Walking through Festival of Trees in West Palm Beach

The 'Marmion' tree with a Santa on its side greeted us
as we entered through a side gate.

The Festival of Trees creates a Christmas mood in me, regardless of the 80-plus-degree days that is our winter weather this month.

The sights and smells inside the walls of the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens create a magical world that brings out the holiday joy in me. The West Palm Beach event is my favorite Christmas festival.


I first went after a health scare in 2009, when I promised myself I would do more fun things. Then, two years later, my employer offered free tickets for the 2011 festival. I took all that they offered and invited my friends to share this bit of Christmas joy.

This year, the parent company that owns the Shiny Sheet where I now work offered two tickets per employee. I knew the perfect person to invite: Susan Spencer-Wendel.

My former co-worker and friend has Lou Gehrig's disease and uses a wheelchair, but those limitations haven't stopped her from communicating. She wrote her memoir using her right thumb on her iPhone. She just finished extra chapters for the paperback edition using a technology that reads a silver dot on her nose, focused on a keyboard on her laptop. More than anyone I know, she deserved a bit of Christmas joy.

John Wendel reads from "The Lorax" to his wife Susan.

Her husband John joined us, and I was glad he did. He had the brawn to push Susan's wheelchair on the unpaved garden path. Plus, he read the poems to us. I just love listening to someone read poetry to me.

We oohed and aahed our way through the 30 trees. I marveled at the origami cranes in the Caged Bird tree because I know how difficult those birds are to fold.

'The Caged Bird' by Maya Angelou

I like the poetry of e.e. cummings, so I was drawn to the Maggie and Milly and Molly and May tree, which featured sea shells and sand tools as ornaments. That poem takes me back to my youth when I first heard about cummings in a sophomore English class. I particularly like the last stanza:

"For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

 it's always ourselves we find in the sea"

Crabs and starfish also were ornaments on the tree,

In the rear of the garden, the light show was mesmerizing. It featured a synchronized light and music tree. The Christmas carols played included tunes by Pentatonix, an a cappella group.

Nearly every tree had an usual tree-topper. Few stars or angels were used. Instead, the decorators topped their trees with a velvet hat, a paper parasol or a monkey.

The smiling moon sits atop 'The Owl
and the Pussycat' tree.

The sock monkey appears to be scaling the 'All Things
Bright and Beautiful' Tree.

After walking through 30 trees, we agreed that the tree covered in holly berries was our favorite. It combined the piny smell of a fir tree with glitzy show of holly berries, gold-encrusted leaves and miniature wooden birdhouses and the sounds of what seemed to be 1,000 birds chirping joyfully. It was a smile-inducing tree.

John Wendel poses with his wife Susan in front of the
'Trees' tree. Perhaps you had to memorize this poem
by Joyce Kilmer when you were in school?

We left vowing to make the event an annual visit. Each year, the trees are decorated in a different theme so the festival keeps its magic and joy.

P.S. There's still time to enjoy the Festival of Trees this year. The event runs nightly through Saturday, Dec. 14.  If you go, be sure to let me know your favorite tree.

And now, for my numbers

I had my best walking day last week on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013, when I walked:

Steps: 10,072

Miles: 5.0