tree trimming time

So that's the first of the three Christmas visits to Ma's house... and the tree is up... and there are some presents under it.

And it only took twelve hours.

I don't quite know what happens... there's a period of time after the tree goes up but before we start wrapping presents where time just disappears.  Okay, it doesn't really disappear, there's all the post tree tidying up, plus lunch.

But I'm skipping ahead...

I was up and organised pretty early, even though I got distracted a couple of times, so I made it down to Ma's place around 8am.

After a fortifying bacon and egg sandwich and some iced coffee we set about unpacking everything and finding all the little notes from previous years.  I know I've mentioned it before, but it's always a surprise to find what little pearl of wisdom I've added to various boxes.

And since I started adding years to my notes it kind of feels a little like some sort of weird archaeological dig of some kind...

I also spent most of the day documenting are progress via Instagram... I do like having an iPhone with a camera that functions.

We went even more minimal with the tree this year...

Ma has complained in previous years that it's difficult to get presents under the tree as the bottom branches are quite low... so I suggested we leave the bottom branches off this year.  Granted I suggested it when I was getting ready to put the last branch on the bottom row... it worked out pretty well though, or at least it will when Ma's wrapped some more presents.

The lights were really easy this year... we bought new ones last year which are just one long string... and they're so much easier to put up.

As I was putting the baubles on I half decided that we should stick to just gold, red and green baubles this year.  We only have a minimal number of other colours, and with a missing row of branches it didn't look too bad.

And of course we haven't used tinsel in a while...

It's still a really dark tree in a really dark room though... Ma has been talking about getting a white tree, and while I don't necessarily love them, it could be a good idea for her lounge room.

It would be easier to photograph though... the current tree never looks as good in photos as it does in reality.

After the tree was done and we'd tidied up and I'd done my traditional "tree photoshoot" we grabbed some lunch before we started on wrapping presents.

Well, actually before that I went through and unpacked all the decorations we've bought to use on presents.  A little like the notes, there's stuff in there I have no recollection of buying or seeing.

I did a little bit of arts and crafts on one of Miss Oh's gifts... with the help of some plain brown paper and a silver Sharpie... it didn't look too bad, a little homemade perhaps... but interesting.

After we'd wrapped everything that needed to be wrapped (well, with my assistance anyway), I called it a day and headed home.

It was possibly one of the easier, cruisier, less traumatic tree trimming sessions...

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