Flamingo Father Christmas

I work in an office, not the most glamorous place in the world, but I'm not the most glamorous gal in the world, and the benefits are fantastic, so you'll get no complaints from me.  Sometimes the mundanity of an office can start to feel like a cement block tied to your ankle while you're swimming across a river in January, so you have to find ways to keep yourself entertained.

This week, that entertainment was a little project I like to call "Flamingo Father Christmas." Some "wacky" person stuck a plastic lawn flamingo in the lobby potted plant long before I started here (so, at least six years ago), and I was giving it a look last week, and realized that, although we're not allowed to have a "Christmas Tree" (the custodian got in big trouble for that a few years ago because of the possibility that someone might be offended at some point in the future), there's no rule about not having  Christmas Flamingo.

I decided that our Flamingo needed a new look.  I talked to a coworker who got even more into the idea than I was, she took the task of FFC's outfit, and I took on the (minimal) task of his facial hair.  I've posted the final result below.  Isn't he beautiful??

'Tis the Season

This year we bucked tradition and bought a Christmas tree.  I've loved the straggly natural trees we've found the past few years on my parents' land, but the time and opportunity hasn't availed itself to me, so I paid $20.99 for my tree this year.

I know $20.99 is a good deal for a tree around here, I saw at Walmart they're selling them for $24.98 plus tax, and here on campus, they've got them from $15 - $35. My sister Sarah always goes out and cuts down a tree with her family at Piper Mountain (check out a cool article about them), and I think it's somewhere in the $30 range.

When we lived in Anchorage, it was, unsurprisingly, a lot more expensive to buy a tree, we paid over $40 for a tree that was around 4 1/2 feet tall (we set it on a little end table which was quite cute), but nothing beats the facebook post I saw from a friend in California this weekend.  She showed a picture of her wife and son, with the nice, but somewhat skinny 8-foot tree they'd chosen behind them, then stated that when they'd found out the tree cost $175, they decided to look elsewhere.  Seriously - $175 for a tree??? Not a diamond studded tree? Not a tree that produces fossil fuels? Not a living tree, but one that's in a lot dying its slow death? Not cool.

I feel even better about my $20.99 now.  And, I have to say I think it's beautiful.  This is a picture of it fully decorated, it's not actually tilted, nor is it fuzzy, I took this with my old school cell phone (circa a wicked long time ago), but you get the idea.

Merry Christmas!!!!

2011 Brainerd Family Tree