I was hesitant to put the Christmas tree up this year. Last year we put up a small tree & the boys decorated it with their toys and umm... Underwear, lol. I put up our gorgeous new tree but held off on decorating it. I bought the boys some little wooden decorations that they could color & paint before hanging them on the tree & thought if that went well we would try some more. Well they couldn't leave the tree alone let alone the ornaments so I didn't think more ornaments would happen...
I saw this great ornament project on Facebook that I loved & wanted to try out this year. It was pretty simple, I put broken pieces of crayons in clear glass ornaments & heated them, melting the wax & swirling it around the ornament. They turned out really cool but the boys couldn't really help out other than picking colors & dropping the crayon pieces in. The glass got pretty hot not to mention they were GLASS. The boys were pretty happy with just breaking crayons though :)
When we finished the project the boys were eager to hang them on the tree & did a pretty good job. This is when I got brave & decided to bring in a box of ornaments for them to hang. This is also when things got a little crazy & ornaments started to fly. So I very quickly put that box back out in the garage & crossed my fingers that what made it on the tree would survive through Christmas. I'd say about 75% survived. Garren is just destructive! I forgot to take pictures of these & they are packed up already now.
Cecil Cat
I never did attempt a tree skirt or wrapped gifts under the tree. Garren has already opened a wrapped package that he found that was not his, so I wasn't even going to tempt them. Our cats also make having a Christmas tree up a little worrisome. It wasn't too bad with just Murphee but with 2 cats it got a little shaky, literally. Both Cecil & Murphee climbed the tree, they also chased each other up & down the tree. Adding ornaments distracted them only momentarily before they started dive bombing the ornaments while chasing each other up & down the tree.
I had our stockings neatly hung but again Garren had other things in mind, like wearing the stockings & pulling the pom poms off of them. Have I mentioned his destructiveness??? Next year I think I would like to find or make a sign to hang them from. Command hooks have nothing on 3.5 year old triplets!!!
We made just a few salt dough ornaments again this year. I was going to use them to adorn the little jelly jars I made of Essential Oil infused body butter & salt scrubs, just one more thing I forgot to do. The jars did get adorable little curly bow ribbons but somehow, even with them sitting on the counter right next to the jars, I forgot to add the salt dough ornaments :/
The main reason for making salt dough this year though was to make a set of the boys handprints for all of the grandparents. My mom loved the handprints we made last year & mentioned they would be nice grandparent gifts, so I obliged this year & even let the boys paint them themselves. I did have to go back & outline the handprints themselves, they got a little lost in the multitude of paint colors & blobs. Everyone seemed to really like the handmade gift from each of the boys. I failed to take photos again before giving them all as gifts. I do think we may make another set to keep though. I loved the added touch of the boys painting them :)
I'm thinking next year will be the big decorating year. Maybe they will not throw glass ornaments across the family room them? Maybe the cats will be calmer? Maybe the boys won't rearrange my Christmas village over & over again? Who knows really, but a mom can hope!
I hope your Christmas memories are as sweet & comical as ours have been!
Happy New Year to you all!!!
Oh my god, the cats in the tree are hilarious!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're super crafty, I'll need to remember some of those crafts for when Fox is older! I was glad he isn't crawling yet, so we can enjoy one more year with a Christmas tree before the chaos begins! :)