I love decorating the tree. It's the same ornaments year after year, but each tree feels special and unique.
Like most things, I want the tree decorating to be a family activity. Which is hard when you have a 1 precarious 7 foot tree, 100 glass balls, 6 tangled strands of lights, and 2 overly excitable boys.
Which is why we now have 5 glass balls and 100 shatterproof balls.
This is the point where I must let go of some of my obsessive, detail-loving ways. Because the boys just want to dive in and go for it. They don't care about my desire to have the ornaments spread evenly through the tree or to have a stylish arrangement of colors. They just want those balls on that tree right now!
So I let them.
This has become the tradition. They get to decorate to their hearts' content. Any ornament, any location. Which means that nearly all the ornaments end up on the same branch and only the bottom three feet are decorated.
They oh and ah and are ecstatic about their handiwork.
And then they go off to bed and I decorate the tree. I mean - I more evenly distribute the decorations. Just so that there are decorations near the top as well as the bottom. Nothing else.
(Well, almost nothing else.)
And when the boys wake up, they are just delighted by what a wonderful job they did!
Now it's Christmas.
Stop by Leigh vs. Laundry for The Happiness Project and post a photo (or two) of something that makes you divinely happy!
Ooooh, pretty tree! And I also totally redecorate ours once the kids go to bed. Hopefully they never figure it out.
ReplyDeletelove your tree :-)
ReplyDeleteHa! Too funny. Your tree ended up beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Christmas is when we go Christmas tree hunting and then decorate it - the first weekend of December.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas.
LisaDay
So, so cute—especially the 3rd pic from the bottom! Last year when the twins were 3, they kept dropping and breaking ornaments and then messing with the tree, gifts, etc. . . . it was not good. What a difference a year makes! This Christmas they helped hang all the ornaments (without breaking a single one!) and have kept their hands off the tree and presents—they've finally learned to look and not touch.
ReplyDeleteYep! Its Christmas then. Magical memories. Christmastime re-creates all that is warm and wonderful-- with enough stress to engrave it a s meaningful into our sub-conscious.
ReplyDelete