Day 261

I couldn't do it. I couldn't not put up our tree this year.

I pulled out all the Christmas bins to find our stockings and left the bins out. Of course, Gracen and Luke started going through the ornaments. Have you seen the Christmas Hallmark commercials? The ones where the family has a story for each ornament. Well, that's what Luke and Gracen were doing. The bin they were going through had all our personalized ornaments in it and it was so much fun to listen to them remember and retell their stories. I couldn't pack up those memories and put them back in attic.

So last night we found a cute little tree and brought it home. Its been so long since we've had a real tree in the house. Actually, we have never had a real tree in this house. It smells wonderful!

Poor Luke had to help me put it in the tree stand. I didn't even think about our tree stand being too big for this little tree. For about an hour, I fiddled trying to keep the tree standing. Each time, Luke would let it go and we'd wait to see if it would fall. It did over and over. Finally, after much complaining from Luke, Gracen being sent to her room twice and me covered in tree sap I got the tree to stand on its own.

I thought it was funny because Luke kept making comments about how he now realized why we used a fake tree each year. And asking questions wondering why Daddy liked real trees so much. Really, it is sad my kids don't appreciate real trees. Just having that tree smell in the house has made me more in the mood for Christmas.


We decorated it tonight when Luke got home from school. I forgot the craziness of these kids putting on ornaments. They rip open containers and throw on ornaments so fast. Its all I can do to keep up. Next year I'd like to have a real tree this size for their ornaments and school creations to decorate all by themselves. The big fake tree will be my creation.

Here's a few pictures from tonight...




I took Luke to get his eyes checked yesterday. He was so impressed with all the gadgets the optometrist had. I thought Luke's eyes were going to pop out of his head when the doctor put the magnifier/light contraption on his head to see in Luke's eyes. I would not be surprised if Luke decided he wants to be an optometrist. So many fun things to play with.

Thankfully, his vision is fine. He has been having some problems at school and the teacher was concerned with his vision. I'm not sure what's causing problems at school, but I do know he can see.

Gracen burned her hand tonight. She was standing on the stool and lost her balance and braced herself on the stove. Thankfully, the stove had been off for about 30 minutes so it wasn't extremely hot. But it has been a crazy few hours since then. I think her hand is okay, but she is beside herself. She just declared to me that she will not be going to school tomorrow. She can't do anything with just one hand. (Her right hand is fine and that's the one she writes with.) Hopefully, she will feel differently in the morning.

Here are a few more bonus pictures from the last two days. Luke had my camera for about 5 minutes last night and took at least 50 pictures with it. He's so funny!






And a few more...