We've got a treat for you today: a few trees by Dave De Groot and a few teaser pages from Dave's Principles of Bonsai Design (still the best how-to bonsai book we've seen in a long time).

This colorful Japanese winterberry belongs to David De Groot. Here's his caption, My little JAPANESE WINTERBERRY (Ilex serrata) is still very much in development but is showing some Holiday Cheer.

Here's Dave's caption with this one, My Mugo Pine is getting into the act with a "Three Friends of Winter" display of the Mugo with a small Ume in a Bamboo container.

Dave decides to promote his most excellent book. Speaking of the holidays, if you still haven't gotten a gift for that special bonsai someone, there is still time to order my book "Principles of Bonsai Design" from Stone Lantern. Covering not only design, but container selection, display and evaluation, it's a book they will refer to again and again.
I'll second that!

In Dave De Groot's own words, I just finished the WINTER WIRING of my "Windblown" Chinese elm. I have shown this a couple times before, but the reason I'm showing it today is that after several years of training, I did not have to move any large branches, and as a result can show it with no large wire. I used only a few pieces of 2 mm, and the rest was all 1-1/2mm and 1mm. Parts of some branches could simply be trimmed, with no added wire. This is a good time to wire as the winter buds are tight and undamaged by handling small branches in congested spaces.

This one and the next two are pages from David De Groot's Principles of Bonsai Design.
We'll let the images do the talking. 

Dave De Groot (in the vest) with Mauro Stemberger, who visited Dave recently. You might imagine Dave and Mauro worked that elegant Juniper together.