Our Charlie Brown Tree

I insist on getting a live Christmas tree. I couldn't imagine Christmas without the smell of real pine wafting through my house. We always had a live tree growing up and I want my kids to have the same experience. So, every year, I make our family bundle up, go to the nearest tree lot and peruse the aisles of trees for the perfect conifer. This year, we knew we'd be spending Christmas in Arizona so we opted for a smaller one. Ava and Jax had the final say on which tree we'd take home.

I had big plans for decorating. However, as soon as I opened the box of decorations, the kids dove in. Soon enough, garland was tangled, Sesame Street character ornaments were headless and Jax, who has the attention span of a fruit fly, ditched the decorating, opting for monster trucks instead. Although, he did let me help him put up ONE ornament.

Andy's not big on decorating either, so it came down to Ava and me. She delegated me the official detangler and hook putter-onner. So, really. The tree is Ava's creation and boy is it PURTY!

This is Ava's favorite ornament! We got it the year she was born (her birthday is St. Patrick's Day)

She definitely preferred one side of the tree to any others and tended to clump all her ornaments on that one side which, by the way, was not the front. It took all my willpower not to go over and evenly distribute the ornaments, but I had to remind myself that it didn't matter, what mattered was that she enjoyed herself. And she did. She was so proud of her creation when all was said and done. A few days later, we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (my favorite) and Ava said to me, "Charlie Brown's tree looks like our Christmas tree." If you've seen the show (and if you haven't, well, then you're un-American!) you know that good ol' Chuck chooses a sad little tree, causing all his friends to call him "Blockhead" and the like. However, in the end, after Linus' retelling of the birth of Christ, the kids get in the spirit and decorate the tree for CB (which always amazed me, I'd like to know how they got it to look so full). THAT'S thre tree Ava was talking about... the one at the end, not the frumpy looking guy.

Anyway, we love our tree. Every morning when Jax and I come downstairs he points to the tree and says, "light... on." So, I turn the tree lights on and that's the way the stay the entire day.