"The Monday After Thanksgiving" (in 2012)

Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a Christmas ornament — "floating" near some trees! Christmas is one month and one day from today, the Monday after Thanksgiving, and of course the stores and the media have been cashing in on this fact since Halloween. 

Moreover, a big portion of Macy's Thanksgiving Parade had (as it always does) a good number of floats and balloons "dedicated" to the Christmas holiday, including the ornaments seen here against the "back drop" of Central Park.

Tonight the neighborhood tree lighting at Lincoln Center will take place, and on Wednesday the Rockefeller Center Tree will be lit. "Normally" a tree lighting ceremony at The South Street Seaport this week, but, as per info on the web, "South Street Seaport's annual holiday traditions have been hampered due to the aftermath left behind from the enormous impact of storm flooding in our neighborhood."

New York City seems like several different cities at this time, as several areas are quite devastated by Hurricane Sandy, while others continue to go about business as usual. If one cannot donate monies or time directly to hurricane relief efforts during this holiday season, there is always something one can do locally for their friends in need, such as visiting the elderly, homebound and those that are in assisted living centers such as the one I have volunteered at for nine years.

But reaching out to others does not have to involve a lot of time or money, as every little bit helps! For example, yesterday, a man from my hood, helped me pull my Chelsea Larch (AKA Japanese Larch or Larix Kaempferi), out of a "high-end" container in which it had been planted in my urban (NYC) garden, as I wanted to donate the container to his garden at our parish, but, because the larch was root bound, I was afraid I would break the container getting the tree out, hence my need for his help.

It gets dark so early now that I was not able to get my tree into its "replacement digs," a container which has been awaiting my wonderful larch! 

Therefore I had to prop it up in the container without planting it properly and hope that it would survive the cold night in order for me to plant it today, which I plan to do (with Michael's help) later this morning or early afternoon on this Monday after Thanksgiving.

"The Monday after Thanksgiving" may be a "phrase" that will remain with me throughout my life as it was one of the last things my father said before his death in 1995. On November 22nd of that year, my father recorded a tape from his hospital bed stating, "The doctor hopes to have me out of here by the twenty-seventh . . .  that would be Monday. The Monday after Thanksgiving,"  but alas that was not meant to be, for he took a turn for the worse and ultimately died on November 30th, 1995 — three days after "the Monday after Thanksgiving." This is something I have written about in prior posts here on Blogger, including an entry which may be found by clicking here.

In any event, seventeen years later, on this Monday after Thanksgiving, among other things, I hope to be successful in giving my Chelsea Larch a comfortable new home!

As for this day also marking the count down for Christmas, I won't start writing cards or decorating my home as I do not like to rush the season — or any season for that matter — as I have indicated before when folks were rushing the onset of spring, the onset of fall and the onset of events in general! 

However, I do confess that I've put a number of "pre-Christmas" figurines (deer) in my indoor succulent garden as it is an "installation" where I frequently change decor. In this instance I wanted to remove my Thanksgiving figurines, yet not fully decorate for Christmas at such an early stage, so I "replaced" the Thanksgiving figurines with a deer family until I "officially" decorate for Christmas. Photo-ops of this lovable family enjoying my succulent garden as well as the back story on the man who created these deer will be posted some time this week, so please stay tuned! Meanwhile, a "sneak preview" (image) of one, a "member" of my deer family can be found below.

By the way if this adorable guy looks familiar to you, his "extended family" were a part of my terrace garden decor last season.