Star Trek Christmas Tree

Star Trek Christmas Tree

For those that don't know, my wife is a real nut when it comes to Christmas.  She would listen to Christmas music year round if she could and she decorates the house like a mad woman.  I like Christmas, but I'm certainly not as amped up about it each year as she is.  

Every year she puts up garland and lights and trees and other seasonal stuff all over the house.  It looks good and I don't mind (the cats love it).  We had four trees in our home last year, and it's not hard to guess which one was mine!

Live long, and buy me many presents!

To be honest, I'm not really a "Trekkie".  I love Star Trek, especially the original series and movies, but I'm not a die hard fan nor have I ever been to a convention.  Years ago though, my mom bought me a Hallmark ornament from the Star Trek series and then another the next year.  Before I knew it I had 5 or 6 of the things.  When Branelle and I got together I insisted that my Star Trek ornaments be given a prominent position in her Christmas decorating.  I was originally just trying to comically annoy her since they sort of ruined her theme. 

Unfortunately for her, I am also a habitual collector.  Hallmark has been making Star Trek ornaments since 1991.  They now produce three per year and occasionally have a special release for Comic Con or something like that.  Through the magic of eBay and on-line commerce (and a few lucky finds) I now own every single Hallmark Star Trek ornament that has ever been produced!

We bought a black tree, wrapped a few boxes in Star Trek paper, added some planets that glow and even some vintage Star Trek Christmas lights and a tree topper to accessorize, but the rest is just ornaments.  A lot of them actually plug into the lights on the tree and many of them talk if you press a button.  Nel got into the spirit last year and made a tree skirt out of some vintage Star Trek fabric we found on eBay.

Nels' tree skirt - How cool is that?

We're committed now, so we buy every new ornament each year.  Some of the previous ones can be expensive if you don't already have them - a few are in the $500-$600 range.

Of our four trees, it is only logical that this one is deemed the best (don't tell Nel I said that).

     

Guide to My Blog

Guide to My Blog?

I don't really intend for my blog to be read by anyone.  It's really just an exercise in forcing myself to write from time to time.  As a result, it's usually about things that are interesting to me:  Cars, Sports, Travel.  I kind of like the idea of my blogs being in categories - it seems cleaner for some reason.  I have three "series" of blogs going so far:

• Random Vehicle Blogs - These are really easy for me to spit out quickly.  I just take a car I've owned in the past, write a few sentences about it, and slap some pictures up and I'm done.  I know nobody cares, but it's quick and harmless.  I even have the vehicle I blog about randomly generated by a program.

• Golf Course Reviews - I like playing golf when I travel so I occasionally write a review of a course I've hit up.  Harmless and easy.

• 100 Places to See Before You Die - These usually get read by more people than any of my others.  I assume it's because the locations show up on a Google search from time to time.  The list I use isn't really my list - I stole it from a book that's just a compilation of 100 Greatest Wonders of the World.  It's as good a list as any, and it motivates Branelle and I to try to see some of the places if we're close.  

The rest of my blogs are either random travel blogs or documenting some home improvement project or the occasional odd rant or comment stretched out.  I try to avoid politics and moral issues, although it's difficult to keep my opinion to myself all the time.

This year I'm going to try to be a little more random and a little more brief.  I may add another "series" or two (I'm thinking about blogging about some of the pieces from our art collection - riveting!).

Anyway, just wanted to give a shout out to my massive following (Hi Mom - Hi Branelle) and let you know that I'll continue to type out late night fodder and am always open to blog suggestions.