The Festival of Trees

This is a true story:

This lady, we'll call her Michelle, walks into a bar. just kidding.

Actually, she goes to a music concert and as she is sitting down, she says to the cowboy already seated near by, looking at his Tony Lama boots, "Are you from Texas?"

The cowboy drawls, " Why, yes ma'am, I am."

"Really? So are we! I'm from El Paso, and my husband is from Fort Worth. What part of Texas are you from?"

And he deadpans, his drawl thicker than fleas on an old hound dog,"Saskatchewan, Texas."

After the concert, we went to the Festival of Trees. This is one of the biggest charity events of the season here. It is the unofficial beginning of the Holiday Season. Of course, next week we will celebrate a traditional American Thanksgiving: turkey, Jaquays, stuffing, Mary Kay Salad, etc.

Back to the festival. The event is staged in the biggest venue in town. There is a Santa Claus for pictures, craft booths with trinkets for sale, face painting for the kids, and all the other things that go with community events. The biggest draw are the Christmas Trees, decorated and donated by various companies around town, that are sold at auction. All benefits go to support the local medical center and health region. The trees have themes, and some also come with other goodies. One of the biggest sellers is the local Ford dealership because it comes with the use of a new car every month for a year, anything on the lot. Our company will buy that tree this year again. Then, at our Christmas party (in about 2 weeks), we will give the tree to one of our employees.

The local Caterpillar dealership tree comes with a complete set of die cast models of Cat equipment; dozer, scraper, grader, loader, mine truck, etc. All the kids like that one. There is also a tree from a local bookstore that also gives as many books as you can read in one year.

Himiko, Brooklyn, Samuel, and Joseph in front of a couple of the auction trees, both with musical themes. They had just played in a Jazz Festival. (the youth, not the trees) Himiko is an exchange student from Tokyo. She plays the alto Saxophone. Brooklyn is a Trombonist, like the boys.

The Simpson Boys, or as the conductor said, his "American Friends." The video below is a portion of a Carlos Santana tune, "Oye Como Va." He mentioned the boys in his introduction to the tune as it seems he was mispronouncing the words in the title, and the Meximos could not help from correcting his Spanish. The concert was very enjoyable.

Happy Holidays to everyone. We wish you all the best. We are looking forward to a good Christmas season, and a Happy New Year.

Hugs and Kisses,

Alan and Michelle