It almost seems like Christmas day here. Several radio stations even play all Christmas music, the stores have "Christmas sales" and are decorated. I noticed some vendors are starting to sell Christmas trees, there is specialty Christmas food in every store. Oregon is the leading state in the U.S. for growing and selling Christmas trees. They are a native tree and many farms here grow rows of them for cutting and sale. One can even go to a farm and choose and cut a Christmas tree.
Since Jane went go back to New Orleans for the Christmas holidays yesterday, we just bought a smaller fresh cut tree and put it in Jane's downstairs part of the house. I won't have one "for me" in the main part of the house. But I will put up some decorations in the house in the next few days. My mom used to decorate a great deal, as does everyone in New Orleans, so I inherited the idea to make the house look "Christmas". I don't put outdoor lights out here. People in Portland are far less interested in outdoor decorations, and it is a great deal of work to light the outside and to dismantle it after Christmas. That is in keeping with the more reticent nature of people here in Portland (compared to New Orleans and the southern United States).
One Christmas activity that is held here before Christmas, but not in New Orleans, is the sleigh ride and the Polar Express Christmas train (modeled on the 'Polar Express" film) that rides into the snow and mountains of Mount Hood. That's something to investigate one December, if not this one. The sleigh rides are offered at a number of Christmas tree farms, some of which (those in the higher elevations at the foot of Mount Hood) may have snow while one take the horse driven sleigh ride. I have neither been on a sleigh ride, nor one with snow falling as it glides about. It is said that some for the decorations at the farms that do the sleigh rides are spectacular.
I got in the mood for Christmas by re reading the Charles Dickens's classic, "A Christmas Carol', and am also reading a couple of other Dickens Christmas short stories,. less popular but extremely atmospheric. Haha if this sentimentality gets out of hand I will make more Christmas cookies or a Christmas Cheesecake. If I make a Christmas fruitcake it will be a sign of complete madness that requires institutionalization. Actually, I still have one fruitcake I made last Christmas stocked in my freezer. it should still be suitable for eating, even given the time frame it has been frozen.
Until Christmas is done, I send you a Ho Ho Ho.
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