2007: First year in our house. Sadly this debacle is undocumented but I will try to paint the picture for you. We chopped down a tree and it was HUGE. As tall as the plant shelf in our vaulted living room. One night we came home from a bar with some friends (Greg, Melissa and Adam to be specific) and noticed that the sheet under the tree had gotten into the water and wicked it all out. Since we couldn't leave a wet sheet on the carpet we decided the best course of action was to lift the gigantic tree and pull the sheet out. Well, that was actually successful, then Jason started sliding the tree back into the corner. Next thing we knew the whole tree was tipping over! Yep, shattered ornaments, much more water on the carpet, the whole shabang.
2011: Last year we severely misjudged the size of our tree when we were cutting it down and ended up with this:
Jason had to do some MASSIVE trimming to make the tree fit in our toy room - this is the portion he cut off:
2012: We went to the same place again to cut down a tree. The boys were great and we found a tree we liked.
THEN we got it home and Jason trimmed it up. Turns out the tree was pretty bare, to say the least...
Yikes!! So, we ditched tree #1 and went to a tree lot and got a much more respectable tree. Tree #1 will be reincarnated as a fish habitat in one of the lakes Jason frequents. Ah, when will we learn?
Here's the good tree:
This is also our second year of the Elf on the Shelf tradition. Last year we named the elf Petunia and this year Jack determined that he was boy and named him Spidey. (The boy is obsessed with Spiderman despite never having watched the movie.) Spidey is pretty good about keeping Jack in line since he's reporting back to Santa each night while we sleep!
We've also continued last year's tradition of opening one wrapped Christmas book each night in December. Last year it really helped with our bedtime routine: we would pick a present, brush teeth, get in bed, open and read the book and call it a night. This year we're opening and reading the book a little earlier in the evening so Charlie can participate and it's been pretty hit or miss whether Jack is really interested in reading the book. He loves opening the presents, that's for sure!
Our visit with Santa was really fun. We went to a Habitat for Humanity event at the Foundry Art Centre, where Jason and I got married. The whole way there we talked up sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what he wanted for Christmas. You may recall Jack has not been a huge fan of Santa to date:
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| 2010 |
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| 2011 |
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| I love this last one because of Jack's giant smile |
Jack, however, was so brave!! After Charlie got away, Santa asked Jack if he'd like to sit on his lap and he said OK. I couldn't hear everything they were saying, but I did hear Jack tell Santa he would like a train and Spiderman. Seriously so proud of my big shot!
After he was finished, he looked like he was going to cry. When I asked him what was wrong he said "Well, I told Santa that I wanted a train and Spiderman and he said those were good ideas." I said "Good job, Buddy." And he said, "But...he didn't give them to me." Oops! I guess in all our pep talks about talking to Santa we neglected to explain that you ask for presents that Santa brings later on Christmas. Poor little guy.
He recovered from his disappointment though and had fun doing arts and crafts and checking out the train display.
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| Notice the homemade bead/pipe cleaner necklace that we made at home earlier in the day. Love that he wore it to this event. He made some jewelry for Daddy too (see below) |
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| Sadly, Daddy decided not to wear his new jewelry to the event |
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| Addi & Jack |
We've had a lot of fun preparing for Christmas this year. I think Jack understood a little bit last year, but this year he is really excited and we are too!
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