Christmas!

Fair warning, I am entirely too excited about Steve's and my first real Christmas tree. So I'm going to post a bunch of pictures. Because I can.

 With Steve, for scale:

 Stockings for the bunnies (hung above the computer with care):

Awesome advent calendar my friend Gail got me (the 24 penguins before Christmas):

 Close up of tree (remember, because I can):

 Tree from below (why not?):

 My cardboard safari is very festive as well:

Wider view of the living room (including awesome gold hang-y thing I got from my Grandma and we attached to the ceiling fixture):

This year, we put up some garland, a wreath and a few strings of lights as well.

Neighbors came up to us as we were decorating to praise us showing a little cheer (Santa Cruz is very under-decorated). One neighbor gave us a thumbs-up from across the street. One of a few pictures a neighbor took of us on the porch:

We intend to do more elaborate outdoor displays in the future, but the weather has been extremely cold this year and we'd had enough of being outside after doing just this much. I think it looks pretty festive, though.