This weekend P and I decorated my parent's BIG Christmas tree in the family room. (They put up a tree in the library and the dining room too...and Mom wants a fourth tree... Daddy says no way) Anyway, Paxton and I had helped decorate my aunt's tree the Friday after Thanksgiving. It was his first crack at it and he did SOOOO well! He of course hung several ornaments on each branch in the same spot, but most toddlers do. He considered each move he made. I handed him each ornament and he would walk up to the tree and look at several branches as if he needed to find just the right place, take a few steps this way or that way, and finally hang the ornament (without help after the first try) and it would inevitably be on the same branch as the last time! I got a few pics. I digress.... Sat. 12/4 we went over to my parent's and Mom was instructing my dad how the lights should be going on (she has a broken foot = she NEVER let's anyone else handle the lights) and P jumped right in as if he had been instructed to arrange the lights himself. He pulled strand after strand out of the lights tub and pulled it straight across the living room floor and then started going round and round the tree like his Poppa. Then he would stop and bunch up the strand of lights and put the whole unlit strand in the tree. When that was to his liking he would set out for more. He did this so many times I had to put the lid on the tub so my dad could catch up. Next came the ornaments. I put a box on the floor for him and he sat down and picked his own ornaments to hang. He would stand up, walk to the tree and carefully hang each one by the hook... if he didn't like it he started over and if it was hanging funny he would just lay it across the branch.... he was too funny. He seemed like such a kid; a real grown up person instead of a one year old! Later my mom and I hung icicles. We had never done this before and I was not happy about it at first because the recycling people will not pick up trees that have been tinsled or flocked... so instead of the swamp this year the tree is headed to the landfill... :( But I must say the experience was great. My mom and I giggled so much as we covered the tree with fabulous silver threads of sparkle. I loved it.
Sunday P and I decorated our little tree at home. He put on about four ornaments then sat on the floor and organized the hooks and put the tags from my new decorations in a box.... oh to be a one year old. I think it came out cute. I usually do a "family tree" with ornaments from my childhood and special gifts. My mom started giving my brother and me ornaments every year and then when I got married they came to live with me. My name and the year are written on each one. When Matt came into my life he immediately started getting ornaments of his own from her, and now P too. The second theme I love is the collection of "sugar plum" tree decor that I started collecting maybe 5 years ago. I haven't put it up yet but I love all the ornaments that I have so far. They are all purple, plum, silver, and sparkly. I intend to put all of my ballet ornaments with this tree too (most from my childhood are ballet). Last year I bought a couple of bright colored ones to add to the regular collection and thought they would be so cute as a whole theme by themselves. Well.... this year I found an entire collection at Michaels with this same theme and bought a few things. I also found (at a rather disappointing trip to TJMAXX friday) a super sparkly star tree topper that matched perfectly! I enjoy the collecting of ornaments from year to year and don't really like the instant-buy-it-all-at-once-look.... so this year my tree is a little bare.
Monday evening we took P for a drive down St. Charles to see the (very few this year) Christmas lights. He sort of looked at them but mostly watched the street car...
Pics to come....
Enjoy the season!
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