Stories from Saturday, December 27, 2003

Christmas is a wonderful time, but unfortunately, it can also be a time of excess. We're not talking about exceeding the family budget, although many of us do. Pay off the credit cards as quickly as possible, and start a Christmas Club account to keep the presents off the plastic next year...

My memories of Christmas as a child are glorious. Two weeks before the big day, my uncle and I would take the axe from the shed and head south to property he owned to look for the most majestic Christmas tree we could find. It would often take most of the day because the tree had to be just right. It had to be so tall, so wide and no gaps from top to bottom...