There are many, many things that I enjoy about living abroad. One of them is the fact that, without Thanksgiving to 'hinder' Christmas, people here decorate in September or October. Have I ever mentioned how much I love, LOVE, LOVE Christmas? So I try, to the best of my ability, to make sure not to start decorating too soon. However, this weekend, I had a great time setting up the tree with the kids. I have a few war wounds (apparently having a great big belly made of tissue paper instead of normal skin can be hazardous when assembling a metal tree) but there was no shouting, no screaming, and best of all, the kids seemed to genuinely enjoy the entire process!
Em has caught on to the nostalgia that I get when unpacking all the ornaments. She asked who gave us the tree, so I told her. She asked about each ornament, so again, I told her. About one quarter of all our ornaments are from my former students, and I have each child's name and year written so I will never forget. The older two both couldn't believe how small their handprint ornaments from two years ago were. And, of course, they liked to compare who had more ornaments than anyone else.
The kids were tickled that they could "make" a tree and loved the fluffing of each branch. Em, as usual, took it very seriously. Cooper (I'm sad to say I couldn't get a picture of it all because he was too fast) decided, having never watching the movie, that he needed to reenact the light saber battle from Star Wars to see if it might have been better with tree branches... and his sister. Nope, the original still holds- whew, cause I was nervous.
Harper got one single branch half fluffed and then proceeded to beat each piece of furniture in the entire house. So much for not having to vacuum a fake tree.
But we had a great time and I have a feeling that future tree decorating events will have a very similar flow to them as well. Glad we could establish roles early on in our family, no need to fight over who does what in a few years :)
Em felt it was her calling, and duty really, to "save" all the fallen ornaments Harper put on but "just wouldn't stay up Mummy."
And blessings on this boy of mine. The one who was only allowed to touch the felted or cloth ornaments... EVER. May he find a careful and laid-back person to help him decorate when he gets bigger, because I'm taking bets that "growing up" may not be in the cards for him for a long, long, LONG time.
1 comment:
What a delightful reading of the "Christmas Tree Adventure" with the kids. I smiled as I read it and found myself laughing out loud.
I could just see how serious Emerson was taking decorating. Everthing in its place!
Oh what fun for them!! Almost as touching as the Hallmark commercials at Christmas --- Hey, your family would be ideal for that -- with YOU (Brittany) writing the script! (seriously!!)
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