Capitol Christmas Tree Online

I know it has been ages since I've put fingers to keyboard and written my column. I found a few spare minutes today and thought I would put everything else on hold and write a little.

Since Christmas is almost here, I thought I would get into the spirit. One of our clients sent me an email regarding the Capitol Christmas Tree. We all know that it is from right here in the Black Hills but now it is online! The White House actually has a "Tree Cam" that updates every minute or so. You can see the people on the White House lawn visiting the tree. To find the website, go to http://www.senate.gov/~daschle/tree.

On the site you can see pictures of past trees (all the way back to 1964) as well as which state donated them. There is a tree photo album containing camera shots of the Black Hills Spruce traveling from South Dakota to the Capitol, setting up the tree on the White House Lawn, etc.

I went to check the "tree cam" at 3:00pm our time, which is 5:00pm at Washington D.C. (very dark already) and it looks like someone forgot to turn on the lights! Isn't that the Vice President's job?

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season! To all of my readers, thank you for all your great comments about the column! Your support is appreciated. Happy New Year!!