Monday, December 6, 2010

A New Tree

I guess I will still have a few surprises in store for the years to come. Through the past few days, a lot of things have happened that make me want to write them down and remember them. Last year, our Little People Nativity set was used mostly by Trevor, or at least in the year's previous, but this year, it was all about a new "house" for Gwen. We have a 2ft tall Fisher Price Dollhouse, that was a quick grab for $1 at a garage sale 3 years ago. The family that lives there is our family, with Elizabeth and baby Sam as the additional kids in the family. We have a Little People dollhouse that is used by any other dolls or figures that appear in the house. They can be princesses, little people from various toys, like we have a carnival playset and Noah's ark. We have two castles for the small princess dolls. Yet she still loves to have anything that might be like a house used as one, hence the excitement with the nativity set. She is learning about baby Jesus in preschool and Mommy Mary and the angel but the animals seem to travel among the houses. I remember when the nativity was used for Lightning McQueen and his friends.

On Saturday, we went to our usual tree place, and I was quite unhappy with the selection. We have a vaulted ceiling so we can and do usually get an 8ft + tree. I was surprised not just at the lack of height in trees, but usually I can find a few that have a good girth to them. Not so this year. Pretty much all of them I could wrap my arms around no problem. The one we got is no exception, but I guess it is better than some of the ones I saw. I did also settle for the 7ft one, so I did save about $20 on what I usually get.

Sunday after church we decorated the tree. Gwen had found the Cinderella doll-like ornament when I brought all the Christmas stuff upstairs and had been playing with her like a doll. Except after a while I think she realized that she wasn't meant to be as a doll because she didn't have any legs. After that experience, I figured that a lot of the ornaments she would see would become dolls, similar to how Trevor had played with all vehicles and toys that he liked to play with, rather than put them on the tree.

Not so: she loved opening all the boxes for the ornaments and having me put them on the tree. She didn't care at all to play with them and keep them off the tree. Trevor's annual tradition has continued though. All of his Star Wars ships, Luke, and Toy Story ornaments are not on the tree because he would rather play with them. I tired to sneak one on, but he found it and took it off the tree. As if that weren't enough, the ornaments he does play with he will put them on the tree, not as ornaments but as if they are hiding. I guess the tree is part of the game now. So other "ornaments" are now on the tree. He has lego ships on branches, our Super Why vehicles, and even a Luke figure that he got for his birthday that looks identical to the ornament we have of Luke.

Gwen, on the other hand takes or asks to have ornaments taken down to be played with and then put back on the tree. Her favorite are: what looks like a wedding topper with Russ and my anniversary date written on it, a stuffed crocheted Christmas tree in the shape of a small rectangle that Gwen uses as a pillow for her dolls, and my dried clay figure of when I graduated from High School in 1996 - she calls it the red doll. She does not bring these upstairs, and once she is done she asks to have them put back on the tree. She will also spend time just looking at the ornaments she can identify and talking about them: Look, that's Trevor with his nuk from when he was a baby. That's Mrs. Potato Head. That's my name with a crown and a princess.

One other tradition that has been recently re-started is Elf on a Shelf. For those of you that don't know, you can buy a book with this elf that sits on a shelf in your house. Once you name him, he travels to Santa each night to report to him how the children in the house have been. On Christmas Eve he reports for the last time and does not reappear until the next year. Last year was our first year, and Trevor named our elf Frankincense. We weren't sure when he was going to reappear, but he did right after we got our tree. New to our tradition is that Trevor has been giving Frankincense a piece of chocolate from his advent calendar to eat every night. I don't think he understands the concept of bribery yet but I do wonder if he thinks it will get him better reports.....

Then on Sunday afternoon we went as a family to watch the movie Tangled. Very well done movie. The kids would have done fine but they each had their own bathroom break during the movie. Gwen asked me today if we could watch it again, so I know she liked it. Plus her miniature Rapunzel doll has a whole new life which she can reenact. Trevor thought he wouldn't like it because the main male character is sort of a bad guy, but he said afterwards he was going to be unhappy if he would have died, but otherwise I think he did like it.

So that's it for now. Less than 3 weeks to go! I have to start checking things off my list!

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