It’s two weeks before Christmas, four days before we leave for Paris to meet up with Melinda’s family, and eleven days until we ALL return to Nantes to celebrate Christmas. In other words, its about time we set up our tree. On Thursday Christine took Melinda to Ikea where both picked up trees for their families. Ours cost 20 Euros, 19 of which you get back as Ikea store credit if you bring the tree back for recycling purposes. The other Euro goes to charity, if I understand correctly. Now that’s a smart system (remind me to tell you all some time about the super-smart shopping cart system).

So here is Ella posing with our tree. Melinda came up with the idea to “plant” it in this tall pot we found in the house in order to give it some additional height. Chloe searched the house for Christmas decorations and found several boxes. Ella and Melinda took charge of decorating the tree while Chloe put up homemade snowflakes, an important family tradition. I guess you can say my job was to supervise (actually, I brought the tree inside and got it anchored in the pot, as well as carted boxes up and down the stairs).

After only finding blue lights to use, I think I overheard Melinda referring to the decorated tree as a “blue light special.” How many K-mart shoppers recognize that reference?