Shared Tannenbaum

After the arrival of The Most Perfect Christmas Tree Ever, Annabel was on me about getting her small tree. I reminded her a zillion times that it wasn’t just her tree, but hers AND James’ tree. She would then correct to, “Mommy, when are we getting my tree that James will share with me?”

When we went to the lot, I didn’t know how it would go. It was 38 degrees, which might be warm for some of you but is a ridiculous temperature for this area. Annabel announced she was cold as soon as we arrived, but then sprinted around without further complaint so I assume she adjusted.

Mommy, I’m so cold! Oh, something shiny!

I offhandedly suggested to Mike that we show Annie the tent where they flock the trees, not thinking they’d have any of the little trees in there. Well, I was wrong, and I should have known that Annie would be all about a tree with sparkles and fake snow. The good news is that it was cheap and much smaller than what I’d expected her to pick out.

The choosing of a Christmas tree requires much celebrating.

When we got it home, we changed into our jammies and got to decorating. I put on the lights, and Annie placed the star on the top of the tree.

Then I told Annie to choose which ornament would go on the tree first. To my surprise, she selected the Spiderman ornament we’d picked out for James a few weeks earlier. Maybe she was listening when I told her the tree didn’t belong to just her.

Every year I get a new set or two of initials for the kids, and Annie wanted to put some on the tree. She clustered them all together, which I thought looked perfect.

I helped Annie decorate a bit, but mostly I sat back and watched her decorate and explain what she was doing to James. His eyes were glued to her, trying to figure out what the heck she was doing.

At one point, she started playing around with the princess ornaments I’d made her last year, and I reminded her that the ornaments are just made of paper, so she has to be careful with them. She replied, “That’s okay, Mommy. I don’t know if I will be into princesses next year.” When I pressed her on it, she said that, “I loooove princesses but maybe next year I will loooooove dinosaurs. Maybe Jamesie will like dinosaurs, too!” Fine by me, all of it.

The finished tree is looking (almost as) good (as my palm tree)!

Hard to believe this is the third time Annie has decorated a small tree. She was so little when we got the first one! I am happy she gets so much joy from it, and I really hope that next year (and the years after), James does, too.