It’s Black Friday and Buy Nothing Day, and although we wholly support buying nothing, that didn’t stop us from going to both Lowe’s and Home Depot—and buying an artificial Christmas tree! Hubby grew up with a fake tree made out of silver tinsel. I never had a fake tree in my life. Until today. He persuaded me that I didn’t want to deal with all the muss and fuss another year: the needles dropping, the watering, the sticky sap getting all over everything. He’s right, but I will still miss the smell of a live tree, so the jury’s still out on this one. I have, however, never liked the concept of growing trees just to cut them down so people can have them in their house for a few weeks. And I always feel sorry for the trees left over in the lots that never get sold, which is why I’ve always gone for the Charlie Brown trees, the misfits that no one else wants. People may think I’m silly for thinking trees don’t have feelings—and who knows whether they do or not—but I still feel some sort of kinship, a connection that invokes empathy for trees. Maybe this artificial tree thing won’t be so bad.

When we weren’t getting frazzled by the crowds and the know-nothing sales associates at Home Depot, we ran around doing other household things, including planting about 200 bulbs all around the yard and in the planters. Next spring we, and all passersby, will appreciate the colorful surprises popping up. Hubby had another fire in the backyard so we could warm ourselves during this brisk, blustery day. We also dropped our car off for an oil change and were reminded that our annual safety inspection had never been done last August. I remember it coming up, but I guess it slipped out minds. So that’s no surprise given all the activity in the house since April and our trying to ride herd on the contractors to finish up outside so we can get the clutter out of the garage and back patio.

Later I made us a big supper of pork shoulder, slow cooked for 9 hours, mashed potatoes, and braised fennel from Hubby’s garden. He protested that I was feeding him too much but didn’t turn down the homemade apple crumble with Bird’s custard. We don’t often eat like that, but two days in a row now and we’re ready for our big hike at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland tomorrow.