Lisa - Better in the ground than - where? When we bought our first live tree years ago we were told to dig the hole well ahead of time and store the soil where it wouldn't freeze. Is that what you did? I think that your tree will do fine. Better than if you had intended on keeping it in a garage or something. Make sure that you water it well now and again later if you get more thaws. Make sure that you treat it especially well in the spring and for the rest of the first year. Nice looking tree - your link worked. Deb (and her non-expert opinion)

Your hostas look so nice. Especially Hope. My little baby struggled to come back this year, and is doing okay in a pot, but hasn't grown a whole lot. Hopefully it put out a bunch of roots and will be bigger next year. I love the pergola garden. That's so awesome! My boyfriend tore down the back porch roof yesterday and I was thinking of doing something similar to this over the porch, to let in some light but still keep the shade. Plus it'll look nicer than a plain old roof. I may have to show him this photo, and perhaps next year redo and expand the back porch into a patio and put a pergola-like roof over it, or at least part of it. Karen

So Jenn, I'll talk about Christmas with you. I've already been thinking about who I need gifts for and trying to think of some ideas so I can do as much in advance as possible. Have you been finding any good stuff? Our local GW had a few things in. Right now there is a nice sized white Santa that caught my eye--but they've got him priced at $9.99 so I'm waiting to see if he gets marked down. Not sure I need him, but for the right price I'd make room for him. LOL Luvs

Sharon, GW has a wonderful Christmas and Holiday forum. The people there are full of great ideas. Come on over and play! Here's the link. Here is a link that might be useful: Christmas and Holiday Forum