We had a huge bonfire on my 50th birthday. Well... sorta. The bonfire was huge and it was my birthday, but since my birthday just happens to be on December 31 it was, in fact, a New Years Eve party and only a couple of people new it was my birthday. But, hey, the bonfire story's still cool.

WARNING! DO NOT TRY THIS UNLESS YOU LIVE IN THE COUNTRY AND HAVE ACRES OF CLEARED LAND!

Our friend Blake's dad and several of his friends go into town three or four days after Christmas and collect Christmas trees that have already been discarded. They don't collect seven or eight of them. They collect hundreds! Then, on New Years Eve night, they burn them. Doesn't sound too exciting, does it? Well, do you have any idea how intensely dried out Scotch Pines burn? Get the fire going good and toss a couple of those babies on there and flames will shoot fifty feet or more into the air. They don't just burn, they explode. On the night we were there, the wind was blowing about 20 MPH so the sparks were being blown hundreds of feet downwind as well. It was pretty awesome.

Bruce