Puppy Woes, More Soup, and a Christmas Tree Reversal

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Here we are, speeding towards that Dickensian celebration on the 25th like a runaway steam train (still on my Dickens streak here) so, because I am less than coherent, welcome to Debs' Sunday Hodgepodge.

I don't know if everyone else is as frazzled as I am, but it has been a week here. Actually, it has been a month. Around a week before Thanksgiving, our German shepherd Jasmine started feeling not quite herself. By that Saturday, she had stopped eating. Monday we went to the vet and he diagnosed pancreatitis. By Wednesday, she was still declining, so back to the vet for more fluids. By Thanksgiving night she was worse, so we spent that evening in the emergency vet. (This place was SO great.) More fluids, pain meds, antibiotics, and home we went. Over the next two days she improved, but when I woke up that Sunday, she had suddenly developed a swelling under her jaw the size of a baseball. I am not exaggerating!! I would show you photos but I guarantee you don't want to see them. Back to the ER for tests, tests, and more tests. Monday, back to the vet for surgery, then what would be two weeks of every other day sedation and care for the open wound. (If you are seeing dollar signs flashing like a slot machine display, you would be right!! We are not quite competing with Julia's cat, but we are getting close.)

Aw, but isn't she lovely? Look at that sweet face.

The good news is that after the THING was drained and cleaned out, she began to feel better and has steadily improved. We still have no idea what caused the massive infection. Tomorrow she goes in to have the last few sutures put in (the wound, the size of a fist, had to be closed a bit at a time) then hopefully we won't have another visit until the sutures can come out in about two weeks.

Needless to say, we are so relieved. And we are so thankful for modern veterinary medicine, a great vet, and a great vet ER.

Can you believe that after all this, the silly dog still wants to get in the car??

Also needless to say, I've been doing more cooking for the dog than for us, but I did want to share a standout recipe with you. I've made many bean soups in my life, but after reading repeated raves about the Senate Navy Bean Soup, I decided to give it a try. This soup has been on the menu of the U.S. Senate dining room for more than a hundred years, and is so popular they cannot change it. I made the slow cooker version from The New York Times but there are lots of other copies on the internet. I think this might be the best soup I have ever made! We got two dinners from it and I've stowed the last bit in the freezer for emergencies.

And ALSO needless to say, Christmas has not yet come to our house, hence the great Christmas tree reversal. You've heard my declarations of lifetime love for real Christmas trees here many times. Christmas won't be Christmas without a real tree!! But the days slipped by and I just couldn't get myself to the Christmas tree lot. Finally, I had talked myself into planning a trip to the lot on Friday. Then on Thursday night it suddenly--and belatedly--occurred to me that last year Ella the devil cat ATE the Christmas tree. And then threw it up all over the house. Every. Day. For three weeks.

And that, my friends, was the last Christmas tree straw. I just could not deal. I went online and thirty minutes later had ordered an artificial tree, which arrives tomorrow. Here's a photo from the website. I liked the skinny Aspen fir shape.

Hopefully, it will be pretty in our old house. I'll be burning a lot of pine-scented candles to make up for missing the real tree scent. 

One thing I can guarantee is that my husband will be a lot less Grinchy this Christmas. He despised the whole affair of the real tree and complained non-stop. I hope this one isn't too hard to set up.

I will update you!

Meanwhile, has anyone else tried this soup? And have any of you happily made the switch from a real tree to a faux?

P.S. One more fun Dickens thing! I decided I wanted to listen to an audio version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and guess who reads it for Audible? Hugh Grant! How perfect is that? I'm going to listen while I trim the new tree!

P.S.S. Here's a rec for the best smelling Christmasy candle, mentioned above, Sea Pines by Mersea. It's available in lots of different sizes and decorative options. (Also on Amazon if they haven't sold out.) Last year Mersea also made one called Snowy Cypress that I adored, but it seems to have been a one-time thing.

To Tree or Not to Tree, that is the Question

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Okay, it’s a fake question. I’ve always had a tree, even back when Ross and I were living together in DC (much to my parents’ chagrin) and we scavenged one from a lot near his law school that had them for suspiciously low prices.

