Festival of (Giving) Trees...

I don’t do a lot of decorating for the holidays.  I would rather spend my rather waning energy preparing for a nice family get together.  So two or three years back, Greg and I bought a small, pre-lit Christmas tree that I decorated.  Well, I decorated it the second year we had it.  I never got around to it the first year.  Now that it is decorated, we put a garbage bag over it at the end of the season and Greg hauls it back up to the attic.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I love seeing what other people do to decorate their surroundings this time of year.  But I get the whole thing out of my system and tame my urges the week after Thanksgiving.  That’s when some women in our neighborhood get together and decorate a tree that is donated to the local Festival of (Giving) Trees in Southbridge, Massachusetts.  Forty trees or so are donated and raffled off each year at this event.  The proceeds from the raffle and other activities go to local cancer charities.  My friend Cookie started this tradition for our neighborhood a few years back to remember our friends Howard Gunagan and Susan Robichaud who passed away too soon from cancer.  Cookie herself is a cancer survivor.  So it is an honor to have the opportunity to participate and remember our friends in this special way.

Every year I am amazed at the variety of themes and decoration there.  This year was no exception.  I find that because I am a color junkie, I am drawn to the more non-traditional trees.

  But they are all beautiful in the end.

This tree honored a woman named Violet. 

Wow!

Our tree this year. The theme:  "It's a Jungle Out There."