Festive Cheer

I'm struggling to stave off a cold that's threatening to lay me low so to cheer myself up, I decided to get going on the eco-friendly Christmas decorations. First some pine branches from the garden rigged up on the front door with a piece of ribbon recycled from last year:



We also fashioned a 'tree' from those felled treetops I mentioned I'd spotted down the road. The hubby hacked a few branches off with his axe, tied them together with string and suspended them from the ceiling. Dot seems not to have noticed the difference and we're pretty chuffed with the results:



Don't worry, we're rationing ourselves to two hours a day for the lights (I'll be keeping an eye on that light-happy husband of mine; I've also replaced the most-used bulbs in the house with the eco-friendly variety (nb Damian) which should offset any incremental power and they're in place of the lamp usually in that corner of the room - ah, the debit/credit eco-reckoning we go through...). Am feeling rather smug about the whole thing: no trees cut down especially, no transport required to get the tree to us (all materials collected on foot), no new decorations to add to the plastic in the world and no Canadian person on 6th avenue charging you $60 for a tree that comes up to your kneecaps. Brilliant! Also because I live in the country, I'll be able to easily compost the tree (though if you live in the city you can take trees to lots of the parks and to the Union Square greenmarket for mulching. I know it's a pain but it'll help you feel purified after all the seasonal excesses).

Now, you'll notice the tree has little in the way of decorations (besides some origami cranes my Mum made last year). That's because when I opened up the bag of decorations, I found them all covered in sticky mouse droppings - and an empty bag where a forgotten Christmas cookie from last year had been. How the hell do they find these things? So I guess it's time to come clean on the mouse front (and please don't hate me): the hubby put down posion. Lots of it. In fact he kept putting it down, and it kept going which leads us to believe we were dealing with an army of the little blighters. Well, they've gone now. RIP Mice of Milanville. I just wonder for how long I'm going to continue to stumble upon pleasant reminders of our cohabitation...

As for the decorations, like a good eco-worrier I haven't thrown them out: I have them soaking in warm soapy water with a few drops of tea tree oil to disinfect them.

And just before I move off the topic of festive stuff, I must give a big shout out to Paul, Tara and the gang who made sure we had a totally organic Thanksgiving. The turkeys might have left you bankrupt but they were worth it. A belated thanks kids!