Timber!

Our poor Christmas tree. I've posted about how sad our little tree looks. Well, it's worse. Here's the story:

I was just about to start making dinner last night when I heard the awful sound every mother fears when she leaves her children alone in the living room right before Christmas: the dreaded CRASH. I didn't hear any crying right away so I knew it couldn't be that bad. Or could it? I came into the living room and found my children alive and well staring down at the Christmas tree. Ally immediately pointed to her brother and said, "He did it!"

The Christmas tree was lying on the floor with glass balls all around it a few feet away. I thought about taking a picture but didn't trust my kids to not touch it while I ran to get the camera. I told Crit to sit on the couch and had Ally help me stand it back up. With the tree once again standing we saw the full extent of the damage. A dozen ornaments were shattered into a million shards of glass all over the carpet.

I took the baby with me downstairs to get the vacuum and told Ally if she moved she'd be in some serious trouble. We came back up and Crit was once again sent to the couch. I picked up the bigger pieces and then vacuumed. And vacuumed. And vacuumed. I spent about 10 minutes vacuuming the small area of carpet that had been littered with glass. As I vacuumed, Ally kept yelling, "Could you keep it down? I'm trying to watch a show!" and the TV got louder and louder.

Now that the carnage was picked up, it was time to assess the damage to the tree. It was bad. No amount of pulling or twisting could fix the tilt. I considered not putting the few ornaments we had left back on the tree, but did it anyway. I didn't even bother to straighten the branches that were bent to strange angles during the incident.

Critter sat on the couch and didn't make a sound as he watched me clean up the mess. Then I told the kids, "Anyone under the age of five who touches the tree will sit in the naughty corner. No warnings." Crit stared at me, pointed to the tree, pointed to the corner, and then pointed to the tree again. I said, "Yes, you will sit in the corner if you touch the tree." He just kept staring at me as he started to grin. I don't know if I should trust him or not, but it looks like it's made an impact. Nobody's touched the tree all morning.

So what will happen to this much-blogged-about tree after Christmas? We decided last night that Saturday morning we will say goodbye and wish it good luck in the landfill. It's very likely the lights may still be on it when garbage truck takes it away.

Here it is. Notice the drastic lean to the left.

Yes, this is all that's decorated. These are the few ornaments we have left. Their fallen comrades are outside in the trash.

Email from Santa

Ally got a video email from Santa Claus today. She was so thrilled! He even knew her name and that she'd been nice to her brother. We've watched it twice already!

Here's the secret: www.portablenorthpole.tv I got a lot of error messages and had to hit back and resubmit info on almost every page, so be patient-- it's worth it. I never could get a picture to work, so if you can, congratulations!

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Ally's New Big Word

I was bathing the kids the other night when Ally started getting water in her mouth and spitting it out. I told her to stop, and naturally, she asked why. I said drinking bath water is gross and vile. She asked what vile meant and I told her it meant yucky. She thought about it for a minute and said, "Mommy, you're being redundant."

Our Charlie Brown Tree

2003 was our very first Christmas after we got married. Mike had his back fusion on December 16th, we closed on our West Jordan house on December 22nd (he signed the papers lying flat on his back at his parents' house), and spent Christmas Eve in our new house for the first time. We didn't even have a tree that year.

So the next year we were so excited when my parents gave us their little old tree. I was 7 months pregnant and ready for a great holiday. Our living room was so small that the itty-bitty tree was just the right size. I didn't even have to get out a stool to put the star on top. The only down-side was that it wasn't pre-lit. It took me three hours to do the lights and put the ornaments on every year. We've used that tree every year until now (or so we thought...).

When we moved into this house, one of the first things my mom told me was that we were going to need a new tree. We put it off last year and considered it this year. When I pulled out the lights and half of them had broken, I decided it was time. We went to Lowe's and bought a beautiful 9 foot prelit tree with 1000 lights. It was gorgeous. Or at least it would have been if all the lights would have worked.

Mike took it back and exchanged it, but alas, the replacement tree was also defective. The lights on it worked as long as we shook the branch. So we decided next year will be the year we get our beautiful 9 foot tree.

So here it is: our scraggly half-decorated, poorly lit (we don't want to buy more lights for a tree we're going to get rid of), tipping to one side, worn-out Christmas tree. It isn't something I'm very proud of, but the kids love it and I'm trying not to say anything mean about it in front of them.

Notice the ornaments are only on the top half. My son has an obsession with anything round. He thinks everything that looks like it might roll is a ball. So far he's reached a couple, but hasn't broken any yet.

So this spot in our living room is made for a giant tree. I should have taken a picture when we had the new tree up.

Thanksgiving Vacation

So yes, I am finally posting about Thanksgiving. Mike had the whole week off (hooray!) so we decided to take our very first family-of-four overnight vacation. Ally had school Monday so we packed our bags on Tuesday and drove to St. George. We only had to stop once on the way down and got there at 3:00.

We stayed at a great hotel and Ally loved the pool. Crit, not so much. After much begging from my oldest, we went miniature golfing that night. Critter even got his own putter and ball which he loved! We went to Olive Garden for dinner and then back to the hotel for bed.

The next morning we ate at the hotel and took off for Zions National Park. My camera had some serious battery problems, but we finally found Mike's camera in the van when we got to the park. Ally kept asking where the slides were. We kept telling her that it's not that kind of park.







We stopped twice on the way home and got here just after dark. It was so fantastic to get away--even if it was only one night. The kids did pretty well on the drive as long as they had suckers, smarties, and raisins close by. It went well enough that we are planning a drive to Disneyland in the fall.