As many of you know last year was a difficult year to really get into Christmas for us. At the time we were living with my parents, still are, and the house was undergoing some major renovations in order to prepare for my Grandparents to move to Indiana. As such the place was a complete mess. Because of the construction we did almost no decorating. In fact the only thing we did was unpack the fake pre-lit Christmas tree and hung the four or five ornaments that the kids made at school on the tree.

Because it felt like such a BAH humbug season we decided that this year we were going to do it right! So well before Thanksgiving we began by hanging the lights on the house. Then we pulled out the Christmas tree, set it up, turned on the lights, and merrily hung all (and I mean ALL) the ornaments we could find.

Mom actually put the tree up, she has more patients spreading the tree and making it look real as well as dealing with the lights not working and getting them in line. Then the next morning, while Gwen went and celebrated, I pulled all the ornaments into the house and opened all the boxes up. BIG MISTAKE.

Immediately the kids started grabbing everything they could get their paws on and started placing them all over the tree. As I attempted to stop them and slow the process down I realized they were doing a pretty good job of evenly distributing them on the tree. The mistake came into play as the glass bulbs began to burst as they were being thrown from the box. Then they would fall from the tree as they were hastily placed on the branches in order to run back and grab another ornament. After-all none of them could be out done by another and have to admit that of the 400 ornaments on the tree someone else hung 5 more than they did.

After I attempted to reign them in it became apparent that I was not going to prevail. I tried to mitigate the damages by following them around the tree and securely hanging those that were haphazardly placed upon the trees branches. Instead of becoming angry I simply made a note to myself that next year only one box gets opened at a time!

Once all the boxes were empty we turned on a Christmas movie, sat down and peacefully watched enjoyed the warm glow from the lights on the tree!