Christmas Memories

 London and I took this tree down yesterday. It took us about 2 hours to get the totes, take all the lights and ornaments off, disassemble the branches and stand, and pack it all away. That may sound long, but London is 18 months old, we wrap almost every ornament individually, and it took us about 6 hours to set the whole thing up! The following pictures, excessively detailed though they may seem, depict the course of those 6 hours.

 Jack, the do-it-yourself man, Jon the multi-tasker, and London the unbalanced koala. Below is a picture of London rolling around on the floor throwing a fit. He was not as helpful setting up as he was tearing down. I thought he looked hilariously pathetic lolling about on the floor.

Our traditional tree topper. Unfortunately, they always end up needing clean diapers and food and never make it through the Christmas season up there.

 Happier after a good nap and finding his elf slippers. (made in New Zealand from lama wool for anyone who wondered...)

 These pictures are slightly out of order. We didn't vacillate between having lights or a top on our tree. Once they were on, they stayed on until yesterday.  

 Keep an eye on that lower left corner of the tree. It ended up hosting about half of the ornaments on our tree, all packed 2-3 to a branch. Cozy, eh?

The happiest of all. Jack was a blast this Christmas. He soaked up all of the sights, tastes, sounds, and traditions. I taught him how to squint his eyes to make the lights on the tree sparkle and dance. He can sing about 4 carols all by himself, and he enjoyed reading Christmas story after story after story after story. We haven't pushed the Santa issue, we just tell him that Santa is a guy in a lot of the holiday stories, and Jack thinks he is pretty nice. Kind of like Clifford the big red dog. Someone told him that Santa was going to come to his house and Jack got all excited about having waffles with him and maybe building a fort. So innocent and friendly. I love it.

Christmas is gone, and the lights are packed away. But, I am thrilled at the thought of doing it all again next year with Jack old enough to ice cookies, London repeating Jack's excitement from this year, and Blake watching the train run around the tree.