Friday, December 3, 2010

decorations schmecorations

Can I say I've decorated for Christmas in my house if I pulled out the Little People Nativity Set for the boys?? I feel a bit like a scrooge or a grinch when it comes to Christmas decorations. I didn't used to be that way. All of our pre-kid years, we had a gorgeous tree...all coordinating silver and white ornaments that I'd picked out one by one during after Christmas sales. I loved it. But it usually hung around until close to Valentine's Day. Its such a pain to put all that stuff away. (Very similar to the way my suitcases sit on my bedroom floor two months after we've returned from vacation)

Then we had boys. The Christmas Bennett was 18 months old, I thought, there's no way I want him ruining my gorgeous ornaments. I don't want to spend the month of December (and January...and February...) trying to keep him away from it. So I put up other decorations, like my nativity set that I love.
Well, that year Joseph tragically lost a hand and a sheep lost an ear. Last year when Bennett was 2 1/2, I remember telling him he was never to touch the nativity set. I'd come downstairs and all the animals would be lined up in a row watching the wise men playing ring around the rosy with the Holy family. "Bennett, were you playing with the nativity set again?" "No!" Hmmm...he hadn't quite figured out how to cover his tracks. It did make me feel guilty when we went to a storytime at the library around Christmas and the librarian asked all the kids if they had a Christmas tree up yet. Ummm, nope. I was nursing a 3 month old 6 times a day. Not gonna happen.
This year we're keeping it simple (or scroogey??). I thought Bennett was a tornado as a toddler. Dawson is like every natural disaster rolled into one. I don't think there would be enough super glue and patience to save the nativity set after he was through with it. The problem is there's just no keeping him from something he has his mind set to. You haven't seen him climb. (And yes, I totally believe in disciplining my 1 year old. I'm pretty sure a spank on the hand just adds fuel to his fire.)
So another year with no tree and I really don't feel too bad about it. We spend so much time at our parents houses (who have tons of gorgeous decorations for me to try to keep my human wrecking ball away from) so Bennett's not completely deprived. Hopefully he doesn't experience ridicule at preschool for being the only kid without a tree.
Plus, you'll all be jealous of me in January (or February if you're like me...) when you have to put all that stuff away!

3 comments:

  1. your nativity scene would surely be nubs by january! i support your new take on decorating all the way (as a parent of "tyler the tornado" and "drew the destroyer").

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  2. Hey your blog page has a Christmas theme. What other decorating needs to be done?? : )

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  3. You are winning me to your side on this one...the little miss has been rearranging our tree for the last week. Thank goodness our decorations are no longer of the glass variety...I made the switch last year. Don't know that I can go completely tree-free, but I'm heavily considering it!

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