Tree Trimming Party

We got the tree up last night.

I pulled out the boxes of Christmas decorations earlier in the afternoon, bringing them upstairs and piling them near the couch. The girls immediately starting climbing up on top of them (naturally.) Periodically I'd chase them off, only to have them clamber back, where the preschooler would triumphantly proclaim, "Look! I'm big like you!"

We had an early dinner, which was cut short by the preschooler's excitement. She announced after only a few bites that she was full and let's put Christmas together now! We told her she had to wait until everyone else was done, too. The rest of the meal was spent with the preschooler wandering around the table, asking us every few seconds if we were done yet.

Finally we got out to the living room, where Daddy pulled out the camera to start taking pictures. Unfortunately, the batteries were dead. So, Daddy left for a quick trip to the store to get some more, because we only had two AA batteries left in our battery storehouse. While he was gone Mommy opened the box for the new Christmas tree (yes, a plastic one) and the girls did some more box climbing. The teen got on the computer, put on his head phones, turned his back to us and emitted disgust with the proceedings.

We waited quite a while for the husband to get back. By the time he pulled in my temper was starting to fray. Between the wildly excited little girls and the sulking teenager Christmas was getting less merry by the moment. Fortunately for the husband, he had a good excuse. It turned out they were out of AA batteries at the store so he'd had to go to a second.

We pulled out the tree parts and started putting them together. "We" was the preschooler and myself. The husband was taking pictures, while the baby took apart everything I was putting together. I finally lost my temper and told the husband to put the stupid camera down and take the baby, PLEASE!

Things calmed down after that, although it wasn't much fun having the teen sitting in the middle of the room refusing to participate. A bit of a downer, he was.

By the time the tree was put together it was well after the girl's bedtime, so the husband suggest we call a halt to things for the night. The suggestion was not well-received by the preschooler, who wanted to admire the tree for a while. The baby would have been upset too, if she'd understood what everyone was talking about. She grasped the situation, though, when I started to put her sleeper on. Screaming like she'd been stuck with a pin, she fought me with every ounce of muscle and lung power in her little body. My ears may never be the same again.

We finally had prayer and I shepherded the little ones off to their room, suggesting to the husband over my shoulder that he put the lights on the tree while I was getting them to bed.

In the bedroom there was a great deal of resistance. Our normal bedtime routine consists of personal prayer, a story, then climbing under the covers while Mommy sings. The only thing that went well was the story. A story is always welcome, but the other things were all just one step closer to going to sleep and that was unbearable. I finally left them sobbing and screaming, furious but tucked in, and headed back to the living room.

The husband was just finishing up the lights. He'd used a strand of blue and white lights that we never use, on the bottom half of the tree, and the normal strand of multi-color lights on the top half. It tooked a little odd and I'm afraid I said so. Things were tense again for awhile, par for the course that night.

I put the garlands and bows on, leaving most of the ornaments in the boxes. Ropes of beads and red velvet ribbon seemed safer this year than glass balls and shiny tinsel. The baby is much harder to keep away from things than the preschooler was at that age. We'll use the rest of the ornaments later.

Of course, while doing all this the protests from the girls' room kept coming. The preschooler turned on the light (which kept the baby from falling asleep) and kept popping out into the hall where she'd hang around until one of us noticed her. We'd tell her to go back to her room, whereupon she would spread her arms wide and rush into the living room.

"The tree! Look. Lights!"

We finally let her hang around for a few minutes to rhapsodize about the beauty of the lighted tree, which moved the teen to ask, in tones of disgust, "Why is she still up?"

The husband handled that situation. He's much more patient than I am, I have to admit.

Meanwhile the baby switched from crying to flat out pop-a-lung screaming, so I got her up and brought her out with the rest of us for a few minutes. She was very pleased with this turn of events and wanted to celebrate by pulling the tree over.

The girls ran around excitedly for several minutes, provoking more grousing from the teen. Finally I picked them up and forcibly carried them back to bed. They screamed and cried some more, but fell asleep within a few minutes.

I went into the bedroom and crashed, exhausted from trying to manage everyone's emotions. At that moment I just didn't feel like Christmas at all. So, I cried for awhile, then the husband came in and we talked and then I felt better.

The teen stayed grumpy all the rest of the evening, only saying something when he had something mean to say, but I just stayed out of his way and let his dad handle it. If I had to guess I would guess that he was upset because putting up the tree is a family thing and his family is broken up.