The Tree

Ah, the annual putting up of the tree! This year we realized we would have the fun, new-to-us dynamic of a very mobile baby. See, for the boys’ first Christmas they were little 4 month old lumps on the floor. Their next Christmas they were 16 months old and we could reason with them slightly. Ok, not really but they were at least at the age of learning what “no” meant. They did great with the tree for the first couple of days and then they began pulling ornaments off. By Christmas morning all of our ornaments were on the top 2/3rds of the tree!

Oh, and I have to take this opportunity to show you the video from 3 years ago (gah! 3?!) when the boys saw a Christmas tree for the “first” time. I love this video and their reactions!

Ok, so back to this mobile baby thing. We waited to set the tree up to minimize the risk of damage to the tree or Lily (although I suspect in that battle that Lily would win), AND we’ve caged the tree. Yesterday I decided it was time, so we bought ingredients for rice krispy treats and some egg nog (traditional tree-decorating snacks in my family!) and told the boys what we were going to do.

I told the boys I was going downstairs to get the tree and I needed them to clean up the living room floor. This is what I came back upstairs to find…

“A” for effort, right?

As soon as Nick got home from work, we gobbled down our dinner and then got to work decorating the tree. As you’ll see, Lily was sent to the Pit of Despair.

Know what I especially love about digging all of those ornaments out? Looking at the newspapers some of the glass ornaments are wrapped in! Look at this ad for digital cameras…

Woohoo for 2 megapixel cameras and Polaroids! Ha!

Isn’t it lovely? Despite the gate, I love looking at it! The top is a little odd looking right now – apparently whatever we put on the very top last year was too heavy and bent the very top branch. This is my favorite time of year though, because I love having only the tree and outside lights on at night. Just adds such a festive feel to the living room!

We also got out the kids’ nativity set last night, so I set it all up after they were all in bed. Somehow we lost Joseph already. Or maybe we lost him last winter. Who knows. Right now we’re having a shepherd stand in for him. The set stayed nice and neat for about 2 minutes this morning. Then a giant baby flattened Bethlehem.