Getting into the Spirit

Okay.  I’m finally getting into the Christmas spirit.  The kids have been into it as soon as they started spotting Christmas lights on neighboring houses (“girl” lights, according to Becky.  I think because they’re rainbow colored?).  They happily screech “CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!” at the top of their lungs every time we pass a brightly-lit home, which startles me while I’m driving but also makes me chuckle. 

This is our first year with an artificial tree and I expected to have some regret about not taking the kids into the woods to cut down their very own tree (you can see our past adventures from 2010 and 2009)…but nope.  No regret here.  I’m so thankful I don’t have to worry about Jimmy trying to eat all the needles off the floor.  And because our freshly-cut trees of recent years never seemed to have that special Christmas smell anyway, I’m not even mourning its absence.  

So although our tree now lacks the homey, misshapen, prickly all-naturalness that characterized our past trees, it still warms my heart.  This was the first year that the girls truly helped to decorate it.  They took great pleasure in withdrawing each ornament from its tissue paper wrap, and even handled the delicate ones gently. 

They then hung them, often by themselves, on the “perfect spot” on the tree (Jimmy gave his silent approval).

I didn’t have the heart to point out that their “perfect spots” were all about eye-level for them, so we now have an ornament cluster about three feet off the ground.  The girls exclaimed over each ornament as they hung it up, bringing back wonderful memories of my sister and I doing the same thing when we were young.  I’m so glad my parents were willing to part with so many of my childhood ornaments, so I could pass on the memories to my kids! 

Like last year, the girls were especially fond of any ornament with moving parts, but I think the one that got the most ecstatic reaction was a miniature “Dunkin Donuts” cup! 

So whether our tree is prickly or plastic this Christmas season, some things never change.  In this family, we’re all about the food!