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jMuuatmt HBailg djotmutl SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2006 ‘Twas two days before Christmas With any luck I am in Cudjoe Keys (mile marker 33), Florida as you are getting your paper in the mail and reading this column. And by the close of business 2006, I will have - by myself - driven from the Upper Peninsula o f Michigan to Key West, Fla. And if my counting serves me right, that Jane Winston The Left Rail means I have been on nine different Interstates and according to Map Quest trav eled 1900 miles to accom plish this feat. Not many can say they have done that in one year and certainly not many who are as “long in the tooth as I,” so I would like to say on this Dec. 23, “Thanks for good health, confidence, great vision and a great vehicle.” And of course I’m now pondering a trip from Charleston, S.C. where I once lived to Seattle, Wash, where I also once lived! And that trip would be about 3,000 miles! Ponderings Semester break is under way, and with this break I have been able to avail myself of the HDJ quiz which always makes me think I am in training for Jeopardy or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. If you haven’t tried Charlotte’s quiz on Saturdays, make that one of your New Year’s Eve Resolutions. I suggested to my friends at Indiana University that perhaps they should consid er recruiting football play ers here in middle Georgia. And then I wondered what good, self-respecting mid dle Georgia football player would really want to go north to play for a big 10 school in the cold and snow? None! And I suppose that is one small reason why IU doesn’t recruit in middle- Georgia! Congratulations to Northside and Peach County on their state champion ships! Even though I am a total basketball fan, I can still respect those who are so involved in the “sport of the south.” What’s Your Sign Okra (December - Jan. 20. 2007) You are tough on the outside but tender on the inside. Okra have tremen dous influence. An older Okra can look back over his life and see the seeds of his influence everywhere. You can do something good each day if you try. Teachers grade every thing There is not a teacher any where who can’t relate to what I am going to say. No matter what I do, I assign it a grade. The homemade cookies of last week were only a C+; I don’t bake often enough to do it right. The decorations in and around my house are A+ this year! I have gained a little weight so I have gone from looking C- to F+ in a few short weeks. I just finished A Christmas Carol which was a solid B+ production, and I turned in C- to B+ performances depending on which night. My school year was a mis erable C+ for which I am disappointed. Some columns are C- and some A+, and the point of all this is I surely hope you have an A+ holi day season! Until next week “Like what you do. If you don’t, then do something else.” - Paul Harvey r SSJw , ■ i HI llm > I M flj Those time tested toys The other night I was flipping through the channels and caught the part of The Santa Clause II where Santa was magically giv ing out toys to adults that they had wanted for Christmas when they were children and yet never received. They must have went on eßay or made really good copies of some classic 1960’s toys Jillinda Falen Antiques that even I remember as a child! There was Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Battling Tops, Green Ghost and many others. By the way, that is how you can tell that you have become an antique yourself when the toys of your childhood start showing up in the antique mall! Believe it or not there is actually a National Toy Hall of Fame Museum in Rochester, New York. It was originally established in 1998 in a children’s museum in Salem, Oregon that outgrew its home and was acquired by a larger organization and moved to New York. See FALEN, page 6C I am dreaming of an amber Christmas tree Let’s see where this Christmas story begins. Oh yes. Now, I remember. It started with my godmother, Mary Nell, who was shopping with me back in the summer. “I found you a Christmas tree,” she said, sidling up to me while I selected place mats. I wasn’t looking for a Christmas tree. Especially in July. Still, obediently, I followed her to the Christmas depart ment of the store where she stopped and smilingly swept her hand toward a huge, amber-colored silk tree cov ered in lights and decorated stunningly. Immediately, I knew it was perfect for my two-story foyer that is painted the color of a luscious, baked yam. The tree is a soft, gen tle color that some people, wrongly, persist in calling orange. It is indisputably amber. Amber. I was paying for it when I was suddenly struck with buyer’s remorse. I real Lifestyle Cookies, cakes and caring , '7' : / IFf H*: ,f > gflß m si* • x mfiSm ’ i T w ./ ’* CL 3L|- -• ff" alßp- ’Bl »- - Jfm - ■ IK & ** ized that a large brand new amber-colored tree would require all new ornaments. Lots of them. Too much shopping and too much money to my liking but I was commit ted so I plunged I;Ip r* **KH| Ronda Rich Columnist forward. This is how I came to have three Christmas trees, tri pling my former contribu tion to the Christmas spirit. I have built quite a collec tion of wonderful, sparkling iridescent white, clear and silver ornaments, which drip gorgeously from a tree’s limbs. So, I put a tree in my bedroom using those deco rations, added a glistening green foil one in the corner of the kitchen and suddenly I, who had always believed that one tree was enough, Savannah and Santa Sonny had a trinity of trees. For decorating the new one, I called in my sister, Louise, who puts up - and I am not making this up - eight Christmas trees in her house. She also has an exact antique replica of the sleigh used in that famous Currier and Ives print. In other words, she is the CEO of Christmas in our family. She loves to design Christmas trees so I opened the gilded holly cage and let her at it. “Just wait until you see the diva tree I designed for you,” she promised. When she had finished, my new tree was covered - and it is stunning - with glitter, baubles, bows, flow ers, feathers and two long, flowing pieces of orange, sparkle-flecked fabric that are tucked in and puffed down the tree. It is, admittedly, a mas terpiece. It should be in a magazine. “This is Halloween fabric that I got for 60 percent off,” Louise said proudly. I rolled my eyes. “Great. I’ve got a Halloween Christmas tree.” “But isn’t it beautiful?” she asked admiringly. “When my mom told me you had an orange Christmas tree, I couldn’t imagine what it would look like,” said young Haley a few days later. “But it’s so pretty.” I cut my eyes over at her mom, Patti. “Don’t be tell ing people that I have an orange Christmas tree. It’s amber.” “I’ve never seen a bronze Christmas tree,” opined Mike when he came by to help me hang a picture. “It’s not bronze. It’s amber,” I corrected him. “Oh.” When he got ready to leave, he turned and took one last look at the spar kling masterpiece. “Now what color did you call that?” “Amber.” He shrugged and left. SECTION c The members of the Bonaire- Kathleen Connection were hard at work Dec. 16 selling baked goods and frozen cas seroles for the holidays. The group, which has Karing for Kids as its motto, were rais ing funds for the Joanna McAfee Foundation to fight childhood cancer through research and support the fam ilies of children with cancer. Journal/Charlotte Perkins Savannah Dotson, 8, shown here with Gov. Sonny Perdue, was among the guests at a Christmas party held recently at the Georgia Governor’s Mansion. A student at Lake Joy Elementary School where she was recently named a “star student,” she is the daughter of Dustan and Cindee Dotson. Her father is employed at Houston Fertilizer, Perdue’s Houston County business. Contributed When my brother-in law saw it, he remarked, “That’s a real pretty orange Christmas tree.” “It’s amber.” There’s two big problems with this tree, though. First, I don’t know how I’m going to take it apart to put it away. It looks complicated. The other is that I will never be able to duplicate Louise’s perfection next year. But at least for this year, I have a beautiful, amber - not orange, mind you - tree draped in Halloween fabric. I never dreamed of such. Of course, I never dreamed that I’d have three Christmas trees either. Which mean that dreams do come true. So now I’m dreaming that Louise will return next year and, again, put up my amber-colored tree. Ronda Rich is the best selling author of What Southern Women Know (That Every Woman Should) and The Town That Came A-Courtin’.