"Lights No Work Mommy"

Christmas arrived at the Martin house this past weekend! We decided to get a fake tree to eliminate mold, allergies and general yuckiness, thereby eliminating an option for Will to get sick. For whatever reason, Neil and I do not do Christmas trees well. Something always seems to be just a smidge off. This year is no exception. We got the tree purchased (20% off!), up, fluffed, lights, garland, ornaments and plenty of tinsel all in one day. The lights were a small mishap with not quite the right assembly, but whatever.

I decided to nap with Will and about 20 minutes before we woke up, the tree died. Neil said all the lights just went off. We checked the breaker and it was fine (of course I started flipped switches around and the football game went off). So a few tense minutes later I started unplugging the lights, plugging things in and out and all around. The net result, the top 90 % of the tree looks great. The bottom 10% has a string of dead lights and not much else. I can live with that :-)

Additionally as Will was decorating he selected one area of the tree and there was no other option for ornament placement in his mind. So, there's a little cluster of ornaments in his spot.

Will's cluster of ornaments - a couple of handmade ones as well as his favorite - Santa!

Forever the little helper - I think every other word out of his mouth is "me help"

The tree pre-tinsel and when all the lights worked.

The tree post-tinsel, without all the lights working :-)

Merry Christmas!

PS: The Elf on the Shelf also has arrived! I'm sure there will be entertainment on this one as the season continues. We read the book and then magically, the Elf arrived on Will's bookshelf! He was freaked out for a minute, but then seemed to get into it.