Wednesday, December 3, 2008

How to Put Up a Christmas Tree: An Informal Tutorial

First: Note to the right of this post that I have snuck in the name of the winner of my giveaway!

Assemble small, pretend, rather sad-at-first Christmas tree from box.


Open weird-smelling Christmas bin and retrieve long-lost ornaments, lights, and various other Christmas incidentals.

String lights onto tree while fending off baby hands and trying to keep poor Charlie-Brown-ish tree from falling off little end table. (And listen to six-year-old boy sing along--loudly--to Josh Groban's Christmas CD.)

Lift ornaments gingerly from Christmas tin and place in eager death-grip hands of babies.

Top tree with weird little snowman, since an angel is not currently in supply.

Notice that sad (but now somehow sweet) little tree is leaning ever so slightly. Envision the joy of Savanna as she pulls it swiftly off little end table.

Reinforce with string and hook to keep anchored to the wall, and pray for the best.

Turn off lights and gaze.
"Mom, when you do your eyes like this, they look like fireworks....."


And don't forget the lone lingering soul at the dinner table, the one who contemplates her food long after it's gone, finding bits of it on her sweater, her chair, and in her teeny-tiny now-fuzzy braids; safely enthroned in her booster seat while we enjoy the Christmas tree lights.

All done!






10 comments:

Kate said...

Pretty tree!! I bet your kids love it. Don't you just love the season.. Miss ya

Lara Neves said...

Your tree is lovely, not weird. :) I just got mine up yesterday, finally. It just makes it feel like Christmas time.

MariePhotographie said...

We put our little tree on our end table, too, and believe me, yours looks much cooler!

What a cutie your kids are. I love how you describe them so perfectly. I seriously feel like I know them!

chucknorris said...

oh my gosh, rae...
i CAN'T get over Savanna! She's sooooo cute, so pretty, and she looks like Phill withher big mouth :D
I think she'll grow up to look like Melissa, which would be awesome because Melissa is STUNNINGLY gorgeous, as you know. But, she'll be just as beautiful if she looks like you. :) And the tree looks fine to me, just a little lean-ish. like, it's leaning. not lean like thin.
real trees are nice though, huh. I like the smell of real trees. love you

Abby said...

Ah yeah, Maddie's right. Nothing like the smell of real trees. I miss that but I'm not willing to fork over $20-$30 a year for a tree when my fake tree was only $20 once...

Your tree is cute. :) Leaning, and cute. It makes me smile. The star on our tree likes to lean and we are always fixing it. I should have taken a picture of our tree right after the girls decorated. I tried to explain that they should space the ornaments only to find three ornaments on the same branch when we were done. :)

Fireworks! I love it. Maybe we should add that one to the quotes for the calendar. The calendar...AAACK!

Savvy looks so cute. I love the booster chair picture story.

Okay...call me today. :)

Anonymous said...

Savvy is so cute!!! and funny!!!
You have a very nice tree, my parents use to have one that they had to anchor to the wall but we loved it regardless. I have a fake tree, I don't like the smell of real ones :(. I let my children do all the decorating this year, I am just not feeling the Christmas spirit, must be the warm weather.
I am sad we missed seeing you guys over Thanksgiving, things were crazy on friday. I hope you liked Twilight and hopefully we get to see you guys around Christmas.

Andrea said...

Very nice tutorial.

Qait said...

I LOVE IT!!! I cracked up when I saw the string and hook holding it up! It's so funny! The tree is sweet and spiritful!
I should post pictures of ours, too. It's a fake one, too.
I so love your kids! Tell them!

mandy said...

So cute and funny too!! The story that is, not the tree! We miss you guys.

Emnacnud said...

cute kiddlets, hey could you email me your address, for christmas cards my email is emnacnud@gmail.com