Fake Christmas Trees

Flu shot? Got it. Since it takes 10-14 days to build the antibodies, I will be protected by Thanksgiving. Now, a push to get Michael immunized. After a good cup of coffee and breakfast, I am going to pickup a few things at Safeway, balance the checkbook, pay the bills and go to the rehab class. Dinner is already made so it will be a relatively quiet day.

I am beginning to look forward to the holidays. As my niece will be hosting Thanksgiving and my sister and her husband hosting Christmas, I can just enjoy the holidays. No perfect house. No perfect yards. William will be with us and we can just enjoy being with each other. With crab. The season opens on Friday. Yum!

Which brings me to fake Christmas trees. After we bought this house with its cathedral ceilings, I always insisted on having 10'-12' real Christmas trees. The smell was worth all the effort. After I got sick, Dr. K. mentioned that I needed to buy a fake tree. Fake?!? No way. After she explained that I would be bringing mold and fungus in the real trees into my house and that my disease of HP was caused by mold, fungus or organic dust, we bought a fake tree. It was a small, cheap, Charlie Brown tree. I didn't know that the branches had to be adjusted and fluffed into place and it really was pathetic. After that Christmas, I bought a nice, fuller, taller tree that really does look real. Now, we decorate both trees. I still miss the smell of Christmas in the house during the season but better safe than having a crash due to an exposure.

Michael is one of the people who has been buying an individual insurance policy through the years. Kaiser. Huge deductible. Smaller premium. He is REALLY healthy so it has worked out just fine for us. He received a letter a few weeks ago stating that his policy was being grandfathered in and he was not being cancelled. We didn't understand the ramifications at the time. My Medicare policy and supplemental policy through AARP are both still in place as well. Watching all the news reports of premium increases of 50+%, we are grateful to have these policies still available to us.