And the kids lost their minds.
They were wild, loud and undeterred. Steve had to work this weekend, so he was of little help. They wrestled, jostled and chased until I became completely unglued and sent them all to bed...without their supper.
Oh, get over it. They ate.
Do people still eat "supper"?
Saturday morning was a continuation of OCR, but with less intense attention required at the screen. So, I decided to keep everyone busy and put up the Christmas tree. This is the third (I think) year with our fake, pre-lit tree. When we first bought it, we told the kids that it would be our "back-up" tree, that we'd still go out and cut a live tree if the weather was good.
Yeah, right! You'll never see me trudging though the woods, freezing my ass off...EVUH again!
Jack is most disappointed, says he likes the smell of a real tree. But...that's why they make pine scented candles.
Putting up a not-so-real tree is not as easy as it would seem. The limbs need some coaxing, fluffing and positioning...a task completely lost on the kids. After all their futile begging for a real tree, they had no interest in making the fake one look less like it just slid out of the box.
Anyway, the rest of the tree decorating was an exercise in restraint on my part. Maggie only hung ornaments that were "cute", Libby hung all her ornaments on one branch and Jack took my advice to heart and hung all the good stuff in the back of the tree ("remember, you can see all the way around the tree, even if it's in a corner"). I had to constantly remind myself to stay in the moment, let them follow their impulses and enjoy the activity, not the end result.
And after only a few tweaks here and there (and some gentle prodding to lighten the load on some branches), I think we ended up with a pretty great looking tree.
The kids were thrilled and excited, I was happy to have the tree done AND a fixed computer and Steve was jacked up that he didn't have to take all the stuff down from the attic.
We are ready for Santa, ready to celebrate the season.
And ready to cover up those extension cords with some presents!!!
1 comment:
OK, I have one favor. Let me send a picture of Wilson to you and you can photoshop him in front of your tree so I can use it as a Christmas card. See, we're not sure we can put up a tree. Wilson can't control himself from eating underwear, my UGG boots, socks, very large bugs that he proudly runs around with wriggling legs protrouding from his lips or anything else that happens to be at his level. Even our 4.5 foot (yeah, I don't know what that is in meters for the rest of the world, I guess picture it about the height of an 11 year old) will be in danger of just being pulled over. I want to put it up on a box, but Keith thinks he'll still get at it. I think he just doesn't want to go up in the attic (boogey man lives up there).
Better yet, send your three down here and they can put it up for me..
I don't mind all the ornaments on one branch...in the back....and only the cute ones.
Hope you're enjoying your snow and winter wonderland. It's supposed to be 70's here later this week (yeah, OK, in Centrigrade I don't know what that is, but call it long sleeve t-shirt with shorts weather). Sure feels like Christmas here... bah humbug.
I luurve you.
Bird.
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