Another holiday season is coming to a close in our world, and with it comes some wonderful memories. The children walking through the store staring at all the ornaments on the tree, the excitement on the faces of the women in Michelle's classes when they have finished their wreaths and are headed home with something beautiful to hang on their front door. The scent of hot apple cider rising from the urn and the thrill of helping someone find the perfect living Christmas tree that will grace their landscape for years to come. Oh, and we can't forget the site of Harriet sleeping under one of the trees.

I am not going to try and fool you into thinking that "Retail World" is always a pleasant place to be. There are the days that the forklift won't start and you have a huge tree to load or something crashes to the floor and breaks into a million pieces because little hands just had to touch it. But somehow those are few and far between. The majority of our time is spent helping people. The last check mark on the wish list completed, the perfect gift for that hard to shop for friend that has everything, and some days, the really best days, are the ones that someone stops by just to say hi and see how your world is going. I am one of the lucky ones, I have a lot of those days.

Now that my time is split between The Flower Tree and Red Zinnia, one of my favorite moments in the day at Red Zinnia has to be when I see a look of puzzlement on a customers face. They know they have seen me SOMEWHERE before, they just can't place me. Then I start to talk to them, or ask them if they receive the emails from The Flower Tree, and the smile starts to cover their face "I knew I had met you before, your from The Flower Tree". The conversation quite often turns to brown lawns, pruning roses or watering tips at that point. I love it.

So as the winter solstice is now past, and Christmas eve is quickly upon us, we bid farewell to this busy time of year. We will take some time to rest and enjoy the lights of the season. And wait patiently for the 6 days to pass until our children safely arrive for a beautifully long 3 week vacation. Merry Christmas, Susan