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Sants' Little Helpers

Well, after a hiatus of a few years we managed to put up our Christmas tree. We used to put up a tree every year and we even had our own stockings, but one year we just decided not to bother with it and then the next thing we knew we had the girls.  When they were 6 months old we didn’t do it because we were still the worn out parents of two needy young ones that couldn’t be relied upon to faithfully sleep through the night.  When the girls were a year and a half old we decided not to do it because we both envisioned the nightmare of broken ornaments and litanies of “don’t touch that, don’t put that in your mouth, don’t put that up your sister’s nose, etc.”

Watching the tree go up

Finally, we have arrived at two and a half years old and I figured, “What the heck.”  The girls are finally little masters of communicating their needs and desires and most of the time they are willing to follow instructions, so I decided to tackle the tree.  Aaron, of course wanted and clearly stated that if I wanted to put up the tree that he had no intention of assisting me in any way and I was fully on my own.

Always concerned

We have not had a real tree at any point during our marriage and my childhood memories of real Christmas trees involve stepping on the dessicated needles that had fallen from the tree by the time Christmas actually arrived.  So, a few years back my mom had bought us a 6.5 foot pre-lit tree she had found on sale somewhere (I will say I think she is pretty much queen of finding stuff for cheap way out of season) and we had only used it once prior.  The very lowest section is oddly missing the pre-lit lights, but other than that it is great.

Ornaments not broken

I open our guest walk-in closet and began the task of sorting through the plastic containers and things long since meant for the trash.  I managed to get the tree out and downstairs and assembled before trying to track down all the ornaments and assorted decorations.  It seems that most of the assorted decorations must have been purged years prior, though I really have no memory of the event, as I was unable to locate any lights or garland or bows or any of the other things I know we had at one point in time.

Decorating with Norah

I did managed to find all the ornaments, plus all the new ones that I continued to buy per our tradition started back in 1997 when we celebrated our first official Christmas together and the new ones received from family members.  I got out the girls stockings, some figurines, the Pfalzcraft Santa we got from Aaron’s grandmother a number of years ago, a few snow men, a small Nativity and the jingle bell wreath of unknown origin.  I drag all this down stairs and begin unpacking all the Hallmark ornaments and trying to keep the girls from breaking anything.  I am proud to say there was only one minor incident where the plate of green eggs was broken off the green eggs and ham ornament by Bella, but it was easy to fix.

Bella rearranging

Both girls got a kick out of hanging ornaments on the tree, though Aaron had to keep reminding them not to hang multiple ornaments on the same branch.  He reminded and reminded, but for some reason and especially with Bella, there was this one branch that had 5 ornaments on it.  Even with those five ornaments clustered, they both kept wanting to hang every ornament there.  He also directed them to hang some ornaments around the sides and back of the tree.

Hanging the ornaments

After all the ornaments were on the tree Norah kept wanting to lay under the tree and look up into it.  Shortly after that she decided that many of the ornaments needed to be re-arranged and in her mind it means clumping them together exactly as her daddy had instructed her not to.  I have fixed some of the ones that she moved, but others I just let go because she obviously has her reasons for arranging them just so and it isn’t like we have tons of house guests to criticize my toddler’s decorating.

Both girls are so proud of their work and they will often ask me to turn the lights on the tree on, but we try to put that off until later in the evening when it gets darker.  We also started talking to the girls about Santa and might even consider a trip to the mall to visit him…though I seriously have doubts about how well that would really go over, especially with Bella.  So, that may end up being an activity for next year.

You can view all the Christmas Tree Pictures on Flickr by clicking here.  There are several good pictures and one in particular (see below) is soooo good that it is now the official wallpaper of Great Aunt Jaye’s computer and during most weeks would have easily made Picture of the Week, but there was one above this that grabbed those honors.  So make sure to click here to check it out.

The Official Wallpaper of Aunt Jaye