It's That Time of Year!

Normally we wouldn't decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but since there is no Thanksgiving here to slow down holiday preparations, we decided that we could start celebrating whenever we darn well felt like it. So a couple of weeks ago I pulled out most of the Christmas decorations, and then this past weekend we decorated the Christmas shrubs and M hung lights.

Christmas shrubs? Yup, we're starting a new trend. Last year we bought an evergreen shrub (on the right) as a stand-in for a proper Christmas tree, because even a small one was out of reasonable price range. Despite M's loving care - and the attention of some of our guests - the Christmas shrub seems to be fading from the bottom up, so we pulled in another plant to help bear the burden of lights and ornaments. Still perfectly festive I think!