Last Exit Before Oblivion

Sometime before Christmas 2004, I got a call from friends I'd met and worked with at Mosaic's Beverly Hills church experiment.
"Want to come over and help us decorate for Christmas?"
"I'm not much into decorating. Burnt out on that years ago."
"You don't have to do anything."
"Sold."

We had fun. It was the best Christmas celebration I'd had. We did it again the next year. How many repetitions does it take to make a tradition? In our case, once was enough. The photo above shows the collection of nametags made for each tree. Yes, they all get names. You'll notice that the tag for Fiasco is rather less formal. That's because... well, Deb was running ragged, and backed into a car at the tree lot, and... and... Unlike most of our Christmases, this one had a liberal coating of chaos. We were finally on our way back with the tree when, pretty much at the same moment, we said "What a fiasco." We looked at each other and realized the tree, tied onto the roof of the car, had been named.

For 2017 there was less chaos but more wine.


We started with the rose' and moved on from there. Unusually, I had my camera.






Normally I provide color commentary on the ornament placing. I was too busy taking pictures to think much about that. Besides which, it was an excellent tree and Nate placed the lights very well, so it was very had to choose one placement over another. And... did I mention wine? By this time we were into the pinot noir.


So, we munched on things, and admired the tree, and played with Winston the pug. As the evening went on Deb and I got at least as well lit as the tree. I had walked to get there, as it's just a mile or so. Deb realized there was no way I'd be walking home so she called Uber. In about two minutes, Alex was there and I managed to find the back seat. And my front door after Alex stopped in front of my apartment. I went to bed. Might have had too much wine. But was a lovely time.