Dragon's Orchid Garden

I'm an atheist.  I have a Christmas tree and lights on my house, or at least I will once I finish decorating the tree and can convince my dearest husband that it's not too cold to go out and put up the lights.  It's Florida.  It's not that cold, honey.  You'd perish in New England.  I love Christmas (except for all the TV ads and a lot of the sappy music).  To those Christians who think their holiday has been hijacked, I say "pfffttt".  No one is stopping you from celebrating in your own way.  Try to be more tolerant of others.  'Tis the season. I celebrate this holiday because I love hearing from family and friends this time of year.  I love it because I love presents.  I love getting them and I love giving them.  I love getting paid time off from work.  I love to bake and the way zucchini bread makes the house smell wonderful.  Most of all, I love this song.

I love this season. I love Christmas, or the idea of it and the tree and the decorations and the gifting and the baking, even though I'm an athiest. But every year, I procrastinate and end up spending money I don't really have (plastic, pay for it later, the American way). This year was going to be different. And it is. I started knitting gifts in the summer. I'm still knitting away, and sent 6 packages today. I still managed to procrastinate the sending until the very last possible minute. We did get a real tree this year. And yes, I know it's not environmentally correct, but it's grown on a farm, and we'll recycle it. It's the first in three years, since we adopted Sasha. We hoped that she would be a mature enough cat at three years old and that she wouldn't want to climb in, or eat, or play with all the ornaments on the tree. She's been very good so far, except that I can't put bows or ribbons on presents. I hate it that most of my family is a...