"Please put a penny in the old man's hat ..."

Well, I finally decided to get my sorry-good-for-nothing butt up into the attic and haul down the boxes of decorations, including our fabulous tree. Our pretend 'fir' is on it's 6th year and it still looks terrific.

Yes, yes, I'm sure for some of you that "you can't beat the smell of a real tree" and for those of you who think that "you can so tell a real tree from a pretend one", let me tell you something; you can't!

At least, not this one.

Clever us bought it a couple of nights before Christmas when Joseph was just a year old and good ol' Homebase had done their trick of reducing the reduced.

Was £100 (crossed out).

Now £80 (crossed out)

Now £60 (also crossed out!)

20% off day £48 (errr... not crossed out).

We figured it would pay for itself in just two years and it is serving it's purpose beautifully. 7ft of extremely realistic Christmas tree.

Joseph, Annabel and myself constructed it before the two of them decorated it by themselves (with M overseeing proceedings).

As I felt ever so slightly redundant, I sat back in our old Parker Knoll, sipping a glass of red whilst thumbing through the Christmas edition of the Radio Times.

Old age here I come!!!