Decorating

With the perfect tree freshly cut from the farm, we were ready to adorn it with decorations. Our Christmas decorations are a completely eclectic mix of some my parents passed on to me (cookie dough ornaments from the late 70s\early 80s), some I bought very cheaply when a poor college students, ornaments that were gifts and a few that Mike and I have collected together. It's always fun to pull them out and go on a trip down memory lane.

Last year, Dylan being only 5 months old when we decorated our tree, he was a part of it only because he was attached to me (literally...in a front pack). This year was so much fun because we were able to explain to him what was going on (of course, he probably didn't understand all of it), he was interested in what was going on and was a voluntary participant in the event.

Mike pulled out the ornaments, unwrapped them and I put them on the tree and handed Dylan some that were extremely child friendly for him to put on the tree by himself (okay, well some with a little assistance). Family fun and team work. Even the cats were in the room and we had them get involved.

Oliver (Yes, he hated us for a while after this)

Luci

Dylan Decorating the Tree

All of "his" ornaments got clustered in one spot

My Special Ornament

(This was a birthday present to me from Dylan.)

The Final Product!

This being the first year Dylan was mobile with a tree around, we were a bit worried about how it would go. We took the basic precautions of not putting anything fragile down low and then waited to see if we what else we might have to do to keep baby and tree safe from each other. Surprising, Dylan has done really wonderful with it. Other than picking off the ornaments he put on the tree (and then trying to put them back on again), the two have lived in harmony with each other.

Every day, Dylan helps us plug in the tree and we always take some time to study and talk about some of the ornaments. He is an expert in pointing out Santa's ("Ho, ho, ho") and snowmen ("no no") on the tree and everywhere we go. Other words he knows or has learned that relate to ornaments we have are star, ball, baby, choo choo and tree. Today he also learned elf and attempted to say nutcracker. It didn't come out sounding anything like that but that was definitely what he was referring too. Who knew holidays were such great teaching tools?!?!