Season's Greetings

In honor of yesterday's #OptOut celebration, last night we attended the Taylors Falls Lighting Festival's Grand Lighting of Village & Santa Parade. There's more activities today and tomorrow if you're interested.

local Cub Scout pack float

Photo by J. Harrington

Christmas lights on a local business float

Photo by J. Harrington

cast of A Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmas

Photo by J. Harrington

Today it was off to get our Christmas tree. On the way, we stopped at our favorite coffee shop and book store in Cambridge to help honor Small Business Saturday. At the family-owned Christmas tree emporium, the erratic and unseasonable weather we've been having required some adjustments to the parking and tree loading area.

a muddy North Country Christmas?

Photo by J. Harrington

Nest

By Jeffrey Harrison

It wasn’t until we got the Christmas tree

into the house and up on the stand

that our daughter discovered a small bird’s nest

tucked among its needled branches.

Amazing, that the nest had made it

all the way from Nova Scotia on a truck

mashed together with hundreds of other trees

without being dislodged or crushed.

And now it made the tree feel wilder,

a balsam fir growing in our living room,

as though at any moment a bird might flutter

through the house and return to the nest.

And yet, because we’d brought the tree indoors,

we’d turned the nest into the first ornament.

So we wound the tree with strings of lights,

draped it with strands of red beads,

and added the other ornaments, then dropped

two small brass bells into the nest, like eggs

containing music, and hung a painted goldfinch

from the branch above, as if to keep them warm.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.