The Tree that Toddlers Built

I LOVE Christmas. Decorating the Christmas tree is definitely one of my favorite traditions. As a kid we used to make our annual trip to an ornament store, and each of us would get to pick out our yearly ornament. We also had a special "decorate the tree night" that included hot chocolate and lots of Christmas songs. As an adult I added a new Christmas tradition--Andrew and I try to collect ornaments from all the places we visit.

So of course I was thrilled at the idea of having what felt like our first real "tree decorating experience." It wasn't exactly what I imagined. For example:

• We had to cut short our "tree purchasing" adventure because C was starting to get sick.
• We juggled decorating the tree with dealing with sick kids. Andrew actually attempted to string the lights on only to stop midway, realize he sucked at it, and remove them all and ask me to do it.
• I looked everywhere but couldn't find a great store to take the girls ornament shopping.
• C and D enjoyed putting ornaments on the tree, but in doing so C opened up my "special box" of ornaments and shattered an ornament that Andrew and I had bought on a trip to Portsmouth NH while in business school. It was a very low moment...I was spending 24/7 with sick kids while waking up at 6 am to get in work calls and working late to crank on work because our nanny left for Ireland for three weeks. For some reason, at that point it felt like everything I had and everything I was prior to having children was shattered along with that ornament. I promptly burst into tears. Like I said, low moment.
• My babysitter told me she liked our "modest tree." (As in "all the other people I babysit for have huge trees in grand living rooms.")The tree is now up, we're over the worst of our illnesses, and we are finally enjoying the holidays. We missed a couple of things I wanted the girls to experience this holiday, but still got the chance to decorate Christmas cookies sent by Gram.