A journey from here to there ... and how I'm getting there

"Only one thing in the world could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window." ~Ralphie Part 7 is dedicated to the Christmas Tree, another tie to my German roots.  The Christmas Tree originated in Germany and  was traditionally decorated with edibles such as apples, nuts or dates. I LOVE a real, fresh Christmas Tree in the house this time of year!  This may surprise some of my readers who personally know me, considering my hippie, tree-hugger ways, but the artificial tree just doesn't do it for me!!   The smell of Christmas as you walk into a house just fills my heart with so much joy and excitement!!!  One of my dreams was to go see the Christmas Tree all lit up at Rockefeller Center in NYC, and in 2012 that dream came true for me!!  It was the most magnificent, magical, and beautiful sight I have ever seen!!!  It was even more majestic then I could have ever imagined!!! I felt like a little kid in a can...

"Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that I was not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl." -~ Ralphie Yesterday, you may have read my first part of this 20-day journey of bringing the magic back into Christmas for me and it must have intrigued you enough that you have come back for more insight!  Well, for that, I thank you!!!   Today's edition goes out to my grandmother, Evelyn Wallace. The woman who made Christmas a family affair for many years!!!   My gram at my aunts wedding in 1995 My grandmother passed away in Jan of 2001, 3 months before I was to get married. My grandmother LOVED Christmas!!!  Every year, without fail, she would go all out with decorating, cooking, shopping, wrapping gifts all with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth!  I remember, as clear as day, my grandmother standing in the kitchen cooking, cigarette in her mouth, ash as long as the cigarette itself, still intact, it was almost an art....