Oh Christmas Tree

Since last December, my live, undecorated Christmas tree has been on the balcony, blocking the view of nosey neighbors who would love to look in and see what I'm doing. (I can see what they are doing too, or at least I could if I wanted to.)

You may remember that last year I went on a day-long adventure to find a tree on the outskirts of town. I actually kept the tree alive for a whole year!

Saturday I moved the tree into the bathroom and gave it a shower. Thanks to a horticulturist American friend in town who sold me his extra set of B&Q (a store like Lowe's, kind of) tree wheels last winter, it was easy to roll the tree around from room to room.

The tree looks a lot better when clean. It turned from grey to green!

When it dried, I moved it in the living room and gave it a trim with some scissors.

For background music, I had two of my all-time favorite Christmas albums playing: A Charlie Brown Christmas (circa 1960s) and Christmas with the Imperials (circa 1970s). Both are available for download on iTunes, if anyone is interested.

Then I decorated the tree. I decided to go minimalist with my decor this year. My tree has no tinsel or garland, just round ornaments with a few candy canes. Oh yes, it has white blinking lights, my favorite. I have no skirt on the tree this year, but I like the Christmasy look of the red ceramic pot that I bought at the village last year.

The tree is not perfect, but it is real. All its gaps and scoliosis give it character.

I have only a few decorations out elsewhere in the house, because (a) Christmas clutter starts to annoy and overwhelm me after a few weeks, and (b) I have to go somewhere right after Christmas and I want to easily take down the decorations before I go.

I have plans for a couple of Christmas parties, currently pending whether or not I get sufficiently well in time. (Fortunately, we don't have to plan far ahead here like people in the USA tend to do. I can call people up on a Friday and have a full-blown party the next day.)

If you look carefully, in the foreground of the Christmas tree you can see Mimi's plume-like tail. :-)