O Christmas Shrub, O Christmas Shrub!

We are now the proud owners of a Norway Spruce Christmas tree, purportedly "THE" traditional Christmas tree. I (Erica) was hoping for a soft, bushy pine, but alas! no such trees were to be found at Kingswood Tree Farm (just 5 minutes from our house). The Norway Spruce is not known for its needle-retention abilities, so we're hoping it makes it another 19+ days without collapsing into a pile of needles on our carpet. We didn't bring our lovely collection of ornaments from the US, so we decided to improvise/go cheap. The result: 15 baubles (that's British for bulbs) bought from the dollar store, a bag of miscellaneous ornaments from Freecycle, and some wooden stars that I (Erica) made using branches from the tree in our backyard. Add to this mix two units of Christmas lights, difficult to put up as are in a loop rather than a string, and voila! Christmas is here. Note in the photos above our fireplace are the 2 stockings I made from Zac's worn-out polos. Our tree may be a bit wonky, our stockings fragile, and our fireplace cold, but we are merry!