Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Christmas is Coming...


I love this time of year. We've been listening to Christmas music and decorating the house, and dancing around the kitchen (the kids and I, not Cory.) Kids put so much extra fun into the holidays. Well, mostly...
We were decorating the Christmas tree last night. We got what I think is a green spruce, which has really hard poky needles on it. Yeah, that's to discourage kids from yanking ornaments off the tree and possibly tipping the tree over. Maybe you already have guessed where this story is going. So anyway, amidst much frustration and multiple painful pokes frome pine needles ( now I know why they use the term needle), I got the "working" strings of lights untangled and on the tree. It was time to break out the ornaments. Excited kids = happy kids...somehow in all the confusion of kids leaping around, someone lassoed the tree with a string of beads and gave it a good hard yank. Yup, the entire tree came crashing down right on Carter and Kaely. It was like slow motion all three kids screaming at the top of their lungs, me waving my arms and telling them to get out of the way and trying to catch the tree at the same time. I spose it looked funny. Well, we somehow all came out alive, and Carter did a great job of protecting his baby sister frome those razor sharp needles. (WHY did we think a green spruce was a good idea?!) So there I was, surveying the damage, pine needles and water everywhere, the tree knocked out of it's stand, and all 3 kids crying. The only logical thing to do...I called for backup. Unfortunately it just so happened that Cory had just shot a deer and had to track it, so I couldn't expect any help from that department. "You're on your own Momma..." I armed myself with 2 pliers, a scizzors and a rope. Then I shooed the kids out as I hauled the wretched tree up again and screwed it into the stand. Side note; our floor has a 6 inch slant from one side to the other so balancing the stand, tree and everything on it was quite a trick but I got the thing, finally. I am now telling the fam to enjoy it because I seriously don't know if I want to go through all this again, next year. By the time I was done, I was soaking wet, stabbed by pine needles, full of sap and mud, and a spider from the tree had dropped on me. I was triumphant in a cranky sort of way. Then Kendra after surveying the whole thing said, "Mommy you are so beautiful and strong and fixed our tree forever!" Carter nodded in agreement and said, "Mommy, I like you....but I don't like snakes."
I guess it was worth it. =]

7 comments:

  1. Hahahahahahaha!! I love the comments from the kids at the end of the whole ordeal.

    I love that you started a blog. I can't wait to read more.
    Come visit me sometime....
    www.trekwithtandis.blogspot.com

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  2. I always knew you'd grow up to be beautiful and strong and a good forever-tree-fixer. :))

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  3. Hey Anna - its Kathy, Just keep up making the memories with the kiddos! This will one day be a funny memory. I promise you, your oldest one will tell about it someday. JoAnna was just telling me some of her fav Christmas memories...they were ones I would never have thought of if she would not have reminded me of them. So, EVERY memory you make is worth the tree pricks, the water mess and even the sticky sap! And as a side note, after struggling with 'real' trees by myself on more than one occasion I now pull out a beautiful three piece tree (from a thrift store in January) that takes 5 minutes to put into the stand!!! Nice to see your blog ... will be fun to keep in touch. Enjoyed our conversation at the wedding!!

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  4. Anna, you are one of the only people I know who truly MUST have a blog to tell these stories. I laugh so hard every time I hear a new one!

    Ben

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  5. Yeah our tree is looking more and more bedraggled every day. Nobody has pulled it over yet, though Dan put a bunch of bricks in the tree stand to try to slow that down, but my little Rocky dragged a kitchen chair over to the tree and threw it in the other day. Maybe he thought it was a fire that needed stoking?

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  6. Ha, ha....Anna this was a hilarious story! I laughed so hard, I was crying! You tell a good story! Someday you'll have to write a book about your kids! I would have to say I agree with both Kendra and Carter that you are a beautiful mommy and very strong and courageous to fix the tree! I do not like snakes either:) Lol...Carter is hilarious!

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  7. Haha, thanks, all. It's funnier now than it was at the time.
    ...Priscilla, that's funny, he threw a CHAIR in? hahahaha
    I'm glad you got a good laugh. You would have laughed harder if you had seen the half crazed look of fury on my face , the hair standing on end shedding pine needles everywere, the muddy black water the tree soaked my right side with, when carter said I was beautiful. I LOVE the way the eyes of love work. =)

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