This Christmastime!

Last year we put the tree in a corner and surrounded it with furniture facing the opposite direction- this protected the tree well from tiny little hands but made the tree hard to see. Our tree was also a hand-me-down that a kind coworker had given me a few years before. The tree was big and beautiful but my friend was a cat owner and the cats had loved the tree, Ken is allergic to cats. So after Christmas was over I went to Wal-Mart and bought a new- cheap tree and because of a tip from a friend I also bought a few packages of branch garland. I rounded out the shopping trip by purchasing some new Shatterproof ornaments. Did I mention that all of this stuff was 50% off, I loved that. So I brought my Christmas dreams home and quickly put them in the basement storage room. where they would wait for 11 months.

Well it is now CHRISTMASTIME! and today I rearranged the living room furniture, this time with the couches facing the spot where I wanted to put the tree. And then I put up the new tree- the picture on the box was of a beautiful, full, well lit tree. Well when I got the tree up I discovered that it was well lit. But it was not beautiful or full. I fluffed it, but there were still several places that you could see straight through. So I took out the garland and started stuffing it into the bare spots- WOW! It worked great.

Now the Tree is decorated and Little J is learning that he is not allowed to touch let alone take the ornaments off. He is actually doing very well at this. He likes to be praised for obeying-(that was Sundays lesson in nursery and our FHE lesson last night- "I will Obey")- I have plans to buy another free standing baby gate if he suddenly decides that obedience is no fun.

I even found a place to put the Alpine Trees that I got the day after Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. Since the Christmas Tree is upstairs and we spend time downstairs too, I think these trees will help us to feel the joy of the season while we are down there. You can't see them too well, but these trees even have little tiny ornaments.

Happy Holidays to all, and to all a Goodnight!