putting up the tree.

Every year we get a real Christmas tree.  We're now eleven years into marriage, and this year held, by far, the most fun we've ever had picking it out.  (In contrast, there was that year I cried about the tree.  That was by far the worst tree year.)

First, we didn't fight about whether we should get a live tree or a fake tree this time.

Second, we took all the kids with us, which made it delightful. (Rocco kept wandering around the tree aisles at Lowes going, "Is this Christmas?")

Third, I handled the sawing of the stump and setting it up in the tree stand.  Todd typically handles this part since he loves me, but it's an annoying and sticky job.  This year, I got impatient and did it myself while he was at work.  (A quirky little neighbor kid was walking home from school while I was doing this on the front porch, and he was like, "Working hard getting ready for Christmas?  That's always such a hard job!" and I was like, "It IS a hard job!  Thanks for the affirmation, Eleven Year Old Child with Apparent Lumberjacking Experience!")

Fourth, I have finally - finally - figured out a way to streamline the kids' ornament-hanging endeavors.  They each get about three ornaments each every year from ourselves and relatives, which means we're adding around 18 new ornaments per year at this point.  It is crazytown how many ornaments our modest tree is expected to support.  (Maybe I should name it Eddie Murphy?)  The chaos of the kids trying to get them all hung can be a bit overwhelming.  For the last few years, I have just kept a plastic tub for each of them to keep ornaments in (and I Sharpie their initials on every last ornament so there's no ownership confusion when it comes time to put them all away), and they just bring their ornaments to me for hooks.

Todd put on classic Christmas music, I changed into pajama pants (why I wasn't already wearing pajama pants is beyond my recollection), and we were ready to get started!

When Rocco's ornaments were all hung, it was time for him to head to nap.  This is how he felt about that, and how I felt about him feeling that way:

The kids did eventually get the tree completely covered, which may prove problematic, as Callista's ornaments still aren't on, nor are the ones belonging to Todd and myself, nor are the silver ball ornaments I like to hang at the end to kind of tie everything together.  Oh well.  Maybe we'll just worry about Callista's and forget the rest; it's actually looking pretty cute as it is.

Soon, I'll be getting some other décor out, but I'm enjoying the slower process of letting the decorating unfold over the course of Advent.  It helps me reflect on the fact that we're still gearing up for the main event.