Christmas Tree

DeMarcus Cousins might be immature as some have described him when he’s had some contentious times in his first season with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. However, give Cousins credit for being way mature beyond his years in certain ways. How else to explain why a NBA millionaire would take time to send a Danville teenager a Christmas present after meeting her only briefly last year? Yet that is exactly what Cousins did for Bate Middle School student Olivia Prewitt.

One hundred families, including some from Jessamine County, got Christmas trees for free this holiday season when The Kentucky Chapter of The Nature Conservancy offered eastern red cedars at the Jim Beam Nature Preserve in south Jessamine County Dec. 11. Each family picked out one or more trees, and volunteers for The Nature Conservancy cut them. Boy Scouts from Troop 115 in Nicholasville hauled the trees to the parking lot. Not only did central Kentuckians get Christmas trees, but the cutting of the trees will allow the deciduous trees planted several years ago to prosper.

Noah’s Ark exhibit should show horror of biblical fable To the editor: Should the state grant tax incentives to a religious theme park built around a replica of Noah’s Ark? This, a recent poll question from the The State Journal’s website, would be laughable were it not for the probable fact that there will likely be many readers of the Frankfort newspaper out there who would likely answer yes to the question. I will ignore for now the obvious question involved in the separation of church and state in regard to the state helping in any way in the construction of a biblical monument.

Let me start off by saying I’m not Scrooge, nor am I the Grinch. I love Christmas. But for all of my adult life (I count from the age of 18 when I left home to join the Air Force), I have never put up a Christmas tree. The reason was simple, at least in my rationale. I was single, and more often than not, I would either go home or be invited over to friends’ houses on Christmas day. Well, one year turned into two, and so on and so forth, and all of a sudden, I found myself 30 years old, single and not ever having put up a Christmas tree.

— On Tuesday, emergency personnel conducted one local transfer and three out-of-town transfers. They also responded to two general medical calls, two falls, one seizure, one motor vehicle accident and one engine assist. — Firefighters also responded to a fire call at 12:48 a.m. today at 358 Camden Drive. An electric spinning base on a Christmas tree in the back room of the residence caught fire. Damage was confined to the Christmas tree.

Families looking to decorate their homes with real trees for the holidays will have a chance to do so for free next weekend, thanks to a program from the Jim Beam Nature Preserve and the Kentucky chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Volunteers with the conservancy will be cutting eastern red cedar trees from the preserve property near the Kentucky River from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11. Kenneth Brooks, who volunteers with the group, said the program benefits the preserve as well as providing the public with free Christmas trees.

PLEASANT HILL — If you’re looking for a way to escape the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill keeps Christmas “simple.” “The Simple Gifts of Christmas” takes place on Saturday, December 4, 2010 and offers guests a simple, Shaker style Christmas with seasonal festivities and special programming.   Craft store open house: 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; no admission required. Visitors can shop for one-of-a-kind Christmas gifts surrounded by the smell of sweet breads and the sounds of the holidays — and receive 10 percent off all regularly-priced merchandise, excluding furniture pieces.

Oh, Christmas tree. How many times can you and your tinsel covered branches make an appearance in the same column? Apparently, a lot. Here’s the thing — I have a little confession to make. In the past, I have joked about my inability to muster up enough initiative to take down my Christmas tree. But it has always come down eventually. I may have joked about leaving it up all year, but I never actually did it. Until now. I guess technically the fact that it’s still just October means that there’s time to change course, and live a better life, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

In four days, wrapping paper will be flying around living rooms everywhere, little ones will be screaming over the latest electronic gadgets, and older kids will be expressing gratitude for ties, gloves-and-scarf sets and fruit cakes that look an awfully a lot like gifts we had given last year to the people who are giving them to us this year. It will be the annual American Christmas morning ritual of gift-opening. At my house, I will be performing my annual Brock Christmas morning ritual as the "gift elf. " At my advancing age, performing my elf duties of passing out gifts is becoming increasingly difficult, as my knees and back are not as young as they used to be. But serving as the gift elf for more than 50 years, in the house in which I was raised and in the house in which I am husband and father, is a Christmas memory I will always cherish.