 

In fact, a Christmas tree saved my marriage! About a decade in, Ross and I were having some real problems. Like, talk to lawyers problems. A couple weeks before Christmas that year, we went out to buy a fresh tree with our kids, then five and four. As we got home and began untying the tree from the top of the car, it started to snow, and the children were dancing around with excitement. 

 

The magic of the moment didn’t heal all wounds – there was still three years of couples counseling ahead – but we both realized we didn’t want to break up our little family, and we acted on that. We made it until death did us part. That’s a pretty big lift for a conifer.

 

So yes, I want a tree. I love to see one in the bay window of the living room, loaded with decorations, which, since the kids have moved out, have been veering toward a color-coordinated, Instagram style (as opposed to the plethora of macaroni, jigsaw piece and egg carton ornaments that came home year after year from school.) And we’ve always, always gotten a real tree – let’s face it, when you live in the Pine Tree State, it’s kind of a given.

 

But here’s the rub. In the past, picking out the tree was a family affair. Then it dwindled to me and the girls, then to me and one daughter, and now the only help I have is Bud DesRocher, the guy at the Lions tree lot who trims the trunk and loads it on the car for me. When I get it home, my assistants consist of two Shih Tzus and an elderly cat (who, by the way, is the reason we stopped using tinsel fifteen years ago. I’ll leave the details to your imagination.)

 

Getting it off the car roof isn’t too bad – I have a Honda Accord, thankfully, not a fifteen-foot-tall SUV. I’ve got a barn coat and deerskin gloves, so I can even hump it into the house. But have you ever tried to screw a real evergreen into a tree holder all by yourself? Dear readers, it’s like trying to clap with one hand. There are a limited number of tasks in this world that absolutely require two people, and setting up a live tree is one of them. 

 

Last year, my beautiful balsam sat in a bucket on the front porch for almost three weeks before Youngest came home and helped me install it in the living room. And no, it didn’t look like a cool natural outdoor decoration – it looked like a drunk had abandoned it between the tub of ice melt and my front door. 

 

I’ve told nearly all my friends the time has come for me to bow to reality and buy an artificial tree that I can set up and take down solo. Have I done this yet? No, I have not. Will I spend the next five Christmases saying the same thing and still getting a real tree? Undoubtedly. Or maybe I can go all the way back to the German custom of putting up and decorating the tree on Christmas Eve. I bet the kids can get one real cheap on their way over here at 5pm on December 24^th…

 

How about you, dear readers? Real, faux, or no tree?

Photos by JillWellington, Chance Agrella and Pexels, (Feerangestock.com)

On a Very Sneezy Christmas

JAN: This is my Christmas tree. Isn't it beautiful? (say yes). I have a thing about Christmas trees, mostly because of my mother. When I was about seven or eight, the evil capitalists of the world introduced artificial Christmas trees, and my mother ran out and bought one. My mother was not normally an early adapter of new technology, but she was extremely frugal and saw this as a way of not having to buy new Christmas tree every year. (She also hated to clean up the pine needles.)

My brothers and I were devastated. We put up a big fuss about the fake Christmas tree. My mother was one tough lady who could easily blow off four whining children.

Did we want presents? she asked.

Of course.

Then shut up.

We did shut up, but I vowed never to have an artificial tree in my own home. So every year, my daughter and I go out and buy a new tree and we all decorate it. It's beautiful isn't it? (Say yes.)

Guess what?

I'm 99 percent sure I'm allergic to it.

Why? Because I left the room sneezing non stop when we put it up Sunday. And when I went back into the living room Monday morning, I started sneezing again. I wheezed all day Monday and Tuesday, sure I was coming down with something, but when I went out to the gym, felt terrific.

I am allergic to pretty much every tree, grass, weed pollen and dander the doctor has in his little test kit, so it makes sense that given enough time I'd develop an allergy to Christmas trees. But it's so beautiful (say yes, oh yes!) and I love when that pine smell fills the house. (Got a kleenex?)

So am I going to surrender to the mounting practicalities and go the artificial Christmas tree route, next year?

No way.

Some things are worth sneezing for.