Whoohoo!!!!

We have a Christmas tree!!! First time in probably twenty-five years that we've had a real one. We've had several of the plastic variety. The house in BOA being a narrow, tall town house, hasn't got space for even that, so we've been pretty much tree-less for the last 5 years, since we moved there. Unless you count the three small shelf-sized trees that have been in Mike's family for years. We don't have them here in France with us - more's the pity.  They were made for Woolworths when it was a real store, rather than the jumble sale it became. The tree 'needles' are actually tiny slithers of dark green paper on thin wire. You could mistake them for feathers. They look amazing and are fixed inside painted wooden tubs, which have a lid to keep them stable. Each tree and tub is about 30.48cms high or 12 inches for imperial fans! Apparently the tops and the bottoms were sold for 6d or something around 2.5p. You have to be careful these days, when you decorate them, as  they are now rather fragile. However they still look amazing and at eighty years old are in such fantastic condition, that we've kept on using them. 

The tree this year came from Ikea! Our neighbour's son was doing a Christmas tree run for the family and asked if we'd like one as well. We said yes. We'd been umming and aahing where to get a tree from. So his questioned popped up at the perfect moment. For once  we've got the right shaped space for a tree. Sunday was pre-ordered tree collection day. Can't have been easy, as we heard later, Ikea was heaving, and particularly for the trees. Ikea had/has a deal on. Initially Euros 30, you get a discount to re-spend in the store again, before the end of March, so in the end, the tree price works out at Euros 10. It's a lovely tree as well. So decorating it and the house  has begun!