my sad little christmas tree
Awww. Can you see it? There in the corner by the door. Sad little old thing. It's only been there a week but has been to hell and back. I held off putting it up because of the Children. My friend C said her kids, exactly the same age and gender as my kids, got over touching it within an hour. Mine have yet to leave ours alone. What follows is a shortlist of what Chrsitmas Tree has been through thus far (with credit is parentheses):
Plush Pooh Bear chair thrown at it (Boy Child)
Touchy Touchy Touchy (Baby Girl, Boy Child)
Elastagirl of The Incredibles lodged sideways among the branches, lost for days (Unknown)
Tinsel yanked on, mucked with and otherwise treated most poorly (Baby Girl)
Lights slowly going away, away, away (Cheapass Bulbs)
Touchy Touchy Touchy (Baby Girl)
Ornaments and Tinsel moved up on tree (Mommy)
Toy thrown randomly in air, red ornament crashes to floor, breaks into millions of pieces (Boy Child)
Ornaments and Tinsel moved higher on tree (Mommy)
Poke Poke Poke (Baby Girl)
Ornaments moved higher on tree (Mommy)
You see where I'm going. The tree is top heavy and frankly not so safe in our house. They're good kids, don't get me wrong. I actually expected them to leave the tree alone. I did. It's probably my fault. I buy such beautiful ornaments, how could they not want to touch them? You can't put something sparkly in front of a child and tell them not to touch. Well yeah you can. Doesn't mean they'll listen. Mine aren't listening. I threatened to take the tree down, call Santa, cancel Christmas but I think they know I don't have that kind of power. They might be small but they get it. Mommy can't cancel Christmas and Mommy would never really call the school and say one of her children isn't coming because he didn't get his shoes on fast enough. School keeps Mommy alive. And Chrsitmas, well Mommy wants to get her presents too so you know she's not gonna cancel Christmas. Come on, Mommy. You gotta do better than that.
Ah, whatever. The tree is fine. It's still standing and they are beginning to ignore it, just like they ignore their toys. It may not look like something out of the window of a department store but it is ours. I think it's the best Christmas treee I ever saw. It's got the mark of my babies on it and nothing in this world or the next makes me happier than my babies. You could take all the beautiful ornaments and toss them into a volcano (because Boy Child is currently obsessed with volcanos) and I wouldn't miss them. I bet the kids could make nicer ones anyway.
In fact, maybe we'll make some ornaments tomorrow. Yeah, we will. Then they can hang them on the tree, at the bottom to even the poor thing out, and we can glow with pride at their handiwork. Because the kids are what it's all about. Not some silly old tree.
posted by Style Me Organized at
Thursday, December 16, 2004
