Well, we got our “heathen” Christmas tree put up earlier…actually yesterday morning. (In reference to the “heathen” part, please read this comment - http://www.ravenmoondesigns.com/blog/archives/2005/12/10/origin-of-santa-claus/#comments). ‘J’ got the tree, put it up, and strung the lights on it all while I was still asleep yesterday morning. When I got up, I added a bunch of water in the base of the stand, since he forgot to. Apparently he didn’t have the tree tight enough in the base and while I was adding the water, it leaned….didn’t fall over, though. I kept adding water, hoping the weight of the water would balance out the lean until he got home from running errands to fix it. I was out of the living room for a few minutes when I heard ‘K’ crying. My first thought was that the tree had fallen. How right I was. Poor ‘K’ was sitting beside the tree crying (well, more like whining) and his blanket was completely under the now fallen tree. I asked him if it fell on him and he said “yeah”. So I picked it up and, though it was still leaning, got it to stand ok until ‘J’ got home. The floor was now soaked from the water I had just added to the base. Not only did I have a carpeting of pine needles on the floor, but a swampy mire as well.
The mess is now all cleaned up, though the floor is still damp. We decorated the tree later in the evening because I knew ‘G’ would want to help…and he was at school when ‘J’ brought the tree home. If I had a digital camera, I would have pictures to post right now. But I did take pictures with my “normal” camera, so as soon as I get those developed, I will post them.

Next thing on the holiday to-do list…buy wrapping paper, wrap the boys gifts, and put ‘em under the tree for them to try to guess at.