissa's:

2. Michelle's:

3. Janna's:

4. Carrie's:

Suldog's got so much spirit, he's got two entries! #5:

and #6 (not in any way, shape or form a tree, but makes me smile, so that's good enough in my book!):

7. Kimmi's Christmas Barn:

8. Joyce's:

9. Amy's since-I'm-Jewish-and-such-a-good-sport-I'm-submitting-my-Christmas-story-that-was-published-in-the-Chicago-Trib as an entry!

10. And Jill's (whose entry I forgot to include early on, and who has more shots of her fab tree if you click on her name!):

Finally, Gumbo Writer has a Pretty in Pink version this year, but is not entering her own contest, and just wanted to share the beauty. Miz Pink got two hot pink feather boas added to her branches this year too. Ain't she purty? ~~

OOOOO, Y'ALL, IT'S SNOWING HERE IN BATON ROUGE RIGHT NOW! WE GET THE WHITE STUFF ABOUT ONCE EVERY TWO DECADES!!!