After days and days of driving by twinkling trees and window pane wreaths, I finally felt like decorating and getting into the holiday spirit. When that inner desire hits to have lights aglow at your home and you’re part way through December, you know you have to jump on it fast.

Our lives have been so busy with our family of six, we struggled to find a day on the calendar that we all would be home to decorate together. Once I noticed Friday night to be open, I sent my teens a calendar invite so they would keep it clear and told our little kids that was going to be our Christmas tree decorating night; we would cap it it off with a holiday movie and pizza!

A few days before the event my eldest tells me she told a friend she would cover her at work, a brand new job at the local ice cream shop. I tried to persuade her otherwise in hopes of salvaging family time but she wouldn’t budge (the force is strong with this one). I couldn’t blame her for wanting to earn money for Christmas so we decided to do it before she had to leave. The plan was to squeeze our special family time inbetween the hour of 5:30 and 6:30.

Sigh.

Later that same day I got an email saying that my son declined the invite to decorating the tree. Chuckling I made a mental note of talking to him about what is optional and what is not. Oh, modern day parenting at its finest.

Now, normally we would all go together to pick out the tree as a family activity, but with such little time Eric and I decided it would be best to go ahead of time with whoever wanted to go. So when we asked “Who wants to go get the tree!??!?”

The response was met with a unison, “meh.”

Not wanting to deal with the lack excitement my kids were exhibiting, my husband and I drove down to the corner store that sells Christmas trees just the two of us. I’ll be the first to admit I felt a little downtrodden at not having my whole family together for this little outing. As soon as we stepped out of the car and started looking at trees my soul brightened a bit. 

We both agreed instantly on a classic looking douglas furr, well that was easy I thought! There wasn’t any fighting. I didn’t hear biquoring of one tree being better than another by the tiny voices I’m used to hearing.

Hunh, how about that? 

My hubby and I decided to take a loop just to make sure we got the right one, and I realized I could actually walk directly straight on the path because there wasn’t any pushing and shoving of brothers into trees either.

Hmmm.

I also didn’t hear anyone complain of the cold or ask to go home early because this was lame. I didn’t hear anyones feelings get hurt or sarcasm spilling over with the lack of holiday spirit. I didn’t dry any little sister tears with my coat sleeve or threaten anyones screen time.

Very interesting.

With very little trouble we hoisted the tree on top of our car and drove home, the whole thing took us about 20 very pleasant minutes. Eric and I looked at each other and smiled…

Did we just cheat at Christmas tree shopping?

Or…did we just create a new tradition? 

Finally, Friday arrived and we ordered the pizza and got out the bins. Everyone was present. Including Lily and her anxiety to not be late for work, Gabe’s energy for not having had basketball practice was also with us, Ben and his sarcastic glory, and Rosie…with all of her christmas spirit in pure and plain sight. Family time is ago.

And now for the sentimental moments I force them to have.

In our family we each take a turn picking out a first ornament. Everyone has a chance to share what their Christmas wish is when they put their first ornament on the tree. It’s a little cheesy tradition I started that we’ve actually kept up since they could talk.

Some take it seriously, some laugh and make jokes, some do it because they have to…but inside I think they all rather enjoy it.

Once that was done chaos insued.

Reindeer inflatable antlers caused mayhem as rings were tossed at my son’s head. Complaints about Rosie wearing the Rudolph nose since she had a cold were thrown around. Ben claiming I have favorite children depending on which ornament I hung up and me denying it. And Lily spreading joy as quickly as possible as she rushed through the decorating part of the tree. 

Lastly, Eric lifted Rosie to put the angel on top of our tree and our middle child, slightly perturbed he didn’t get to do it this year because “he had done it the last three years prior”  bounded up on top of the couch just to stick his head in the back of the picture. It looks like his head is floating out of her scarf.

Oh for the love of tenenbaums.

Eric and I had thought about not having drinks at night for awhile, just to create healthier habits. Needless to say we both headed to the kitchen to pour ourselves a glass. 

Ahhhh…well…at least our decorations are up!

In the words of my favorite Christmas children’s book Moostletoe,

“it may not be easy and it may not be simple and okay okay it may not be perfectly perfect but you know what?

…it was pretty close.”