O, Tantrumbaum....

Tonight was out first tree decorating experience as parents. I have been so excited about this! This holiday season is already far more magical than it has been in years. So, after dinner, we cranked up the light rock favorite station on the radio for some holiday tunes, made 3 cups of hot chocolate, and got the boxes out.

The lights were around the tree ONCE when we realized that (of course) most of our lights were not working. We are not those prepared folks who have extra bulbs on the ready. So, Adam suggests that we take a trip to the store to get some new lights. Then he gently throws in (as he does EVERY year) that we should go for a new look this year. Now, in the past, I have been very into having the tree look as beautimus as possible. I pick a color scheme every couple of years. The one we had was purple, blue and silver. With little silver bows, white lights, and silver beads. Loved it. Adam is always gunning for BIG colored lights, no bows, no beads, and as many random ornaments as possible. I opened my mouth to protest (as I do EVERY year) and instead the words that came out were, "Okay! That sounds like fun!" After all, it IS just a tree, and it will be beautiful no matter what.
After returning home with our fabulous new big colored bulbs and a plastic candy cane full of M&M's for Charlie (I think the Christmas spirit is getting out of hand now)...we begin to decorate. Up until this point, Charlie was having a ball helping untangle the lights and open up the boxes of goodies. See? I'll prove it:



Well, maybe the lights can be scary...? He quickly recovered.



After Adam and I got all the lights on (we added some white ones, to mix it up, and so I would not cry...haha), we were excited to show Charlie how to put the ornaments on the tree. We began with the special ones my mom had given each of us this year. Adam's is a TV that plays the ESPN music. Ahem. Charlie's is a snowman. We walked him over to the tree and directed him to hang it up. He looks at us like we are crazy and just goes nuts. We let him keep it for awhile, but by this point he realized that we were putting all these cool things up on this TREE and ummm how is he supposed to play with glass balls and wire hooks when they are way up there?? SO he sits and watches us, howling louder with each ornament that goes up. It's like he was crushed to discover that these pretties were not, in facts, toys... I was explaining to him the whole time about what we were doing, but this tantrum was one for the Dr. Phil show. Am I evil for snapping evidence to share when he is older?



After a few moments, he calmed down and decided to help. We got the snowman up, and we laughed at our reflections in the large glass balls. He was especially happy when Mommy let him unpack the box of house decorations.

Meanwhile, the tree did get finished, finally, and I have to say, I really like it. It's time for new traditions, handmade ornaments by our little one, and fun stories like this one to hand down to him.




Tonight was fun. We have been busy the last few days getting the house in order, and it is looking great. I love it here. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Even that damn floor is growing on me. YES it is the floor in the tree room. Can you see it???
And finally, the sweet hubby gets a break:


Hope your season is starting off as happily (well, mostly)as ours is!
;)