Christmas street fair

One of the things I love about living here in Ventura is the weather. Where else can you have a street fair for the Christmas holidays? OK anyplace in Southern California, Arizona, parts of Texas and Florida. Oh, never mind.
My point is that the weather makes the holidays all the more enjoyable. Yesterday Lindsay and I went with her fiance Ryan to get Christmas trees. It was a warm day. In fact, I wore my shorts and a t-shirt.

There are those who say that they can't get into the "Christmas spirit" without cold and snow, but I beg to differ. It's so much more comfortable to look for trees without freezing half to death, feeling every appendage go numb, losing all sensation in your lips and shivering uncontrollably.

I've bought trees in 0 degree weather wit blinding snow and I can assure you it becomes an exercise in pain. You basically pick the first tree you see because it's so cold. And the tree freezes in the tied-up position so it takes a few days and a lot of sappy water falling on your floors for the branches to come down and for you to know that you got a tree with a bald spot the size of Donald Trump's ego.

I was able to peruse the trees at my temperate leisure. I wanted an especially tall one this year because it's Cody's first Christmas and even though he won't remember it, he will always remember the sense of sparkly lights and everything being pretty and everyone being happy.

Kind of like the way I always thought -- and still do think that Christmas at my grandparents' was magical. My grandmother would get an enormous tree -- seriously to this day everyone says she got the biggest trees they'd ever seen -- it would be about seven feet wide and at least 15 feet tall. She decorated it with blue lights and silver ornaments, with lots and lots of tinsel. It was amazing and each year my brothers and I would run to sit under the tree. They had a little music box that played Hark the Herald Angels and had three kids singing under a lamppost. My grandparents said they were my brothers and me. I would sit for hours under that tree and play that music box. I treasure those magical Christmas memories and I want to make sure Cody treasures his.

Our California Christmas has some unique traditions. We always go for a walk on the beach. The kids go up to the hot springs on Christmas Eve. They won't go this year, for the second year in a row, because Courtney is pregnant again and can't go. Next year there will be two babies. Crazy.

Besides the street fair, I posted a picture of a peace rose I grew out front. I'll bet you're not seeing a lot of them elsewhere.