Oh Christmas Tree, oh christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches tra la la

Last year we moved house on December 11th, mother in law arrived for a month-long stay on December 15th and we went on holiday to the Philippines on December 17th. Our christmas tree was a shambolic plastic affair that I happen to own courtesy of a friend who sold Xmas decorations, and who had lost a section of one of her display trees. Rather than throw it away, she gave it to me to use as I saw fit, and for a couple of years, that stumpy-at-the-bottom, narrow-at-the-top deformed sad tree constituted our festive foliage. But since we will be at home this year, husband and I decided to stump up and get a real one this year.

On the same outing that I purchased some (probably-illegally-cut) logs, I had spotted a place called FssYay Dlyah Sadoo (Everything for the Garden) and I remembered the road. We headed out there last weekend with the express purpose of bringing back a good, big, real, pine-smelling tree.

We selected our tree (not the blue spruce which was coming in at a cool 1000 USD), forked out a not unsubstantial amount of money for it, plus extra for delivery (could not get it in the back of the car with three kids and granny in tow) and followed it home. Here it is, on the back of the van.

And only 6 hours, 800 fairy lights and all our decorations later, here is the finished thing:

We're pretty happy with it! This really kicked off our festive season, and I followed the tree up with the mass production of enough mincemeat to make about 5000 mince pies, multiple visits to Santa (five to date), Christmas concerts at school and the wrapping of half the European wine lake as presents for teachers.

All I have to do now is find a turkey.