Oh Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree sucks this year. First of all, it is a soft-needle tree that was part of our CSA. It's our first year with this type and it didn't take long to learn that the branches aren't firm enough to support all of our ornaments--or hardly any of them. Every time I hung something, it fell right back down. To even have a chance of getting the ornament to stay, I had to shove it way down the branch, almost to the point where I couldn't see it anymore. Then what's the point? So we only hung ornaments that looked like they could stand the test of plummeting to the ground from six feet up. This was a bummer because both mine and Dave's parents' gave us an ornament a year for our entire childhoods. Many of them represent whatever we were interested in that particular year. We were only able to reminisce only a couple minutes before we wrapped the keepsakes back up and returned them to the box.

So not even a quarter of our ornaments are hanging on the tree. And if that weren't bad enough, those ornaments are only decorating the top half of the tree. I like to think I'm a pretty laid-back parent and that I give the kids a certain measure of freedom. . . but everyone has their limits. We started off letting E. put the softer ornaments towards the bottom of the tree and A. "help."

These guys made the cut.

As the days went by, A. (who is 17 months old) would hurl himself into the tree, grab an ornament, and then throw it on the ground next to all the needles he had shaken loose. Then the dogs took that as a sign they had new toys and started eating them. So as each ornament met it's fate and was saved, it moved farther up the tree. Now let's have a moment of silence for those we did not rescue in time.

Here is our tree:

I feel like I should explain. . . We strung popcorn for the first time this year. The project surprisingly kept E. interested for 30 minutes! That's huge in the toddler world. It made me start to wonder what other mundane projects could we do in the evenings. Then we wouldn't have to rely so heavily on a bath to get through the witching hour before bed. I'm still scheming about this.

Although E. remained interested, one strand was all that I had in me. It was extremely time consuming just to make a three-foot length. We probably should have stuck to something easier like fruit loops. Oh well.

Also, our angel is slowly bending towards the couch as if she's ashamed of our tree and wants to get off. It reminds me of the scene from A Charlie Brown Christmas when Charlie Brown hangs an ornament on his tiny tree and it bends in half. He says, "I've killed it!"

I feel you, Charlie Brown. My tree is just dying a slower death than yours.