Tuesday, December 4, 2007

The holidays for me are complicated, to say the least. My brother's family and my in-laws are Jewish, I'm Wiccan, and everyone else is Christian. So, little bit celebrates Hannukah, Yule, and Christmas. I took a gamble. Iree is learning about different holidays in school, so I asked her teacher if they were going to teach about Yule as well. It turns out that she hadn't planned on it, but said that she'd try to fit it in this week. She didn't make a deal out of it at all and it was a non-issue. I am so pleased! I feel a little more mainstream. Yesterday, they read a story about Yule. I don't know what else they're going to do, what she's going to teach them, but it's something. When I was in school, I didn't know anyone who was Jewish or what Chanukah was. I knew there was a Jewish thing with candles in December, but that's about it. Now it's actively part of our lives.

I have a tree test today. 94 species of trees, including over a dozen species of pines and the hickories. I think I'll do alright. This tree is a Frasier Fir, Abies fraseri, and along with it's brother the Balsam Fir, is the best Yule tree. Spruces shed like crazy and I'm just not fond of pines. Both firs are native to Tennessee, but the Frasier is pretty much limited to East Tennessee. You can buy locally grown trees, and most of them sell firs and pines that are native to the area.