Christmas tree

Tis the season!

We bought our Xmas tree today.  What a fiasco.  I don't think anyone with small children should be required to bring along their wee ones for the tree purchasing.  We were there for all of five minutes but they were the most stressful five minutes of my weekend.

Small children dodging in between rows of trees- dodging in and out of sight-- too stressful.  We picked the closest tree to our car for utter ease but forgot that the rugged tree men have to cut the stump and wrap it up for you.  So, we trekked across the parking lot (moved on from curb side NYC shopping to parking lot shopping-- much more suburban) and watched as they cut our tree.  My son, thinking this was the coolest thing ever, kept finding the shavings from the bottom of the last few trees that conveniently make hard frisbees and proceeded to throw them (with surprisingly accurate aim) at the chainsaw.  Not one to be undone, our daughter was drawn to the whirring of the chainsaw and kept walking towards it in a trance (much like the little girl in Poltergeist keeps getting sucked into the tv-- damn that movie still scares the crap out of me).  So- we got to be the family wrapped in holiday cheer.....arguing about who is/isn't watching the kiddos.

And- decorating the tree....I mean... what a joke.  I put the ornaments low and my daughter pulled each one off as I turned away.  If I put them high, she reached up and tried to yank the tree on top of herself.  We hung the stockings by the chimney with care.....and both kids climbed onto the base of the mantle and tried to pull them down.  So- now only the top half of our tree is decorated and the stockings are in a heap on top of the mantle.  So much for decorating.

My guess is I will be sooo tired of keeping the kids away from the tree for the next few weeks that it will end up in our backyard around noon on December 25th.  Or- more probable- before the end of the week our dog will try to drink the tree water, eat one of the musical Santa ornaments while it's singing "Jingle Bells" for the umpteenth time or mark his territory/dominance by peeing on the lower branches.

Boy.... I can't wait.