O Christmas Tree

Last year, we bought ourselves a real live (ok - more like alive once but slowly dying when we got it) Christmas tree. It was a really big deal in our usually very eco household to make the jump from potted cedars that we later planted in the garden to supporting the death of a beautiful tree. I have since heard some amazing arguments for getting a tree over the holidays, from the fact that they wouldn't be there cleaning all that air and being replanted to supporting small local farmers, but still, not totally sure I am on board with those rationales enough to feel like it justifies having one. Last year, I was so riddled with guilt about our tree's unnecessary death that I kept it up until March to make it worth while. Ben insisted it come down by then or he would do something drastic like burn it with all our decorations still on. I finally took it down a couple days before my birthday on 25th March. At least I can say we properly enjoyed it at very stage of its decay from the rich dark green with its heavenly scent all the way to its gorgeous brown and compost smell. The browned needles went rather well with the living room colour palette in fact. This year, we even though we didn't have Oslo's birthday as an excuse, we agonised and decided to get a tree again. And this year, I am just accepting that we really really loved having a live(ish) fir tree last year and it filled the house in a way that the cedars didn't. I am not saying we will get one every year now, for I have lots of plans for cool eco alternatives that I have been posting on pinterest, but for today, I need to just admit to myself that I am doing something I don't even agree with because it makes me happy, and I need to somehow make up for our nasty footprint in more ways than just not having a dryer and only buying second hand everything (with no packaging!). Ben is about to start a massive hydroponic garden so hopefully that will cut back on the amount of imported food we are buying and make up for this evil deed of not only supporting the killing of this beautiful tree, but then the oil it took to get it from Vermont to Bermuda on a ship. Please Karma / fragile eco system, forgive me, and know I am good for this lovely tree in other ways. 

Okay, now that I have all that off my chest, I can tell the story of our tree. We all went as a family to this secret place that apparently sources from the most amazing family farm and their trees are supposedly better than any other trees in Bermuda, so my friend Sarah assures me. She kept calling to make sure I would go to this place and when we finally did, we figured she must be right. I looked at this tree that Indigo picked for ages and the salesman started getting a complex thinking I thought something was wrong. But truth be told, it was so perfect in its fullness, shape and colour that I felt weird. I started looking for things wrong with it, like how was I going to fit any decorations on it with all those needles! This was no Dr Seuss tree of our previous Christmases. As you can imagine, everyone rightly shot me down and we took the gorgeous tree home.

I put the lights and beady strand things on by myself as that was a little trickier but then we decorated the tree as a family. I have loads of cute pics of the kids adding their ornaments but those were taken with my big camera and it takes an age to upload and get ready for the blog whereas I am obsessed with how easy and amazing the pics are from my new posh second hand iphone are and am smitten with my new fave programme, Instagram. I could happily chuck my cameras and only shoot with Instagram were it not for the low res but if the pics could be large, I would have a new niche. No messing with exposures and settings - just p.h.d (push here dummy, as my parents would say!)

I couldn't resist using my phone to capture all the pretty ornaments in situ - so romantic.

Hope everyone who celebrates is enjoying the holiday season so far. I am fully immersed in Christmas carols all day long and each time I walk past the tree, I seem some ball that needs to be adjusted and know this passtime will keep my fully occupied for the next four months!!! Can't wait for the kids to break up from school next week and then will be in proper holiday mode! xxx