Let the Christmas traditions roll!!

In our house it is traditional to drink a glass of sherry and eat a mince pie during the putting up and decorating of our Christmas Tree whilst listening to my Christmas Carol CD. Tim wanted to do it before I go away so this morning we got it all down from the attic and went through the boxes. First: check the lights. Failed!! Too many were broken so it was a quick trip to the garden centre for 200 more tree lights! Unravelling these is a nightmare each year. I really don't have an easy way to do it, so they were strung up over my shoulders and all over the floor as I wound then around the tree. The deal is Tim puts the tree together and I decorate:-

Harvey's Bristol Cream, what else?!!

TIm made fantastic pastry and his pies were better than mine.

He hates having his photo taken so it is always a gamble how it will turn out!

Looking a little better...where are the lights?!!!

At this point we sped off to Intratuin and bought the necessary along with many, many other shoppers who obviously had had the same idea as us!
The lights went in eventually and I added all our silver and red decorations. We agreed that we don't have enough red in the tree but that's because a lot broke last year unfortunately. But hey, where am I going on 14th December????! Maybe there will be small purchases necessary, you never know......
Tim took on the task of making this batch of mince pies and I have to say that they were delicious. He used my secret pastry recipe and although he said it was different to anything he does in the bakery, I think he agreed that the taste is sublime. We only made 12.............not many left I noticed when I went back into the kitchen, chef?
Anyway, the tree is in situ and the cats have run away upstairs to hide under the bedclothes as Finka is not impressed at all!! Same as anything new, she is afraid of it for a while and then accepts that it is here to stay so gets used to it gradually; we hope. Here's the decorated tree:

I promised a picture of the bookcases too:

I added some stuff on top of them so that  I could get a better idea of what it needed but I think it is coming along just fine! Now I'm thinking about our new project for 2012................
Sue xx