Deck the Halls

Karl and I spent the better part of Saturday getting the house ready for the Christmas season. As some of you may know, I have desired to have a real tree in the house for quite some time. However, Karl's allergy to pine prevented us from having such an item in our 750 square foot Philadelphia home. Now that we have a bigger house, he can escape from the scent if needed. (so far it has not bothered him.)

Here is a shot of the Frasier Fir we got from Wal-Mart. I was shocked that Wal-Mart carries fresh trees. We set it up in the room adjoining the living room.

But then, of course, there were discussions about how this tree should be decorated. I wanted a tree to compliment the color scheme of our living room; Karl wished to display his collection of penguin ornaments. I love white lights; It's just not Christmas for Karl without colored lights.

So, we set up the artificial tree in the dining room. It really brightens up the corner.
So there you have it--his and her Christmas Trees. As long as I can remember, my grandmother set up two Christmas trees in order to handle her large collection of ornaments. A few years ago, my mother followed suit. Since then, I've been teasing her relentlessly that she has turned in my grandmother. (not that that is a bad thing, Grandma!) So now where does that leave me? At 27 I have already followed in the proud footsteps of the women of my family.

I love that we have a fireplace now. Although it is unusable until we get a chimney sweep to do some repairs, the mantle is a nice part of the living room. I got the poinsettias (which you can barely see, but they're there in front of the firescreen) in Lancaster over Thanksgiving. The greens are not exactly the traditional kind--I hacked them off of an overgrown shrub in our back yard.