Tree Triming

Every year, I get so excited to put up our tree. I am like a kid in a candy store. Ahh the ecstasy of ornaments shinning in storage, just waiting for their own spot on our tree. The tinsel waiting to be hung and the lights ready and willing to shine on as soon as I give them the thumbs up. I get out all of the bright shinning objects and remember Christmas past as I lovingly remove each one from their box. All of this reverence lasts about as long as it takes for Lauren and Evan to discover one that just happens to be both of theirs and then proceed to fight over which one of them gets to hang it on the tree. This goes on until either, Evan gives up in a ball of sobbing tears and a broken hearted expression on his face and Lauren triumphantly places said ornaments on the tree...or in the passion of their argument, said ornaments slips through their tiny fighting fingers and crashes to the ground. Tinselcide. So tragic. In the later scenario, the phrase "Evan did it!" usually follows. And then I remember why last year I got so stressed out and banished the kids to their rooms to watch a cartoon while I vowed that the next year I would wait until they are asleep, only to forget that promise to my self and start the whole cycle all over again. I usually end up counting silently to ten under my breath no less then six times as the evening unfolds. But at the end of the dibacol, Lauren and Evan are full of smiles and pride at what they accomplished, totally oblivious to mom's frazled hair and the far away look in my eyes. I force a semi genuine smile and say "wow, guys! look what you did! good job!" They truely are like little puppies, waging there little tails and fully proud of the tree they helped decorated, totally oblivious to the mine field they left behind then in their wake. But oh, how can you get mad at those cute full of innocence faces? I can't. Not even a little bit. All I can do is promise myself that next year I am going to wait until they are asleep to put up the tree :)












This year, I got Lauren a tree of her very own for the DI. She loved it! She took the task of decorating it very seriously. And in the end, she was more proud of that little tree then anything else. She did a good job. And I too am proud of the job she did.












Our Family Christmas Tree is speacial. At least to me. We have an ornament for when Chad asked me to marry him, and or first Christmas together. We have ornaments for each year of the kids lives, starting with "Baby's first Christmas" and we aslo have family ornaments that show the progession of our family. When Lauren and Evan have their own family's and Christmas trees, I will give them their ornaments. Hopefully they are as sentimental as I am and will love them. It is fun for me to look at our tree because it is kind of like a family history. I love it.









After the tree was all trimed and mommy was all stressed, we sat down and watched Shrek the Halls and just let ourselves unwind and question why we do this to ourselves every year. (by "ourselves" I mean me). It was cute though, because there was Lauren giving Evan a tatoo (don't judge me, it kept them blissfully silent). I love how good they get along. Right now in their lives, they really are each other's best friend. I am hoping that a little piece of that friendship will follow them through out there lives.





And these pictures have nothing to do with Christmas Trees, but it did happen later that night. After I had put Evan to bed, I was on my way down the stairs to put Lauren to bed when I saw Chad and Lauren all cuddled up on the couch with Radley (our dog) and Gracie (our sweet cat). I decided that Lauren could stay up a little longer.