Saturday, December 15, 2018

Of Christmas Trees and Little Victories

The last week has been more than a little exhausting as various kids have been home sick with what seems to be two different bugs (one stomach bug and one respiratory bug) and while they've been resting I've been slowly decorating the inside of the house so that hopefully, it will actually be completely decorated by Christmas Eve.

Maggie had asked and asked and asked when we would be going to get our tree and I had big plans for last Saturday (thankfully before everyone began dropping like flies to this round of illnesses).


I had read in a local Facebook group that there was a tree farm not too far from our house where they took you to retrieve the trees on horse drawn carriages. I knew that would be a big hit with all five kids. There was also an event that morning at a local city park, with a tour of their historic buildings, various historic demonstrations, and hot cocoa and cookie decorating.

So we kicked off the morning with cocoa and cookies and then moved on to finding the perfect Christmas tree, being pulled around the forty acre farm by Perchrons, which was pretty fun for adults and kids alike, and then finally heading home so that Sadie and Paul could race off to a birthday party at a local skating rink.

December weekends are busy.


This is a glimpse of our time visiting the historic cabin and having cocoa and cookies.

Maggie's language has just exploded lately. Everyone at school and therapy is so excited. And of course, we're pretty thrilled too:



Then it was time for tree hunting.

This farm was so much bigger than the places that we've gone to in the past. It was $45 for any tree on the property and so many of the trees were enormous!

It took a while to find down the perfect tree (not too big for our living room) and flag down a team of Percherons to haul it back to the car, but once we did we were ready to head home and get warmed up. It was a chilly day!



Then it was time to decorate the tree.

It was kind of amazing.

If you've been here for a long time you may remember the years when we had tiny fake trees high up on our mantle, trying to keep them out of Maggie's reach because we knew if she got to them she would destroy them.


A few years ago we thought she was finally ready to try a real tree closer to the ground, so we got a tree and bolted it onto our old TV stand, which in turn was bolted to the floor.

And when that was a success, when we moved to our house here we got a full sized tree and bolted the stand to the floor.

She left it alone, but she never helped decorate it. And I really didn't expect that to change this year.


The first year with a real tree.
We didn't realize it was a bit too tall until it was way up there and then it was... way up there.
And those ceilings were really tall.

I set up my camera on a stand because I did want to capture the memories of decorating the tree.

I did not expect them to capture Maggie joining us and beginning to pick up ornaments and decorate the tree with us.

It was such a happy, special afternoon.

And when Tessie woke up she proved that she is following in her sister's footsteps, from Christmas' years ago, when she turned into a mini tree attacking tornado.

It's okay though.

I've learned a few tricks over the years. And the lower half of our tree is basically indestructible.



And that is what's going on here right now.

If everyone would just get and stay healthy that would be great. But it is definitely the season when everyone catches everything.

I'm just hoping they're all over it before Christmas!

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