oh christmas tree...

I caved. It's not that I'm a scrooge. Ok, maybe I am just a little bit. But mostly it's that we don't spend Christmas day here...so why do we need a tree? There are no presents to put under it. And they are messy. And it's just one more thing to remember to feed!

But this year the kids have been begging to decorate the house. Begging. And their definition of "decorate" is not quite as refined as mine. So, I caved. But heck if I was going to go easily. I was going to make this FUN. We were not just going to trim a tree. We were going to "decorate" it.

So, while kids were unsuspectingly catching a flick about aliens I did this...


And they came home to this...


It was 7:00 at night but there was no arguing with them. We had to start the decorating at ONCE. There would be no waiting for tomorrow. Not even a discussion about it. So we whipped open the glue, and the glitter (oh, so much glitter), the pipe cleaners, the beads, the bells, the pom poms, the ribbon, and the $.29 make-shift ornaments and we went to town...


Now if I was the type of person that desired full control over a situation this one would have made me very uncomfortable. (sarcasm included) These kids were hell bent on doing all the decorating themselves. (Is it ok that I said hell in a Christmas tree post?) So, I let them. Well, sort of. I definitely snuck up a few times to twist zuzu's pipe cleaners a little more tightly around the branches. But two nights later, Zu is STILL adding decorations to the tree. They have created quite a masterpiece.

They started with the little white berries...


They strung beads & bells on ribbon & pipe cleaners...


And then there were the glitter ornaments. (Note to self: do not initiate glitter ornament project with two anxious children the day AFTER the house has been cleaned unless you really, really love glitter).

There are snowmen & stars...



angels & hearts...



beads & bells...



and, of course, a little gold star on top.


I'll post a picture of the entire tree when it's all said and done. But we've got a few hundred beads left...and the tree is fake and not apt to die on us any time soon...so it could be a while...