Sunday 12/10/23 Sue and I put up the tree and decorated for Christmas.

We had been thinking of getting a tree early this year because so many places had sold out long before Christmas last year. But when Sue checked the hours for a couple of places that we thought we'd go, they were already sold out by 12/06/23!

So, we slid Beau into the car and headed out Thursday 12/08/23 whereas we normally wouldn't get a tree until the week before Christmas, around the 15th or so. Not this year!

And prices were stupid out of control for some of the places we checked: some listing medium 6 footers to larger were priced at $85, and some at $100. Up here? $100? I don't think so....

We decided on the way out that we'd just do a small tree this year, and keep the decorating calm so we could enjoy a nice, relaxing decorating afternoon on Sunday the 10th.

We took The Beau Dog with us to get our tree. He was a little unnerved though because rather than tie it on top of the car, it was small enough to fit inside. Well, Beau wasn't thrilled with sharing the back seat with it, but he survived.

Just a small, but still pretty, tree for this year.

Sue had this great metal bucket to put the tree into.

Running out of room along the stair railing for stockings!

Sue created this really cute table display! Love it!

Just for fun after a day out shopping Wednesday 12/13/23, Sue and I decided to stop off for an early dinner at the new 'Evviva Trattoria' in Rochester, NH. Because of the wait time, we decided to just sit up at the bar.

Sue picked their 'Balsamic Braised Short Rib', and it was really, really good. However, my 'Chicken & Broccolini Alfredo' had very little flavor, and the Caesar Salad we shared also lacked flavor with little to no 'caesar' taste. So, sort of a disappointment for an Italian 'trattoria'.