Last night we enjoyed a scrumptious dinner and then loaded everyone into the van in search of the perfect Christmas tree. Though real trees are costly, and undoubtedly we'd be saving money if we had just purchased a pre-lit artificial tree years ago, both Ted and I much prefer the sight and smell of an honest-to-goodness evergreen in our house. We headed to Star Nursery, where we had seen a sign advertising 5' and 6' Douglas firs starting at $19.95.
The dark parking lot did not bode well. Who would have thought the nursery would close up shop before 7 p.m. during December?! Undaunted, we headed for one of the many white tents that had set up shop near the freeway. Along the way we sang Christmas carols, and then at the lot we walked around, finally settling on a beautiful 7 1/2' or 8' tree that the owner said he'd give us a deal on. (Ha! I'm sure he says that to everyone.)
Back at home we listened to a Relient K Christmas CD, drank hot cocoa (the kids) and chai tea (Ted and I), and ate some of our favorite holiday goodies, Dipped Gingersnaps, fudge, and white-chocolate-covered pretzels.
When our glorious tree was decorated, we tucked the kids in bed and followed soon after.
And if that sounds ridiculously Norman Rockwell, let me go back and insert the following details to make you feel better.
* Our Christmas carol sing-along included the following lyrics by Tobin:
"Hark the herald angels burp,
Glory to the newborn burp,
Peace on earth and mercy burp,
God and sinners want to burp..."
* Our Christmas carol sing-along also included the melodious sounds of children bickering over which carol was to be sung. Charis sang all three verses of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sang" about 900 times, amidst the growls of her brothers who were irritated that she was singing words that they didn't know.
* Ted and I were the only ones interested in the actual choosing of a Christmas tree. Our other dear, sweet, well-behaved children were playing hide-and-seek amidst the trees, completely ignoring our requests to come hither.
* Two nice ornaments were broken--I can't even blame my children, as I was diligently guarding the box to keep little paws off the breakable ornaments. One was apparently already cracked, as it literally fell apart in my hand. The other slipped out of my fingers and landed on the ceramic tile floor. Sigh. It was my hand-painted egg ornament from Hungary.
* Many ornaments fell off the tree--apparently Arden hasn't gotten the knack of proper ornament placement. Good thing none of the ones he put on the tree were terribly fragile, though we did lose a couple of animals off Noah's ark.
* Much whining and impatience filled the air as small beings awaited their Christmas-tree-decorating sugar fest.
* Herding the boys to bed took about as long as decorating the tree did.
So there you have it! The real story behind our tree, LOL!
7 comments:
Love it! Is't it fun how we can tell the happy side and leave out the "rest of the story"? Sometimes it's nicer to, sometimes it's nicer to just remember the good side! Yet, for the rest of us, it's REALLY nice to know our kids are just like everyone else!
That picture of Tobin is SO hilarious! You've got quite a little ham there! :-)
Don't forget...the kiddos will only remember the "good times"...and forget all the rest...at least that is how I remember things. Probably age related though.
My hubbie grew up in Boulder City...I always wanted to live In Vegas...but he said no way!
That was a fun read! :-)
Sounds like a fun time even with the kids being kids. It's the building of traditions they'll remember including the squabling.
Meghan keeps wanting to know when we are getting our tree, we were going to get it last weekend but Tabitha was running a fever, not a good time to be tramping around in the cold looking for the perfect tree. We cut one at a Christmas tree farm.
Next year you might try putting down a tree skirt or a towel underneath the tree so if an ornament falls, it will be less likely to break.
Oh my, that was a good chuckle to catch up on after the kind of week we had here. So sentimental for adults and ever so childish thoughts of children. It makes for great stories though!
I took one of our Happy Christmas CDs to John's aunt's house for the annual extended-family cookie decorating day/Grandma's birthday party yesterday. It did not go over well. ;-) At one point during "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," another aunt said, "This is awful! Can we please turn it off!" I'd meant for the kids to enjoy the CD, but they were playing elsewhere. Grandma got a country/gosepl Christmas CD as a birthday gift while we were there, so we got to listen to that twang for a while instead. ;-)
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