O Christmas Tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving is traditionally filled with leftovers, shopping, and Christmas tree hunting! We spent last weekend trying to locate and decorate the perfect Christmas tree. In traditional Charlie Brown fashion there were some mishaps along the way, but the end result left all of us smiling and a little more excited for December 25 to get here.

Picking out the perfect tree is a lot harder than it sounds ... especially when you have four additional little people voicing their opinions as well. If you can tell me how to convince an almost three year old that three foot trees aren't really adequate for the family Christmas tree (though it was a cute little tree), I'll come and decorate your tree for you! While I felt bad for the little tree, my type A well-prepared husband had brought his tape measure along to make sure we selected exactly the right size tree. And, no, that is not a veiled barb at my husband ... don't you know that one type A is allowed to make fun of another? It's in our type A handbook.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. Pictures from the hunt ...

Luke taking the proper measurements ...

The biggest fascination came when they loaded the tree on our car. You would have thought someone put an elephant up there. I guess it is weird to see a tree on your car for the first time, and they were beyond amazed.

And here we are about to drive off the lot. Luke refused to be in the picture (and I wasn't about to put his squirmy self on the hood of my car if he didn't want to be there) and Sam is in the midst of a meltdown. Luckily, we made it back in tact and with the tree still on the top of the car!

The next day it was on to decorating. Matt managed to put the lights on the tree while the kids napped, which made things a lot easier. I know they would have wanted to "help" put the lights on if they were awake and while it sounds all cute and sweet, believe me when I say it would have ultimately ended in tears. So we left the fun part, ornament hanging, until they got up. The kids really had fun putting the ornaments up this year and I think they all had about five or six favorite ornaments by the time we were through.

Sam still looks a bit sleepy in this picture, but he eventually woke up and joined in with everyone else.

And here's the finished product!

What you can't tell from this picture is that all the ornaments from the middle of the tree down are either a) plastic, B) felt or stuffed, and/or C) non-breakable. I think we managed to get all the glass ornaments to a height where little wandering hands couldn't reach them. That is, unless they pull the tree down. That is a totally different problem. Who could see this cutie pulling down an entire tree??

Never underestimate the power of a toddler, my friends.