Hannah And Her Tree, Aylesford

Today started with me and my brother going on one of our long runs as part of our half marathon training. I actually quite enjoyed it and it was great jogging past all the homes and seeing how differently they were decorated for Christmas. As we neared the end of our run we passed a church which was right in the middle of their carol service, so it was lovely hearing all the people singing and having a glimpse of the large tree inside.
After a recuperative bath, a lie down and then an early glass of wine it was time to go and get the last few items from The List. This was done in quite short order (luckily) and so I began to think about today's shot. It had to be Christmassy, so I decided to take a shot of Hannah (our garden statue we named after an old lady we met on holiday years ago in Scotland) and her tree. 
The garden looks a bit bare due to our unfortunate hiring of Kevin The Garden Destroyer, as he has become known. My Dad had recommended someone to take the ivy of the side of our house and, to be fair, he had done a good job. Unfortunately, the back garden was a whole other ball game and, without consultation, he decided to almost completely take out half the mature trees on one side of the garden because they were "diseased". It now looks a bit forlorn and very lopsided, hence the slight close-up style of today's image!
Strangely, though, I think it makes for a very seasonal picture - despite all the flaws Christmas still shines through. Hope you all, my fellow blippers, have a wonderful Christmas and send you all my best wishes for the festive season. Today's extras were taken after a walk to the pub and the priory in our village - I decided to play about with ISO, focus and composition - I was quite pleased with the results!
P.S. The laugh out loud moment so far has been getting an Xmas card from our neighbours where all the family names are correct apart from mine - apparently my name is Keith!