Thanks for all the kind comments! Calvin I know exactly what you mean! Although cyms are easy growers in our parts due to cooler summers and humid air...in the winter, we need a whole different game plan. In experimenting with this one, I even pulled it out of the pot a few times a year to check the roots for rot. Most of my cyms are in LECA in clay or plastic. I don't have a humidifier and the thermostat is set at 67*F. They get watered 2x a week if they're in spike or blooming...if nothing's going on I usually forget to water them and they get watered every 5-7. Your Cym sinense bloomed just gorgeously so I don't think you need to worry about anything =).

Hi Beth and everyone, Beth...thank you for your wishes. I too thought having my first-born go off to college 4+ hrs away was difficult but you are right...small potatoes compared to the long distance he has chosen to follow his career path. It is most important that he is happy wherever he may be. I have never seen the book but I am sure to be looking for it now. It sounds wonderful! Mickey is a most unusual blend. His mother was Chinese Sharpei and father Golden Retriever. Hard to believe, huh? He does have the wrinkly trait underneath all that fur and was the only black puppy in the litter so my daughter chose him! Julie...my daughter arrived home for Thanksgiving break tonight and she wants me to pass along her thank-you for thinking of her as well! She loves the angel and will be taking it with her when she goes back. :) To everyone...have a most wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!! Blessings, Dee

Great thread. My family gave up giving gifts to each other some when we were in our 50s - we all have too much stuff, so we visit each other instead. But I recently married a man whose family is into expensive presents of clothing and jewelry and expensive technology. He, and they, have given me some beautiful things which are not to my taste and I will never use. Some I have been able to exchange - the problem is that I have too much as it is and am trying to have less, not more. So exchanging doesn't work for me. My husband has refused to pass on my suggestions of more practical gifts (like an outdoor compost bin). I am going to try telling my husband that every time he buys me a piece of clothing or jewelry I am going to have to give away something I already have. He knows I am down to what I really love. We are also about to combine households next month, which means paring down even further. Maybe that will make him change his view!

I am also one who has enjoyed reading this thread. I have gotten rid of a lot of my Christmas decorations...and I was one the used to put a tree in every room (including the bathrooms), but have cut waaaayyy back....mostly because of health problems and a DH who does not "decorate"....so the outside lights are not put out anymore....because in this cold Kansas weather, it was me out there in January taking them down. I put wreaths with red bows in the windows, along with battery operated candles and a big wreath on the front door. I only put up a smaller tree in the LR and one in the basement family room where we all gather on Christmas to exchange gifts.....and of course, do decorate the fireplace mantle and I use a lot of bright red poinsettias scattered around. I always put out my grouping of singing carolers...they are so ugly that they are cute...and of course, never leave out the two nativity scenes that mean so much to me. When I looked through all of my boxes of decorations, I just kept telling myself.....what you take up from the basement has to come back down....and with my bad knees, it didn't take me long to just leave them there. I do believe that less is more...too many decorations doesn't give the eye a place to rest and gives the "cluttered" look. However you chose to decorate, I hope that each of you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and I hope that 2009 will be a better year for all of us.