Time to Trim the Tree!

 "Trim up the tree with Christmas stuff

Like bingle balls, and whofoo fluff

Trim up the town with goowho gums and bizilbix and wums."

Thank you, Dr. Seuss for sticking this in my head. Seriously, who thinks up this stuff, then successfully makes a career out of writing stories filled with made-up words?  Well, other than Shakespeare, that is...

Anyway, if you haven't guessed it by now, tonight was our night to decorate our tree.  It is our tradition to find and cut our own, but we went the easy route this year and just bought one.  I had visions of us trying to pack a three year old and a five month old through the knee-deep snow, and then somehow manage to drag a tree back.  These excursions of ours tend to take 2-3 hours and we hike a couple of miles in the process.  So I figured if ever there was a good time to take the easy way out, this was it.  HA.

 Of course this is a big family event, so it's all hands on deck ...

The baby wasn't sure what to make of all this excitement, but he did really pay attention and seemed to enjoy it.

There was lots of sparkly stuff and lights to look at.

 Of course we had the inevitable silliness...

From kids of all ages.

And the inevitable copying of bad examples...

 But the tree got decorated, and that's what's important, right?

 The three year old decided to take a break in the middle of the job.  He was pretending that this giant lid to our ornament box was a boat, dancing around and singing, "rock the boat baby," and then grabbed a pillow and blanket and made himself comfortable.  Must be one of those house boats, which you can fall asleep on. *wink*

 The kids did all the decorating.  I've never been one of those people whose tree could qualify for a magazine cover.  What's the fun in that.  Christmas is a time for the kids to have fun, so why get all uptight over something as inconsequential as decorating a tree?

 Usually Dad strings the lights, then the kids go at it.  My daughter (almost 19) discretely repositions a few of the decorations after the younger boys are in bed.  She moves the breakable ornaments further up the tree - out of reach of the daycare kids and our own little helpers, and "fixes" the places where eight ornaments have been hung on the same branch. :)
 

 Wanna know a secret?  I don't enjoy decorating the tree on my own.  It's too much work.  And when I do it, it lacks the character it gets when the kids all have their hand in it. I would much rather take pictures and record the fun.

 So at our house, everybody gets to participate.  Even with the breakable stuff.  We have one box of very special ornaments - things that mean a lot to us, which we keep out of the little ones' reach and hang up very high, but the rest is fair game.  I buy all our extra ornaments on after Christmas sales, and I don't sweat it if one gets broken here and there.  (None did tonight, by the way.)

 This year the seven year old was especially interested in the outdoor decorations.  It was already dark when we started trimming the tree, but that didn't stop him.

 Don't these look yummy?  I think I paid about 25 cents per three pack of reflective candies, and it was well worth it for the enjoyment he got out of making the outdoor decorating his job. :)

 And I might add, tonight is another ridiculously cold night. It is warmer than yesterday though.  Right now, we're right at zero degrees, so at least we're not negative yet!  It is so cold here though that we can't drive anything into the ground.  So all his decorating amounted to sticking things in the snowbank.

 I put up these three signs earlier this week - Peace, Joy, and Noel, all purchased at the dollar store.  We still have lights to put up outside, and some lighted sidewalk ornaments which also were purchased at end of year clearance sales.  I bought way too much stuff last year.  I thought we would be in our house by now, and that this place would be only the daycare space, but that didn't work out.  So now I have twice the amount of stuff I need.  I even had purchased a fake white tree and a bunch of candy colored ornaments (including gumdrop garland) to use for the daycare.  Oh well.  Anyway, none of the rest of us were anxious enough to put up outdoor lights and such in the cold weather, so that will have to be done another day.

 So, we all enjoyed the fun.  So now I leave you with a few happy baby pictures :)

I hope you're all enjoying the season as much as we are!