There’s No Crying In Tree Decorating (is a LIE!)

Last night was Tree Decorating Night.
The fantasy went like this: We would eat a delicious sirloin steak dinner. After we finished our dinner, the kids would clear the dinner table while I loaded the dishwasher while Christmas music played in the background. Everyone would be smiling and happy because soon we would be eating freshly baked cookies while sipping on hot chocolate while dancing around the Christmas tree that we would be decorating with the most beautiful ornaments!
The reality went like this: I was crying in the first 5 minutes because the red beads were not spaced properly and proper spacing IS EVERYTHING! (Also- see: PMS) The Teenager sat on his butt, making comments like “next year I won’t have to do this because I’ll be 18 and probably won’t even be living here.” G and The Middle Child argued over stupid things like “why does HE always get to put up the big ornaments?”
It wasn’t ALL bad. There were some wonderful moments. When we weren’t arguing/crying/almost breaking each other’s phones– we were laughing, sometimes until we cried and/or farted. We sang Christmas songs. We talked about our favorite Christmas memories.
However, the Christmas Joy Jesus Is The Reason For The Season Silent Night Peace On Earth moments didn’t last for long. By the end of the night, the kids were fighting over a blinking red nose while I took pictures with one hand and ate lots of cookies with the other hand.
JOY TO THE WORLD!
So, the Decorating of The Tree didn’t go quite as I had planned (and our tree looks like a-s-s) but no one killed anyone and we still all love each other, so I say SUCCESS! Also? damn, the cookies were GREAT. All 7 of them. (Just kidding. I only ate 5.)
089
090
108
098
097
109

16 thoughts on “There’s No Crying In Tree Decorating (is a LIE!)

  1. avasmommy

    I think your tree looks great.
    I have those fantasy moments, too. And yeah, they never go as well as they do in my head, either.
    However? Memories were still made, and that’s all matters.

  2. mommabird2345

    Your tree looks perfect. I’m sure if you were to ask your kids today if they had fun, they would say yes.
    I do the same thing though. I always forget that I need to just enjoy what my family is doing and it doesn’t matter if it isn’t perfect.
    But look at the beautiful pictures you have. 🙂

  3. Shannon

    Being the mom of two daughters who are VERY different from each other I can sympathize with your disappointment. However – with time I’ve come to see even the moments that seemed the most flawed at the time were still magical.

  4. Kathy

    You should see my tree… the bottom half has no ornaments (the baby took them all off and threw them all over the house) and the 5 year old insisted we get a WHITE tree this year. SO I have an effin flocked tree in my house. It was fun though 🙂

  5. jessica b

    Y, the tree is beautiful! Your kids will not remember it the way you see it now. When they are grown, they will remember every tree decorating event with sentimentality. even the boys. it’s perfect.

  6. marjorie

    Your family sounds a lot like mine. Kids squabble; everyone has their own ideas about how to decorate the tree, but in the end, the glue that holds the family together is still intact and everyone still loves everyone else. My kids have always decorated the tree for me, and every year they argue about how to do it, but they’ve never stopped wanting to haul out the boxes and find their favorite ornaments.

  7. Maggie

    I’m going to make my 20-year-old decorate the tree when he comes home from college. He will probably expect cash for this as he will consider it a chore.
    I love the bow up top. I have the red beads too, but this year they are going in a decorative glass jar instead of on the tree.

  8. vickie

    Im sorry…I laughed so hard at this post because it was almost Reality Show material. Seriously LAUGHED…I don’t mean LOL to be polite but LAUGHED OUT LOUD to be irritating enough to those around me.
    I particularly loved the line, “Next year i’ll be 18 and probably won’t even be living here” Seriously you start this thing out with a Leave it to Beaver/Donna Reed/Father Knows Best vision and it turns into REAL stuff LOL
    Thanks for a great post!!!

  9. Nancy P

    I had to laugh at this. Every year I see picture perfect families in magazine ads baking cookies in a spotless kitchen, decorating the tree in matching sweaters etc. Who ARE these people? One year while making Christmas cookies with my sons, flour everywhere, them arguing over the cookie cutters, I said “WE ARE GOING TO MAKE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS MEMORY IF IT IS THE LAST THING I DO!” 🙂

  10. baseballmom

    glad we aren’t the only ones! a couple weeks ago, we set out to drive through a christmas lights attraction that we go to every year, and then to dinner. the kids fought literally the first second we got in the car, because their seats were not what they wanted, then the teenager texted through the entire thing. the 8 year old was hanging out the window singing, and husband got mad because he said he was singing in his ear, so then the 8 year old stopped singing and sat in his seat with his coat over his head, NOT looking at lights. i sat and silently bawled because the teenager used to LOVE this so much, we’d go like 4 times every year and now? HE’S GROWING UP, omg. what a freaking fiasco. it was like chevy chase on christmas vacation-‘hallelujah and holy s#$%, where’s the tylenol?!’

Comments are closed.