O Tannenbaum

And now it starts: that part of the year when all my posts get Christmas carol names instead of regular old lame punny song titles. Sorry. (Not really.) Anyway ... one whole day earlier than last year, we have our tree up back at the ol' homestead.

Some of the particulars for this year: instead of a Frasier fir, we got a balsam fir. The reasoning is simple -- cost. Our tree is about 7" tall, and the balsam was almost $10 cheaper for that size. We're still quite happy with it. It has a nice pine-with-some-kind-of-random citrus scent. Oh, and I think I might be allergic to it because I've had a sore, gummy throat since we brought it into the house. Zyrtec, baby.

This year's tree is decorated pretty similarly to last year's. What can I say? When I find a Martha-Stewart-approved design scheme that I like, I tend to stick with it. This year, I did add some white to the mix, so our "official" holiday colors are gold, silver, and white, with accents of "last year's wrapping paper." Lots and lots of sparkles. Fewer lights than last year, and I did NOT buy any more lights this time around.

You can see here the (mostly) completed tree. I think I am going to see if I can pick up some more white ornaments, just singles here and there, but for the most part, we are done with this bad boy. The only decorations that have any "not approved" colorings are the cupcake (about halfway down, on the left hand side, near the giant bedazzled "S") and the little blue sweater (near the bottom, center-right). One thing you might not be able to tell -- no balls. Just bells and pinecones and finials and glittery springs and random sparklies.

We did go shopping for my Christmas presents over the weekend, and one of them is a tripod, so I will try to get some nice pictures of some of the new favorite ornaments soon. In the meantime, if you're really interested, you can see a couple of pictures I took with the iPhone camera here and here and here. (That last one is a joke, but you better believe that I would hang that sucker if I had one, because I find it best to hedge all bets at holiday time, you know?)