tree trimming

Trimming the tree is an all day undertaking at our house.

To be fair it probably is at everyone's.

We started with me telling the kids we had to clean the room up before we could get out any Christmas decorations.

So we put away toys, threw out newspapers, dusted and vacuumed. Then the box with the tree came out. (We were converted, I mean I was converted to artificial Christmas of 2000. My husband has been a strong supporter of artificial well, forever.)

As the base of the tree went up the kids started making comments about how much smaller the tree seems this year. This was followed quickly by comments like, "we must have really grown this year." Which they have.

Luckily we packed the tree instructions on top last year so this year we were able to get right to work instead of searching for the instructions. (Twelve months is a long time in between putting the tree up and I always forget the order.)

I was afraid baby would be so intrigued by the tree she would try and pull it over while we were setting it up but she was more interested in the box.

This guy was a big help too.

I could tell he was excited though because he was literally not figuratively bouncing off the walls, chairs, couches, floor, boxes, etc.

After the tree was up it was time for fun in the box. A funny tradition that started when we first got our tree and the kids were 4, 2, and 6 months old. Although, I don't think they think of it as a tradition. It's just something that seems to naturally happen after the tree is up. They head for the box and I head for the camera. After pictures the box usually becomes a spaceship.

(It looks like my son grew a couple of extra arms. Who is that back there?)
The kids wanted to wait for dad to be home to put the decorations on so that's what we did. It's always fun to see how excited they get as each new ornament is pulled out and put on the tree. We hear exclamations of, "I remember that one", "That's my favorite, can I put it on?", "Oh, this one's from your Honeymoon, our trip to the coast, England, Canada, I got that for you in GP, etc."

She spent most of the time at the T.V. I think its the first time she's been able to get this close. Usually we keep the ottoman in front of it.

We put the tree in the corner so we could box it in to keep her out once she noticed it and she did right after this pic.

The finished product!

To complete our tree trimming we had hot cocoa and sang Christmas Carols.

We were supposed to sit quietly and look at the tree for a few moments but the quiet thing didn't happen. We talked about Christmases past instead.