And so it was done.

Meant to post these two weeks ago but got caught up in the holiday workload both at home and at the office. A few pics of the completed layout pre-tree, a pic of Aurora meeting her first Christmas tree, and a pic of the final product: tree installed and decorated.

Note that the Aurora pic shows my current technique for getting the tree in and decorated: I build as modular as possible so the layout can be broken up into chunks that can either be taken into another room or slid to the side, making it easy to access the tree stand, install the tree, decorate it and then reassemble the layout. Beats the old system of tip-toing around the layout to hang lights and ornaments, then carefully vacuuming all the needles without sacrificing Legos to the great Hoover god...

Last pic shows the annual Lego manger scene. Part of MT's dowry was this tiny plastic set of figures from her childhood, which fit Lego well. So I build a stable and set them up each year as a sort of Town Creche, regardless of the layout. This allows us to sustain age old family traditions of having a creche under the tree despite the Lego layout.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday ...