O Christmas Tree

So, this year I struggled with an odd feeling. This strange feeling was that I had no desire to put up a Christmas tree this year. I was kind of wiped out from Thanksgiving and just wanted to veg out for a while. The biggest reasons, though, were the fact that I have a 17 month-old running rampant through the house and the fake tree we have is the one I grew up with, so it's all old and dusty and makes my otherwise mild eczema break out like crazy on my hands.

I dared not mention this to the older kids. Apparently, I had voiced my annoyance of Christmas stuff coming out before Halloween a bit too often, and Akiko and Moses picked up on it. Akiko even went so far as asking the lady at Macy's why their Christmas decorations were up when it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet. Oops! So, once Thanksgiving was over, every single day for a week, Moses would ask when we were going to put up our tree. "*Sigh!* Soon," I would reply.

I posted a status on Facebook that stated my lack of desire for the tree. Some of my friends replied that they only decorated the top half of theirs. Others lamented that they would find ornaments all over the house. One suggested that I get a short tree and put it on a table like she had done the year that her twin boys were at that same delightful stage. I must interject here that a short tree on a table is a marvelous idea and I employed it when Akiko was 20 months old. Worked fabulously. I toyed with that idea again, but I didn't have an appropriate table for the job.

Joseph agreed that the fake tree needed a break and wanted to get a real tree this year, which I was all for. He also kept telling me not to worry, that Asher would be enthralled by the tree for a day or two and then ignore it. I was a bit skeptical about that, but I agreed to the purchase of a real tree this year. The kids were stoked, to say the least, when the day arrived to go shopping for one.

We found a real nice tree for a reasonable price and were quickly home to set it up. I was really impressed that the guy who nailed our base on was able to get it as straight as it turned out.

I brought the Christmas boxes in from the garage and for the two minutes I was gone to check on something, the kids had opened the boxes and started taking everything out. They wanted to get started on that tree. I had to tell them that there was a process.

First, you check the lights. Then you put on the lights. Then you put on the tinsel and/or beads. Then you can start putting the ornaments on.

They waited somewhat patiently for me to get the lights and tinsel on in a manner that was satisfactory to me. Once I was finally finished, it was time for ornaments.

At that point I was so tired from getting the lights and tinsel on that I did something that surprised even me. I let Akiko and Moses decorate the rest of the tree, under my supervision, of course. Here's how it turned out:

I have to admit, for a 4 and 6 year-old, they did a pretty good job. There were only a few clusters I had to fix and some branches still have double ornaments, but Akiko, Moses and I are pretty proud of our tree this year. I'm really proud of the kids. Akiko was able to reach the top branches with the help of a stool. Joseph lifted her up to put the star on the top at the very end.

My ornaments are not fancy. Many of them are plastic. Asher still managed to break one. Oh well. I'm not that attached to those ones anyway. They'll probably get made into a wreath or something some year soon. The fancy and heirloom ornaments that we do have get put up high on the tree, out of toddler reach. Someday, I'll have a tree with sparkly, beautiful, breakable ornaments, but for our child bearing years, I'm content with the cheap stuff.

And in case you were wondering, Joseph was right (and I'm not too proud to admit such a fact). Asher leaves the tree alone. In fact, the first couple days it was up, when he would walk up to it and swat at a branch, causing an ornament to fall, he would pick it up and try to put it back on the tree. He really is less chaotic than I may make him sound. He's just more chaotic than Akiko and Moses were combined.

Sorry the picture is crooked. One of the kids took this picture and I am both too lazy to correct it and think it's cute that they took it (and did a fairly good job for their age).