Our Charlie Brown Christmas

This year at Christmas time I have discovered the beauty in "quality" not "quantity". With our twins, Calvin and Chloe, being mobile this time around I was very hesitant about putting up a Christmas tree. I think that in years past I had gotten pretty good about distracting one toddler for a few weeks. But I was not at all confident in my abilities to distract 2! After much thought and convincing Sean that it would be alright, I presented to the children the idea of just having a fake, little tree this year. 2009 would be our "Charlie Brown" Christmas!

The children, at first, were not very pleased. I will not name names, but one child in particular was very distraught about the whole idea and had to know exactly how this was going to affect her (there is a clue) Christmas. She even accused me of not liking to decorate for Christmas, and so this is why we were having to settle for a little tree. Since I am writing this, I do not have to include my reaction to her accusations! Needless to say, this dear child is more keenly aware that there are 8 people in this family, not just ONE!

So, the next day, while at WalMart, I purchased a 4 ft., pre-lit, fake tree. Assembly took MAYBE 2 minutes. We had the children each pick out 4 of their favorite ornaments (again more grumbling with only being allowed 4... again more reminding of how many people are actually in our family). It turned out to be absolutely delightful! Because I did not have to put lights on the tree, I was not grumpy when it came time to put on the ornaments. And because it was only 4 ft tall, we were able to put it on top of a table we have in our living room where the babies cannot reach! Another benefit of a small tree was being able to string real popcorn and real cranberries as the garland. We had tried this in years past, but it just always took so darn long to get enough popcorn, that we would end up with just enough for the top half of the tree!


I am grateful for our small tree. I am grateful for Christmas. I am grateful that the Savior was born to a peasant girl, named Mary, and that it all took place in a stable. These things all help me remember what is really important to our Heavenly Father and what should be important to me.
I hope you all have a very merry Christmas.