Every year in the United States, consumers purchase approximately 25-30 million real Christmas trees. Live Christmas trees offer several benefits over artificial trees:

• More than 100,000 people work full- or part-time in the industry;
• For every real tree cut down, one to three seedlings are planted each spring;
• They provide a lovely natural fragrance in your home;
• They offer a way to create family memories and traditions; and
• You get fresh air and exercise if you cut down your own tree.

With the Thanksgiving feast behind us, it’s time for many people to start decorating their homes for Christmas. This year, the above-average fall temperatures here in Wisconsin inspired many homeowners to light up their yards and homes with Christmas decorations. My neighborhood is definitely more decorated than in past years.

Have you ever jumped into your car, turned the key, and nothing happened? If so, did thoughts like this start racing through your head?

• I wonder what’s wrong?
• What am I going to do now?
• Who can I call?
• I hope this isn’t going to be expensive.

Over the years, my daughters have repeatedly asked my wife and me for a pet. Unfortunately for them, the answer had always been “no” for a number of reasons. Probably the biggest is the time commitment.

When it comes to making a purchase, there are typically many items to choose from which leads to making decisions and choices. Sue Gerlach, West Bend senior personal lines underwriter, explains that insurance is no different.

Because the days are getting shorter, we start doing a lot more things in the dark. Walking the dog, running or biking, last-minute yard work, and driving are just a few.

When the kids go back to school and the leaves start changing colors, we start seeing news reports about fire safety. We see firefighters visiting homes and replacing batteries in smoke detectors or installing new ones. We hear radio commercials about getting your furnace inspected. Yes, the change in season brings about all kinds of things that we must consider to make our homes safe for the arrival of winter.

Isn’t technology great? Every day we see new technology that makes our lives better, more efficient, and safer. Cellphones have facetime capabilities and great cameras. Fitbits track our active lifestyles. Hover boards ... who wouldn’t want one? Back-up cameras in our vehicles help us see things we normally wouldn’t.

There’s been a lot of information on the news recently about auto recalls that involve faulty ignition switches and airbags. Even with all that coverage, many people are still unaware if the recall affects them. Others chose to ignore these recalls because they think nothing will happen to them or it’s too inconvenient to schedule the service call.

When I was growing up, one of our family traditions was a trip to our local pumpkin patch. I always loved trying to find the best pumpkin, or at least one better than my brother’s. It was even more exciting when I found a pumpkin attached to a vine. This meant I could take my jackknife out of its holster and use it to cut the vine.