Christmas Prep

The first Christmas cookies of the season ("ugly sweater" cookies which we decorated with my brother and Brooke on Thanksgiving):

Mine was supposed to be a flamingo with a hat. I couldn't quite get the proportions right (I'm not especially gifted with icing) so I'm gonna say it's a fat, red, Christmas duck. Sure, why not?

Christmas must be close at hand, as my family's traditional spritz cookies have also appeared.

Sprinkles go on the trees:

Finished cookie plate for the in-laws (with camels!):

On my request, Steve wandered all over a local tree farm with me to find our perfect tannenbaum.

Definitely a farm with a view:

Steve's phone says that we walked three miles before settling on...

... the first tree that I liked, which we spotted about five minutes after arrival. I promised Steve that next year we could limit our tree search to a smaller geographic area. Fortunately, he's a good sport.

Tree decorated and lit (accompanying penguin carolers my brother gave me on top of the secretary desk):

More decorations:

A sample of my micro-decorating, the golden armadillo dons a fur hat and stole (as one does), wire tree is decorated with tiny antique ornaments from my grandparents:

Traditional festive cardboard safari:

Not even R2 is safe from decorations: