Compromising Christmas Shrub

I've been gone from {my little bitty rural blog} here.
First, I was sick.
No pictures taken of sick momma.
Then, I was busy getting my life back from being sick.
No pictures were taken of that, either.
But now my kitchen floor is clean, I'm almost done with the little Christmas shopping I do, and I've returned to show you something.

In case you didn't realize how we do things around here, please note that these Five Little Ruffers are sitting in front of one of the Smallest Christmas trees in North West Ohio.
It is a compromise between the Man of the House and myself.
One of us likes seasonal decorations. 
The other thinks cutting a tree
that took years to reach a height of six or seven feet just so you can
prop it up in your living room,
clutter it with lights, garland and glass balls,
spend a few weeks watering it and
shooing tiny children away from it
just to have it dry out and eventually burned is foolish. 
Care to guess who holds which opinion?
So we get a live {potted} tree. 
It is shorter than I, more shrub-like than tree.  We use fewer lights, so I guess we're environmentally friendly.  It lives in our house until February, then moves to the front porch.  When the yard thaws into its natural state of mushiness, the tree gets planted. 
We've repeated this compromise three times now.  By the time GBaby is in high school we'll have a veritable forest of ex-Christmas shrubs trees in our yard. 
Maybe some of them will be six or seven feet tall and we can revisit the decorations vs. foolishness debate.

Honestly, I didn't show you this picture to discuss our Christmas shrub/tree.
I wanted you to see how blessed I am. Truly.I'm speechless with gratitude.Only, I shouldn't be speechless, I should find words to say thank You for my Five Little Ruffers.