Short listed for Parent of The Year

The weekend before last was the weekend to get our Christmas tree. Now, I love the picking out and decorating of the tree almost more than Christmas itself.

I love everything about it: Going to a tree farm and finding just the right tree, bringing all the boxes of ornaments and decorations up from the basement, hanging the lights out on the porch, stringing up our paper snowflakes across the living room, the fire burning, and always, ALWAYS playing the soundtrack to Charlie Brown's Christmas as we lovingly unwrap each ornament.

This year we planned on doing all this on Sunday as rest of the weekend was full: Anna had birthday parties to attend both Friday and Saturday nights, Saturday was spent running errands and doing some shopping, and Sunday morning we had company coming for coffee. Also Sunday morning, Eric picked Anna up to take her over to Coeur d' Alene to have breakfast with his family and then to go into the woods to pick out and cut down the tree for his house. So by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, Anna was tired, grouchy and DONE with the whole Christmas tree thing. I could see that the window of opportunity for Christmas cheer was diminishing, so I adjusted my hopes of going out to a tree farm and agreed to just go to a nearby tree lot.

We brought our tree home and as David and I wrestled it into the tree stand, Anna wandered off and got a book, settling in the big chair next to the fireplace to read. I was disappointed that she wasn't as excited as I was to decorate, but I wasn't going to let that hinder my little fantasy. I got some apple-cider and cinnamon sticks simmering on the stove and then turned on the music. I figured that once she saw my excitement as I re-discovered our favorite ornaments, she'd join in.

Instead, she got up, went over and TURNED OFF MY CHARLIE BROWN. Nobody messes with my Charlie Brown, and I told her so, quite nicely. "But I can't READ if there's music on!!!!", she wailed. Now remember, Charlie Brown is soft piano music. It's not as if I was listening to AC/DC. Again overcoming my disappointment that she wasn't interested in decorating the tree, I suggested that she go UPSTAIRS to read if the music was bothering her....because there WAS going to be music playing in the living room. "But I don't WANT to go upstairs. I'm comfortable here!!!!" I decided to just go about my Christmas business and hope that she would get involved. Instead, every time I went into another room to get something, she'd turn the music off....and I'd come back into the room and turn it back on, again urging her to go to another room if she was going to require complete silence in order to read. We went back and forth like this for at least 15 minutes, and finally, I just lost it. I marched into the living room, leaned down into her face and yelled

"We are going to have some GOD DAMNED CHRISTMAS MUSIC ON!!!"

Now that's the spirit.



I will post about our NYC trip once I get our photos downloaded.