This was the Christmas Season when I stood looking at my barren tree and decided that it was time to up my game. In the past, I would do my best, but my tree would still look quite sparse (despite 250 or so lights and 75+ ornaments). I had worked on stylizing and prepping quality photos with my kids in the past but the tree was the sad trombone instead of the supporting cast.
A few YouTube videos later and a trip to Michales to take advantage of their post Thanksgiving sales, I was set. As it turns out, all I really needed to complete the decorating package was various widths and transparencies of ribbon.
The theme of my trees of late has had the focus of 'heritage'. Almost all of my ornaments are from my childhood. Ones that I created and painted, there are a few my mom made - so many memories within each one. Plus, I grew up with five siblings. The simple fact that many of these survived is a miracle. A few years ago, my husband's mom handed me a shoebox of his ornaments and to my surprise, the ornaments were all rustic and had just as much heritage as mine. I am certain that I won't ever go back to the more modern type of tree. We will simply continue to hang on memory after memory.
I was a little nervous decorating the tree with such sentimental ornaments while having two toddlers in the house, but I thought that they deserved to admire and see them. Both of my little ones were really excited and I decided to not worry bout the precious ornaments. So far they have enjoyed pointing out the childhood photos of mommy and daddy. It really is the most precious thing.
We are two weeks into the trees being up and decorated. How have we done? Story time. While these photos have a serene nature to them I can guarantee you that we had some challenges. As a Photographer, who is also a mom, it is quite difficult to catch my son being still much less cooperative. On this particular evening I pushed his bed time a little too late and we ended up having him fall face first into the tree. It toppled over in its entirety. Scared the poor thing, he was so sad. My husband said it was as if he thought he had ruined Christmas. Luckily we got it all cleaned up and only had one ornament tragedy.
Thus is our current experience with Christmas Trees and Toddlers. To their credit, the little kiddos have been doing quite well. My little daughter insists on having the lights on at all times. She loves holding her hands up to the tiny lights. Every now and then I need to ask them to put the ornaments back on the branches though fortunately for me, they seem to understand the trees for what they are, special.