It's a Slender Christmas Bush

Remember our trek to the countryside to cut down a natural Christmas tree this year (read about it here)? How I specifically said I wanted an imperfect, delightfully quirky tree? Well, here she is, folks. In all her slender and sparse glory.

On the mountainside, she looked thin (which we wanted for this fireside location), she looked tall, she looked imperfect while still maintaining a traditional Christmas tree shape - in other words, the perfect compromise for John and me. We estimated cutting a bit off the top and bottom, but hoped figured it would just add to her charm. 

Fast forward 3 hours, when we took her off the roof of the car and tried to set her up in the garage…imagine our surprise when we discovered she was too tall to stand up. Too tall by like 5 feet. Somehow our delightfully quirky tree turned into a 12 footer. I swear, we measured her on the mountainside. 

I am almost certain we did. 

Some selective pruning later, what emerged is what we have affectionately coined, our slender Christmas bush. 

Ah, just what I wanted. 

A slender Christmas bush.

But, seriously, it has taken us over a week to decorate this beast. In the end, we just had to accept that it certainly is not our traditional tree, but we love her all the same. Quirks and all. 

Swiftly moving on...

This year, keeping with our natural theme, we decided to attempt a mantel with live greenery. Usually, I am a big supporter of the fake stuff inside, but not this year. Authentic and simple all the way - an asymmetrical swag of white pine garland with a double strand of golden beads.

The urns are filled with cuttings from the yard and tree. As you can guess, we had quite a few of those, from our slender Christmas bush.

More from the full house tour coming up later this week.You'll be sad to discover that the rest of our decorations barely hold a candle to the slender Christmas bush. Come by anyway, and check 'em out.

   Only 10 more days until Christmas?!?!

until next time,