I haven’t decorated for Christmas since 2005. That was the first year Mike and I lived together. I threw him a surprise 30th birthday party and invited a bunch of people – I wanted our apartment to look PERFECT. I dragged Mike to three Christmas tree lots, then had him go with me to several different stores to pick out ornaments. Finally I just left him at home and bought up tons of vintage ornaments and decorations at flea markets (and got a bunch from my mom, too). I had decorations everywhere and our place looked so festive.

Every year since then I’ve had a good reason to not decorate. We were getting married and would be gone over Christmas…Maddie was in the NICU…I was pregnant and we were celebrating elsewhere….there was always an excuse. But this year, this year there are no excuses. I didn’t need any – I have been excited to decorate this house for the holidays since the day we decided to make an offer. I have so many ideas that I can’t wait to do.

Annie…well, she doesn’t “get” the whole holiday thing, but I figure now is the time to start her happy holiday memories, right? On Saturday we turned on Christmas music and put up our tree. Mike and I spent some time putting the more delicate ornaments on the tree above the reach of anyone below three feet tall. “Look Annie, Mama is hanging an angel!” She seemed interested, so we handed her a plastic reindeer and told her to put it on the tree.

hanging ornaments

She was like, “yeah, you just gave me this awesome toy and you expect me to put it down? No thanks.”

Eventually we talked her into putting ornaments on the tree. I suspect the use of cookies had a lot to do with it.

hanging ornaments

hanging ornaments

Before long our tree was lit and I felt like a kid at my parents’ house. I loved sitting out by the tree when I came home from school. There was something magical about it, and I didn’t even mind doing my homework as long as I was within the tree’s proximity. I want Annie to feel the same way.

hanging ornaments

decorating

I think…so far, so good.