my life story series: the story of decorating the Christmas tree

Every year in Chattanooga, it is a similar story. The story of the excitement of Christmas and putting up the tree with all of the sordid decorations.  The story of the stark realization that  I am putting the Christmas tree up mostly alone and that dragging out box after box isn’t all that exciting afterall.  Especially the lights part where I  become even more frustrated with the strands from the past who decide to half work, are all tangled, become more frustrated, and call out for help (can’t we just run to Target this year and buy 12 packages of brand new?).  This year, I figured since my oldest is a big 3 1/2 years old (stress on the 1/2) and my daughter is 17 months old (a big 17 months at that!),  I would have the biggest momma’s helpers this year!  Besides all of the “No’s, you can’t put that in your mouth baby sister!” (we call her “baby sister” a LOT) and realizing ten minutes into the process that my son is DONE with helping.

Of course, it is a lot more fun when I pull out the camera for a little Chattanooga children’s photography.

As soon as the tree was up and the lights were on, they gathered together again, albeit the next day, and we finished the job.  Maybe the nap baby sister had (thus still in her jammies) helped, or maybe it was my son figuring out how to hang ornaments on the tree (“Momma this is a snow man!”) and the newness of something taken for granted by adults.  (“Momma you help me?)

Truthfully I haven’t found the tree topper yet, and I still have more ornaments to hang, but my son had announced, “We are done!!  Good job, Momma!”  So the story in pictures goes like this (and yes the story goes over two days.  Who can put up a tree in one day with two under four?):

Continue reading these wonderful life stories by following this link to Nancy Wilkins’ blog!