Rockin Around the Christmas Tree

My kids are busy.  Just ask Molly, "Just a sec, I'm busy!" is one of the only things she can say.  Essentially the minions get into and try to destroy everything in their path. This is one of the reasons why we were a little concerned about Christmas Decorations this year.*  We had a few goals with decorations this year and being able to display some of our favourite, breakable ornaments without incident** and not having to worry about a giant tree smooshing our children were two of the biggest.

Molly & Jack helping to sort ornaments

 

This year is the first year in a decade where we won't have a real tree.  At first this made me sad because our house won't smell like a pine air freshener and we won't get to support the boy scouts, but then I realized at the same time that Chris won't be sick with allergies this year and we won't still be vacuuming up pine needles in April, so I'm over it.***

First we purchased miniature (twin) trees from Walmart, ones that are small enough that they can't crush a small child or cat that a small child is terrorising.  Next we tested to see which ornaments were breakable, swallow able, potentially toxic or potentially hurty - anything with those wire hooks was moved up super high.  Whenever we were unsure, our friend T simply handed the ornament in question to one of the minions and said, "Give this a whirl, see if you can break or choke on this" while we supervised.   Some stores are selling non smashable ornaments this year (or maybe this is just the first time we noticed).  These sound appealing, but don't get too excited.  The ones we saw were pretty ugly.  For your information: Jingle bells = chokable.  Also, the jury is still out on what's toxic, only time will tell.

  

Our breakable ornaments have been hung from the top of our living room window this year.

 Molly's first attempt at knocking down the tree / choking on ornaments.

 

*Visions of broken ornaments danced around their heads.

**This means no smashy, smashy of cherished favourites or trips to the emergency room because someone decided to shove a glass icicle up his sister's nose.

***I can go to Bath and Body Works and get a candle that will supply my Christmas smell needs.