Merry Christmas!

Hello to all.
The Devereux household was feeling very festive this weekend. Rick put up outside Christmas decorations while it was snowing (he has a new appreciation for the song "White Christmas") and then Amy and Rick took Ripken to a Christmas tree farm.
Amy wanted a "big" tree since the living room has a vaulted ceiling. After wondering around in the snow for about half an hour (Ripken started to shake, he was so cold!) a tree was finally deemed acceptable and felled.
At more than 10-feet tall, it is easily the biggest tree on the Chateau Devereux property.
The tree farm did not have a tree stand and the only available stand at the local hardware store accommodated trees up to 10-feet tall. Amy had hesitations regarding the tree stand, but Rick insisted a few inches wouldn't make that big of a deal.
Monday evening was spent cleaning up the excess needles in preparation for the big event Tuesday night -decorating the powerful pine.
Rick left for lunch Tuesday afternoon planning to grab leftovers at home.
When he got home, the tree had fallen over!
Water had splashed on the hardwood floors and needles were strewn wildly, but luckily nothing was severely damaged.
Amy immediately found a tree stand for a tree up to 12-feet tall, but there is still discussion if the tree (nicknamed 'Sparky') has lost too many needles or if too many branches were broken in the fall.
The fate of Sparky is unknown, but Chateau Devereux is starting to look a lot like Christmas!