Grinch-y Mommy

In true "Grinch-like" spirit this year, I had decided that we wouldn't put up a Christmas tree. I just didn't want to deal with the anxiety of the possibility of broken ornaments and/or a poisoned child who was drinking from the water bowl at the base of the tree. I thought I even had Brian on board... until this past weekend when we heard Ben say, "When do we get OUR Christmas tree?" Brian looked at me and said that we both knew we couldn't skip out on a tree this year just because Maggie tends to be more than a little mischievous. So, today I resigned to digging out the ol' artificial that we only used one time (when Ben was a baby).

Ben and Maggie had a total ball decorating the artificial. I brought it up from the basement and put it in the hallway next to the bonus room, and you would have thought it was Christmas morning. They were so excited! Immediately, Ben got out his trains and told me he was going to make a "half-circle" around the base of the tree. (I think I was supposed to be impressed at his use of the term "half-circle.") Ben kept putting bells on it (yes, the bells left over from our wedding), and Maggie just kept pulling them off. Then, Mags and I went to the basement to find some more unbreakable ornaments, and when we came upstairs again, Ben said, "Look, Mom! I hung all the ornaments where Maggie couldn't reach them!" I just cracked up. Every ornament was hung on the same few branches in the front of the tree at his eye level. So cute! I'm sure they'll spend the remainder of this holiday season rearranging their ornaments. Thank goodness for artificial trees!