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I don’t know about you, but I put off taking down my Christmas tree until at least New Year’s Day. This year it may stay up even longer because it brings me much needed daily joy breaks.

When it does finally get stuffed out the door however, I don’t like setting it out with the garbage. Seems like a very undignified end for a tree which served us so proudly as a glorious symbol of the season. Instead, I try to pay it forward and recycle it to be turned into mulch for next spring’s gardeners or pine chips for the trails.

Here’s some info on a few nearby places you can do that:

Webster: According to the Town’s website, you can drop your tree off at the Town High Department, 1005 Picture Parkway, betweem now and Feb. 28.

Penfield: The Penfield DPW is accepting trees at their facility, 1607 Jackson Rd. You’ll see a sign to the right of the facility’s gate, and you can drop it off right there. You can also leave the tree with the regular brush pickup.

Irondequoit has a Trees for Trails program, which is descrbed on their Facebook page:

Rather than put your Christmas tree to the curb after Dec. 25, bring it to Helmer Nature Center, where it will be used to create wood chips that mitigate trail erosion. Starting Dec. 26, bring your tree to the Helmer parking lot for recycling. We will collect trees until the Jan. 16th Trees for Trails event when volunteers will help unload your tree and High Falls Tree Service and Irondequoit Lawn & Landscape will be on-site recycling trees. This will happen from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Helmer Nature Center is located at 154 Pinegrove Ave.

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As we near the day we can finally say goodbye to a difficult 2020 and welcome a fresh new 2021, it helps to remember that some good things actually did come out of this awful year. Here’s a story about one of them.

Almost every week since the beginning of April, 5-year Julia Meyers has been playing virtual Yahtzee with her new friend Marion, a resident of Maplewood Nursing Home.

They get together via Google Duo, usually on Tuesday afternoons, and spend about a half hour playing one game of Yahtzee, each using her own dice and board. Marion is assisted by Maplewood’s Volunteer Coordinator Lori Porte, and Julia’s mom Linda helps her. But despite the board-side assistance, there’s plenty of excitement and conversation passed back and forth between the competitors themselves. And judging from the end of the game I watched earlier this week, the competition is pretty fierce.

It was Linda who originally came up with the idea as a way to have Julia connect with one of the residents.

I reached out to The Maplewood when the pandemic started because I was looking for a way my daughter could give back during these hard times. My grandmother spent time at Maplewood before she passed away in 2014 so that was my connection.

They first tried just video-chatting with another resident, but that didn’t work very well. Someone came up with the idea to play a game instead, and suggested Yahtzee. Lori found a resident whom she thought would be able to follow along pretty well and enjoy playing with somebody she’d never met before.

The games were on.

Both young and old have benefited from the weekly interactions. Julia gets to practice her math and number-writing skills. Marion enjoys seeing Julia and her 5-month old brother William every week.

The games have forged a friendship that reaches beyond the computer screen. Just before Thanksgiving, they even got to “meet” through the window. Marion and Lori used the occasion to give Julia a wooden jewelry box inscribed with her name. Before they presented the gift, Marion even asked Lori to line its drawers with purple felt, Julia’s favorite color.

More recently, Julia and Linda gave Marion her own Yahtzee game for Christmas — so she didn’t have to continue using Maplewood’s game — and a frame with a picture from the window visit, where Marion can keep track of the Yahtzee scores. Recently, Linda even discovered that one of Marion’s children is a neighbor of theirs.

The overall game score is pretty close. Julia won again on Tuesday, so she’s up 15 games to 13. But Marion needn’t worry. She’ll have plenty of chances to catch up. Julia said she’s planning to keep playing the games for “29,000 years.”

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

Here are a few holiday delights for you and your family on this Christmas Eve.

The first is a beautiful rendition of O Holy Night, shared by Carly Thomas, the orchestra director at Klem North and Schlegel Rd. elementary schools.

Carly is a member of several orchestras, and is normally very busy performing holiday concerts at this time of year. But as there’s nothing normal about this year, one of her orchestras decided to try something different. They recruited some vocalists and put together a COVID-friendly arrangement of O Holy Night, recording their parts individually.

The result is incredible. Carly is the violinist in the red sweater against a white background.

Next, here’s a special treat for children and adults alike. Santa himself reading the Christmas Eve classic, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. This video was originally posted on the 2020 Webster Holiday Parade of Lights Facebook page.

May you all have a blessed holiday, enjoy your family, and please remember to be safe so that we can all get back to celebrating Christmas properly once again next year.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

So many things are different about this holiday season. But come hell or high water, my family WILL be doing a barefoot snow walk.

My regular blog readers have heard about this unusual tradition. My paternal grandmother (“Gia Gia”) originated the challenge about 75 years ago, when she took off her shoes and socks in the dead of winter and tromped barefoot in the snow to the far side of her yard and back. It was a distance of perhaps 100 feet each way. Pretty much every year since, my family has been holding annual barefoot snow walks whenever we get together for the holidays.

It’s a foregone conclusion: before the turkey gets sliced or the gifts get opened, we gather up towels, remove socks and shoes, roll up the pants, set up a photographer or two, sprint out the back door into the snow, and — while holding one another for emotional and physical support — smile for the cameras.

(While we scream through gritted teeth, “Take it already!” “What do you mean you need one more!?” “No, I am not moving over!” “Why didn’t you turn the camera on before we got out here!?” “I AM smiling!”)

Then, after the photographers are thoroughly accommodated, we run screaming back into the house to re-acquaint ourselves with our feet.

This year, of course, we won’t be gathering for Christmas. So we’ve had to come up with a creative solution to keep the tradition going: the first-ever Zoom Barefoot Snow Walk.

My running buddy Mike Bodine actually came up with the idea, and after giving it some thought I realized it was inspired. So a set time has been arranged, texts have been sent, and the Zoom invite has been emailed. On Christmas morning, I, my kids, my siblings and a smattering of nephews — representing at least four states — will, at the appointed time, Zoom barefoot into whatever snow we happen to have.

It will be epic. And it will be recorded.

How about you? What unusual holiday traditions does your family have? How are you celebrating this unusual holiday safely and creatively?

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

We all could use a little laugh right about now as Christmas-time stress compounds the stress we already have thanks to COVID.

So I thought I’d share these images with you, of a scene I came across in Irondequoit last weekend. All I could think of was, “Arlo Guthrie told us all about the ‘Thanksgiving Day Massacree.’ How come we haven’t heard anything about this obvious Christmas Day Massacree?

It got worse when I got to the Rec Center, where I saw clear evidence of a hit-and-run.

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email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.