My first tree is done.

I redid the tree I plan to give Gerardo's father tomorrow at the party for his 90th birthday. Gerardo told me there will be 600. Maybe I just misunderstood. That is quite a party! 

I got up early and did laundry and then spent most of the day cutting up branches for the trees for the classes. I have limited the neighborhood ladies to 10 trees and I need 40 for the senior center. I have all the dowels marked for cutting but I will need a saw for them. I cut all the 3"4"5"6"7" and most of the 12". I have part of the others done. Sone of the branches are getting too big for my clippers so I will need a saw for them also. I think I will have to gather more branches before I can finish. There won't be a bare branch in all of La Quinta. Emilio says he will come tomorrow morning and help before going to work. He is such a kind person. We are going to Cartago on Monday to start picking up things for Thanksgiving and we are supposed to go to the pools on Tuesday but I have to check what time I have a cooking lesson with Marta. Something about coconut and caramel and very good. Can't wait! Marta and Dora confirmed today they will be coming to Thanksgiving dinner and Gerardo says he will definitely bring Tia. I offered to just bring her a plate of food if she didn't want to come with so many people but he said no, he will bring her. I will probably see Dona Rosa at church tomorrow but without help I can't invite her. I told Gerardo it would probably be more than 12 and he said, no problem - 20? I said no there wouldn't be that many but at this point I am at 14 plus 2 kids. I am getting close. 

I have all my recipes written out in case the wifi is down. It went down yesterday afternoon and didn't come back up until after 9:00 this morning.

Now, here is my math problem for all of you. Gerardo gave me 34 dowels that are 20 inches long. Each tree will have 10 pieces that are 3"4"5"6"7"8"9"10"11"12".  How do I cut them so I have the least waste and the most number of trees? Just so you know, my super duper son in law is a wiz and has given me the answer. And, he did it in less than 10 minutes. I didn't even try and figure it out myself. It made my brain hurt.

My first tree.

The dowels.

The pile is almost gone and cut up into different lengths. I put each length in a seperate garbage bag.