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. =]
