Setting Up the Dang Christmas Tree

Every year, when we set up the tree, I just get angrier and angrier about my decorations. They look like a piece of crap. We've had the same decorations for eight years now. Our kids have broken about 3/4 of our bulb ornaments. And the wire ribbon has just had it. It looks like I put chicken wire up on my tree. Ugh. I really, really want to get new decor someday. Pats and I went to Roberts to drool at the jewelery section one day, and we stopped in the tree decorations section. Oh mama. Gorgeous. I want to get something really unconventional. Like lime green. Or pink. Or turquoise. That is my dream, folks. But my holiday money was meant for Santa toys that my kids now don't play with. Sigh.

Ben was a doll and put the tree up for me. Here he is, making like the Haynes Sisters:

If you can name the movie that the fictional Haynes Sisters are on, you will get ten points and a mental high-fiiiiiive.

It took him a looooong time to set up the tree, because kept pausing to watch T.V.:

Whatever was on T.V. must have been really compelling, because Dylan was "helping" Ben, and the same thing was happening with him:

Sadie was there:

And Micah-rooney:

Still with the runny nose. He has had a continual bout of teeth-cutting for the past month. He's working on some molars right now. He's not terribly pleasant lately. Poor kid.

I put the ribbon on the best I could, and then, against my better judgement, I let the kids decorate (Sadie had bathed at this point):

These kinds of things happen when you let your kids decorate:

All the bows in a row, on the very bottom branches. It was funny. During the next couple of weeks, the kids kept playing with the ornaments. I would find them all over the house, and hurriedly stick them up toward the top of the tree. It really started looking awful:

Jeez. Look at that:

Finally, I had enough. I took everything off and put it back on again, Mom-style:

I felt a lot better about it after that. But I still want new decorations.