I put up the tree.That's no longer one of my favorite things about the holidays.
It was fun when my kids were young because it represented Santa's impending arrival. It was the showcase for their handmade ornaments throughout the years. I have good memories from those days and it was great times spent together. The huge tree was always decorated with most ornaments placed no higher than little hands, stepping on tippy toes could reach. The weighted branches hung low.
Still, even though they are all grown up, the tree comes out each year.
Last year the thought exhausted me. Because of the size, it takes two days to accomplish this feat. So, instead of my traditional tree, I bought a prelit, smaller one.
Instead of the years of collected handmade and Hallmark ornaments, I bought boxes of red and gold glass balls. I kept it simple. No bows or ribbons. Just a few gold curling accent twigs. The tree went up in less than two hours.
This year, I did the same thing. Except I had Bently and Quinn following my every move.
When I was done, I tried to get them to pose in front of the tree.
Quinn has selective hearing. He's old and probably flips me off in his mind several times a day. He was not going to pose with a tree or with his huge house mate.
Ben, on the other hand, is just a little over 2 years old and is still eager to please. Also, he will do just about anything for dog treats. He listens quite well and is patient with my effort.
So here's our attempt.
I called him over to the tree.
He sat, just as I asked.
I came closer, realized the flash shouldn't be on.
I told him to still sit there.
He sat.
"Crap, stay there Ben, this one is so blurry."
The tree is on one of those spinning bases.
Not happy, but he sat.
Still blurry, I think it's the spinning base.
"Stay there Ben." And he did.
"Ben ... hey where ya going?"
"Give me a few more tries!"
I give up, this is as good as it's going to get!
Bently held his patience with me for about 10 minutes.That's longer than I could, trying to figure out the camera.
15 comments:
Your tree is beautiful.
Beautiful tree. Chloe has grown up with my camera in her face. I'm sure she thinks I'm crazy.
It's beautiful. And Ben is such a good sport.
It looks beautiful...I'm impressed that Bently even made it 10 minutes.
It's a lovely tree!
I am so worried about the days when the kids are gone and I have to do this without them. I don't think I want to think about it anymore.
Your tree's a lot prettier than mine! Mine's still in the ground. Somewhere.
~Sigh~
Lovely tree! Despite the time is consumes, and despite the fact that my son is grown up and hasn't lived with us for years, I still love having the trees up. We're out of our minds, but we do two of them. One is 7 feet tall with a blue/white theme. The other is 9 feet tall and holds all the old ornaments that have memories attached to them. It's a joyful stroll down memory lane every time we decorate it and look at it, and worth the days it takes to get it up.
Gorgeous tree. Mine's self-lit also, and out...but not decorated. Company coming tomorrow, I guess I'll get around to it. Loved and laughed through your doggie photos.
Your tree looks great! My mom gave up getting trees and decorating them when I moved out. The last year I was home we had a white flocked tree. Now she decorates her mantle instead.
That's funny. I'm hip with the animal poses.
Way to go Ben with being such a patient poser, that is too funny..
Neat tree too...
I love your tree and your doggies are SO cute!
If my husband shared in the reminiscing like Karin describes, putting up the tree might be more enjoyable for me. If I'm putting up the artificial tree he will carry it up from the basement and then disappear as he has learned over the years that no matter what he does it's not "perfect" enough for me. If I'm doing a "real" tree, I am totally on my own because he knows I will buy one, drag it in, put it up, begin to decorate it, sometimes even complete it, then take it all down because I don't like it , go out and buy a second tree, drag it in, decorate it , and still bitch about it not being "perfect." Sometimes he's smarter than I give him credit for ...LOL!
I gave my big tree to Michael. I am so over all of that. Bought a little prelit tree and I am so much happier. That whole big Christmas tree thing is way overated. Your tree looks great.
Twinkly tree, lovely. I enjoy putting up the tree. Oh, but packing it down is hard work indeed. Takes hours.
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