This year we are having a “holiday bush” rather than just a Christmas tree. What’s the difference you might ask? We’re celebrating TWO holidays, of course! Hanukkah and Christmas are always very close together so we’ve decided to make the tree a celebration of both. (Sandy Goldstein be damned.)

I’m proud to say that all of the decorations – excpet the lights, of course – are homemade! (Or, rather, Marla-made. I didn’t do a whole lot of helping!)

We’ve got popcorn strings, paper snowflakes and wonderful gingerbread ornaments. The house smelled fantastic the night Marla was baking the gingerbread. You may be able to spot gingerbread dreidels, gingerbread men, cars, bells, ducks, dog bones and an occassional Star of David. Astute readers may be able to tell which shapes Emma selected for the tree. Here are two pictures of the tree in progress.

Camera-geek readers might notice that you can guess the number of diaphragm blades in each of the two lenses that were used to take the shots. Care to guess?