As long as I can remember we've had a cut, formerly live Christmas Tree. There is something magical about the smell of pine in your home. The zillions of pine needles to clean up until Easter.
Now that I am older, and more Eco-Friendly/Eco-conscious, I do have my guilt about killing a tree for my enjoyment. And yes, it does seem silly to essentially throw away fifty bucks every year for a tree. But Friday, when we walked into the tree lot, and Ryan shouted, "It smells like Christmas!!!" My guilt went out the window. Yes Ryan, it does smell like Christmas. The Christmases of my past, and the Christmases of your future.
Last year the boys were a little to young to help much with the decorating of the "smell of Christmas." They put on a few ornaments but basically that was it.
Today we tried to get them a bit more involved. It worked to the extent that three year old kids can decorate a tree. It takes a lot more fine motor skills than I realized, and it wasn't until I tried to help my guys get ornaments on the branches that I figured out why hooks are much better than ribbon or string loops.
Ryan, ever the independent one, asked "Will you show me how to hang these ornaments, Mommy. Show me how to do it, please." And he worked and worked until he would get one on a branch.
It got a bit frustrating for both of them so I moved on to, "show me where you want this one to go" and that made the activity move along a wee bit faster. We only put about a third of our ornaments on the tree, I may put more on, or we may go for a minimalist tree this year.
However, we do have a very large grouping of ornaments in this section. I could not convince them to place ornaments anywhere else on the tree. And as part of my "letting it go" and "not passing on my OCD" they are all exactly where they told me to put them. Out of balance yes, happy kids, oh yeah. And that is what really matters.
****Edit: The magic is alive and well. Evan had to sit and look at the tree while drinking his milk, and he had to tell the tree goodnight.
He's always loved the Christmas tree. I think one of his first signs was tree, and one of his first properly used utterance was "Uh, oh" when we took the tree down. I know he cried last year when the tree came down. Stay tuned for the drama come the first of the year!
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