So this was Christmas...

… and what have I done? I've taken down the Christmas tree, that's what.

We typically leave the tree up until the first day or two of January. This time, Jeannine liked having it so much that she rechristened the sun room the "Christmas tree room". But all holidays come to an end, and the tree was beginning to drop lots of dried needles, so it was time for it to go.

Yesterday I'd taken all the ornaments off the tree… or at least I thought I had. While taking down the tree, I found four ornaments that had escaped my searching gaze.

I got out my loppers, or pruning shears I guess is what they are really called, and set to work. It usually only takes about ten minutes or so to cut all the branches off the tree. Here it is about three-quarters done…

… and here, totally shorn of branches.

At my request, Jeannine took a few shots of me wielding the loppers (I don't usually wear my hat backwards, but I had been sitting near a window and the sun was right on my neck, so I threw my hat on like that).

And then once the tree was stripped of its verdant finery, it joined the last few years' collection of Christmas tree trunks in the garage…

… waiting for me to someday make good on my idea of turning them into walking sticks or something. Maybe that would be a good New Year's resolution. -- PL