Finally, at long last, tonight we had an evening when the entire family was home long enough to decorate Hector. No drama rehearsals, no hockey practices, no business trips, no working late. Just a night at home -- we even managed to squeeze in a family dinner.
When the homework was finished at 7:30, we hauled the ornament boxes upstairs and wouldn't you know it, we discovered that one of the strings of lights on the tree had gone out. I wasn't surprised in the least (frankly I'm just numb to the whole light debacle), I simply unplugged it, pulled it gently from the tree, and replaced it with a new string that I just happened to have in my bag of tricks. Jen 1, universe 0. Nice try universe! Oops, I probably shouldn't tempt fate like that! I take it back!
Glitches dealt with, we got to work on the tree. I don't know if it's because of Hector's small stature, but we had way too many ornaments for the tree. When I was growing up, my parents would give my sister and I an ornament every year for Christmas. I've continued the tradition with my kids, and with three kids, the number of ornaments is starting to get out of control! But I have to say, it's so much fun to pull out an ornament and remember what the kids used to love when they were little.
First there was the Winnie the Pooh phase:
And then Bob the Builder:
One of their all time favorites was Scooby Doo:
And who doesn't love the Grinch (although I'm not so sure I love him on the tree!):
They got s'mores ornaments the year we started camping:
And hockey ornaments when they started playing hockey:
There are snowman ornaments:
And plenty of moose ornaments (we do, after all, live in New Hampshire):
And the year we got our dog Casey for Christmas, the kids had to have dog ornaments:
Hector may be smallish and he may be covered with a hodgepodge of ornaments, but he's beautiful and finally, he's finished. And if any more strings of lights suddenly go out, they are just going to have to stay that way for the rest of the season because, frankly, I am fed up with illumination!! Ok, so I guess I'm not so numb to the light debacle after all...