O, Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, Please Give My Kids Something to Do

We finally put up our tree on Monday. I had told the kids we had to wait until daddy got home because the pieces were too heavy for me to get out of the attic alone. However, by around 3:00 Monday afternoon, the kids were in full fight-and-fuss-till-mom-tries-to-sell-us-on-ebay-again mode, and it was clear that they needed a diversion from each other. It was either let them fight each other to the death over whose turn it was on the slide or risk my life climbing into the attic to bring down the Christmas tree.

If you know me at all, the mere thought of me even walking in the attic, much less obtaining an item that weighs more than I do, should cause at least a slight panic. I trip and fall an average of 2-3 times a day just walking around my kitchen. Narrow beams and insulation are an ER visit waiting to happen. Miraculously, I incurred only a minor scrape while retrieving the tree. I think God knew my kids' continued existence my have been dependent on my getting that tree.

So, after the first attempt in which I got the sections mixed up and put the middle of the tree on the bottom and vice versa, I got it up. Given my accident-prone nature, you'd better believe we own the pre-lit kind. So, all that was left was to put on the ornaments. After lecturing the kids soundly on how breakable some of them are and how they are to use two hands at all times and be extremely careful, I proceeded to show them how to hang the ornaments very carefully. You probably guessed it. Slippery Fingers here dropped the first one. So, after a visual demonstration on how glass shatters, the kids put on all the breakable ornaments, and I stuck to the candy canes.



It's amazing how much nicer it looks in real life.

And, since I told him I was posting a picture, Joshua wanted me to show off the tree on his dresser, too:



Lauren has one just like it on hers. Both were assembled and decorated without injury.