Bare Trees And Christmas Past

My computer crashed a few days ago so I have been somewhat hampered in my writing. Sometimes when I have a quiet moment I can write at work on a break or during lunch. In the evenings I have been borrowing my wife's laptop just to check my emails. I have to do this when she isn't using it. She is in the process of full throttle Christmas shopping so she is burning up her keyboard and her laptop is smoking. So far our bank account hasn't exploded. No one can say my wife isn't doing her part to stimulate the economy. Maybe she's the reason the Dow is over 10,000.

This past weekend we officially started getting into the holiday spirit. My whole family went to see the new 3-D animated version of Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol". I thought it was very good. Jim Carrey was a great Ebenezer Scrooge though it may have been overkill for him to also portray the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. The animators did a great job of creating Victorian London and the 3-D effects were occasionally mesmerizing. My granddaughter, Chloe, sat on my lap throughout the movie and she sometimes reached out and tried to grasp the snowflakes that appeared to be falling right before our eyes. A few intense scenes, and several of the 3-D effects, caused her to jump a few times but she seemed to enjoy the movie especially the scenes where Scrooge was flying over London with one of his nocturnal visitors.

On this early November day many of the trees are now bare. A few hearty leaves still cling to branches but most lawns and side streets are accumulating their annual piles of leaves. Still, enough leaves are hanging on to create a colorful mural of autumn's beauty. I so love this time of year. This past weekend was warmer than normal for this time of year but nearly as perfect as one could ever want. One must slow down and enjoy these moments. Soon enough the cold winds of winter will be upon us. I don't really dread those days because I think winter also has it's own beauty. When the first snowfall appears I will be giddy with joy, especially if it happens on a weekend right after I have been to the grocery store!