Fact: Two of Santa’s reindeer originally had different names. In the 1823 poem, A Visit from Saint Nicholas, which originally introduced the world to Santa’s reindeer, two of the flying creatures had slightly different names, according to Syracuse.com. Donner and Blitzen were instead Dunder and Blixem, which is a Dutch way to refer to “thunder and lightning.”
We were up at 5:15 AM this morning as I have to be in Long Beach at 8:00 AM sharp for the cancer removal procedure using the Mohs technique. We departed Casa Valencia at 6:40 AM, and the freeway was wide open! We arrived at the office at 7:30 AM, so we went upstairs to the nice waiting room and read from our tablets.
Dr. Glassberg did the first cut and sent it to the labs; sure enough, he did it “one-and-done”! We were out of the office at 9:00 AM.
We drove over to H&H Nursery just down the street on Lakewood and went wild! We filled up the trunk and backseat of the Silber Fox with blueberry, blackberry, boysenberry, and raspberry plants! Mary also got some Mums and other veggies.
Taking my life in my hands, I asked Mary, “What do you get if you cross Santa with a detective?” I got in position for a rapid exit and said, ” Santa Clues!”
H&H has almost everything!
The berries will be added to the garden and we will have a 20′ long area for them to grow and prosper!
Mary loved to pick the blueberries at the Los Alamitos house!
After the shopping spree, we went to “the club”; Mary loves saying that. Old Ranch Country Club was decked out in Christmas attire in every room. We sat by the window and had a super breakfast. Kenji waited on us, and he is very pleasant.
Old Ranch was decorated nicely.
We had to stop and get a picture of us!
One of the club members offered to take a picture of us! He did well!
My little Christmas tree!
After lunch, we headed home to remove all the plants from the car and fix the garage so we could get into and out of the car. We overloaded the garage with Christmas boxes plus an electric smoker we got from a silent auction. After an hour’s work with Mary’s great assistance, we can park the car and get into and out of it easily!
The plants were extracted from the trunk and rear seat of the car and transported to Casa Valencia Gardens; tomorrow, they go into the ground!
Blueberries this summer, for sure!
We have blackberries, boysenberries, thornless blackberries, raspberries, and others are ready to plant.
Into the ground they go tomorrow morning!
Bare root is a technique of arboriculture whereby a plant is removed from soil in a dormant state, from which it can more rapidly acclimate to new soil conditions
The box had four different kinds of berries.
Its almost 3:15 PM, and time to go! Where did you say? To the Nail Club to get our toenails done!
We had a nice cup of hot tea to make things even more relaxing!
Mary decided to get her fingernails done since, with the broken left arm, she can’t do her own right now. I took this opportunity to go to the Stater Brothers market next door and pick up our necessities!
I tested the new outdoor Christmas lights using my iPhone; they work great!
The house lights are controlled by my phone!
We had a quick dinner and watched two Christmas movies, both of which were very nice. We toyed with the idea of going into the swim spa but decided it was too darn cold. Tonight it is going to be 42 degrees.
