A Brief Interlude

Sorry, I got a little behind shhhedjule on this thirty-one days thing. We ended up getting our tree yesterday and decorating it last evening.

I just need to take a little interlude here, from the thirty-one days thing, to spout off about our Christmas tree excursion.

(I have a feeling staying on task for thirty-one-days of thankful is going to be a bit of a struggle for me. But that's the beauty of being a blogger. No one really expects you to be a very organized writer, which is really part of the fun. Right? Right. And I'll be back this evening with my next thankful installment.)

This whole tree thing... I'm totally at a loss. There's a part of me that is committed to the tradition of taking the kiddos out every year and cutting a real tree. (And supporting one of our local businesses in turn.) On the other hand, sometimes it feels like one of those things you try to force because, you know, it's tradition, and you know, it's special. But in reality, by the time you get organized enough to gather up and get out there to hunt down your tree, everyone is tired, someone usually has a cold, the sun is setting, and no one is really feeling very special at all about the whole adventure.

That's happened to us.

It almost happened to us yesterday.

We left church, and I was determined that we were going to head down to the tree farm and get our tree a.s.a.p. No fuss. No muss. We're not even going to stop at home. Let's just do this thing. In reality, my entire family was experiencing low blood sugar. Mr. Blue Eyes was adamant that he had to eat something before we got the tree, and both kids were exhibiting less than stellar behavior and levels of patience.

Little Blue Eyes actually kicked our pastor after church.

He kicked him.

He can get a little bucky sometimes, but kicking someone is totally out of character for him.

The blood sugar situation was dire.

My 'charge ahead' attitude, in regard to the tree situation, wasn't gonna fly.

Then the cell phone rang. It was my sister calling. She said if we wanted to meet them in town, they'd take us out to lunch.

Sold.

We whipped a u-ey, headed back to town, and filled our bellies with pizza and fried chicken.

Then we went and got our tree. Actually, we went for a leisurely countryside drive to let the children rest a bit, and then we went and got our tree.

And it was glorious.

Okay, maybe not glorious. But it was pretty good.

Way better than it would've been a couple hours earlier with empty stomachs and ornery children.

We frolicked through treelined paths.

(Yes, that's my hiney. I feel really weird looking at my own hiney. It's just not natural. Now if it was a picture of your hiney, or the hiney of someone in my family, or just about anyone else's hiney, I wouldn't give it a second thought. But when I look at my own hiney? I cringe. I just had to say that. Now I'm done talking about my hiney. Hopefully I never feel the need to talk about my hiney again.)

We took in nature's beauty.

And we found a lovely little tree.

And last night, I even reined in my anal retentiveness and let the kids take charge on the tree decorating, and let me tell you...

...we've never had a more decked out, festive tree.

So, long story short, I guess this whole tree cutting tradition might be worth it. But I'm thinking the tradition might forthwith need to include a hearty lunch, then the tree cutting. It seems to be the ticket.

Comments

[Tauna]

Hilarious hiney post.

The tree is beautiful. The kids....they done good!

Where in the world is your snow? It's December! Oh, well, we don't have any either.
I'm sorta ready for it.

Yikes........kicked the pastor. That sweet kid?

[cheryl]

been there. done that. this year when we were driving home, (longish drive, no close tree farms) my daughter asked if next year we could use the fake tree again. she said she likes picking a tree out, and cutting it down, but that she doesn't like the long drive or the smell. crazy girl, the smell is the best part! i think that as the moms, we are all to aware of the reality of the afternoon...the cold, the sickies, the low blood sugar, the crabbies...but the kids won't remember those things. they will look back at the day, the smiles, and remember the fun and adventure of it. even if (to us moms) the fun of it was the shortest part. having a ten year age gap in my kids, (my oldest turned 17 yesterday!) i can tell you that they really do remember it all as fun, and they enjoy talking about it and remembering moments of joy and silliness years later. rock on momma!