Traditions: Tree Decorating 2014

Saturday afternoon and evening were spent decorating our Christmas trees. First came our real tree with the Gingerbread Cookie Ornaments and white sparkle lights. Jack was pumped about this experience. Though he was disappointed that we didn't have a star for the top (we do now).

I turned on the Christmas music and we added our cookie ornaments to the tree. We strategically moved Jack around the tree since he was inclined to hang everything in clumps together.

I'm not sure what he liked more: hanging the ornaments or eating the cookies (I'll get to that later).

After our tree was decorated, we took a break before heading out to the local seafood market to grab dinner. A sampler platter for me and Daniel and salmon for Jack hit the spot.

After we had our fill of seafood, we headed home to decorate tree #2.

Our little fake tree was purchased in 2002 when we were first married. The tree skirt was actually used in our wedding. I think the tree cost us $10 at Big Lots and it has great sentimental value for us. 

For a brief moment last week, we couldn't find the tree and we were both a little sad to think that it might have gotten lost in our last move. Thankfully Daniel found it.

The ornaments on this tree are really special to us.

They include old ornaments from our childhoods, gifted ornaments from our wedding, and ornaments we have collected on every trip we have taken over the last 12 years. 

They also include ornaments that belong to Jack. A whole smorgasbord of memories can be found on our little fake tree.

One other tradition we typically do when we decorate our tree is to drink my special decadent hot chocolate, while watching a Christmas movie. This year we let Jack watch a Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas and while drinking the special hot chocolate (for him I blended it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and skipped the kahlua!).

Now back to the cookies... while I finished making the hot chocolate that Daniel and I were going to drink, Jack came up to me and said that his mouth was yucky. He had dark brown stuff in his teeth that wouldn't wipe off and I couldn't figure out what was in his mouth.

After consulting with Daniel, we realized he had asked Daniel to eat a cookie and Daniel said yes. Unfortunately the "cookie" in question was a cinnamon applesauce cookie ornament that was 3 years old...

I hurried Jack upstairs to the bathroom to brush the remnants out of his teeth and off his tongue. He seemed fine so I had him drink a bunch of water. Thankfully he didn't have an adverse reaction to eating the ornament.

While I took care of brushing Jack's teeth out, the rest of the hot chocolate for me and Daniel burned. So much for enjoying it with our tree decorating! The whole decorating mood was killed a bit after that, but Jack still enjoyed hanging all of the ornaments.

Sometimes things go how you want them to, sometimes they don't. Such is life. But we will probably always remember how Jack ate a cookie that wasn't a cookie!