respublica

Festival of Trees decorating day

Here are a few photos of how the Festival of Trees looks the day before the event as everyone arrives at the Gateway Center and begins decorating their tree.  Each tree is sponsored and decorated by various city boards or clubs such as the Chamber of Commerce, Lions, Knights of Columbus, etc and at 9 tonight they were judged.  The first, second and third place winners will be sold via an oral auction and the rest of the 60 or so trees will be part of a silent auction.  Food and drink and music will be a major part of the festivities.  The profits from the sale of the trees and dinner tickets go to the charity which chairs this years festival, in this case, the Willoughby Farm renovation committee.

The beginning of the day-everyone gets their tree and begins the trimming.

A look at the other half of the room as they begin working.

Here is our Collinsville Progress tree in the early stages.

And here is our tree 7 hours later.  Yes, it took 7 hours to do one tree, but it is gorgeous.  Our theme is The Three Wisemen following the star until the light leads them to the manger where they offer gold and other gifts.

Maybe tomorrow night (late) there will be photos of the winning trees as well as a look at the Festival of Trees itself. 

Festival of Trees

I can find no web site which touches on this very very wonderful event held the first Wednesday in December here in Collinsville.  The Festival of Trees is held at the Gateway Center and features dozens of Christmas trees decorated by various local groups or businesses.  All the trees are then displayed and auctioned off at a beautiful, dressy, community event.  The profits go to the group hosting the year's event which this year is the Willoughby Farm Renovation group. This is the day everyone decorates and late tonight I hope to have photos of how the process looks so make a note to check back. 

Horrible...

Awful.  At least we had the Cardinals. 

So, what's under your hood?

Now this story about "event data recorders" is an eye-opener.  Everyone knows your privacy is open to intruders, your boss, the government everytime you go online.  But who knew you have something in your car that transmits data?  Event data recorder-another name for invasion of privacy. 

What kind of leader are you? A quiz

Ever had the desire to know what kind of leader you would be if only other people saw your fine qualities?  Well, here is a quiz.  You can choose the number of questions you want and when done, the web site will tell you which past leader you are most like.  Fun.  I'm taking it again, I didn't care for my leader twin. 

Durbin's in his element now

Had to laugh when I read this story profiling Senator Dick Durbin and his new position as Senate Minority Whip.  The Dick Durbin we know here in Southern Illinois has been the consummate camera hog.   Washingtonian Magazine, in their annual story on the Best and Worst of Congress had him 3rd in the "C-Span ham category".  So here is Dick's Freudian slip...so to speak.

"Almost every time you turn on C-SPAN, you'll see me," Durbin said.  Maybe next year he will move up to number one in the magazine's ham group.  We'll see if he gets a mention in the "working group".

An Iowa State puzzle

Quick question:  Why does Iowa State's athletic teams, known as the Cyclones, have a St. Louis Cardinal type Redbird on their helmuts and uniforms?  This has been driving us crazy for several years and even some transplanted Iowans who were at our house last night do not have the answer to this.  How does a cyclone compute into a Redbird? 

Ugly NFL uniform, a lotta points

It may have been the second highest scoring game in NFL history, and Cincinnati may have come out on top, but they still have the ugliest uniforms going.  Points won't change that.

Helping eliminate the word Christmas one Carol at a time

Have yourself a merry little Christmas Holiday,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas Holiday,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

Christmas

Isn't this much better?   

Biting the hand that feeds you

Retailers and many manufacturers depend on Christmas to end their year with a profit.  Oddly enough, though, these same people are doing their utmost to eliminate any mention of this festival day in their advertising and in their stores.  Even seasonal television specials do this.  The word Christmas is hardly anywhere to be found and the word holiday is taking its place.  The ubiquitous music which plays in the background of stores is mostly of the secular type, winter wonderland, Frosty, sleighbells etc.  No mention of the Christ Child or Carols of the spiritual type.  So I thought it might be a good idea to help these people out and have modified some old favorites so the canned tunes can have more variety.  And to help everyone else see how ridiculous this is.  Make your profit on a religious observance, but whatever you do, don't say the word Christmas.  It has the word Christ in it.  Happy Holidays! 

All I want for Christmas holiday
is my two front teeth,
my two front teeth,
see my two front teeth!