Joys of the Holidays

So we are all decorated for the Christmas holiday. But with it comes the unavoidable annoyances that holiday decorations bring, especially with 3 cats and a 15 1/2 month old in the house. What I wasn't expecting was that Ethan and Holly can't seem to keep their hand off of the tree! Everyday I find that Ethan has decided to rearrange all the ornaments in clumped groupings through out the tree. Boy does that drive me CRAZY!! Who would have thought that my 6 year old is more of a problem with the tree than my toddler. Mason has been really good with the tree at least. He has one ornament that has jingle bells on it that he takes off everyday just so he can shake it. Other than that he just goes really close up to the tree and looks at it, then looks at me and or Ryan who say "no,no,no". If it is Ryan who says it he bursts into tears and runs to me but if it is me he just walks away. Why is that? But he is such a good kid when it comes to the tree.

The presents and the "Little People" nativity on the other hand... Mason likes to pull each gift out from under the tree and take it to the nearest person. Which will be great on Christmas day because I think we will let him pass out the gifts. The nativity is always pulled apart and the button that plays "Away in a Manger" is always pushed. I have had to turn it off and told the older kids to "NOT TURN IT ON UNDER PUNISHMENT OF DEATH" at times but all of them seem to love playing with it. Christmas is the only time of year they can play with the nativity because I'm sure the different "peoples" would go missing if we kept it out for them to play with all year.

The cats also love to play and especially sleep under the tree. It gets warm under there when to lights are on and the love the heat. I thought Tess was going to drive me crazy because she was always trying to climb the tree while I was working on getting all the lights to work, but thankfully she has not tried to climb it since the ornaments have been put on. She just bats at a couple of the small balls on the inside of the tree now. I can handle that...I think.

We have also been enjoying our new flat screen TV we got the day after Thanksgiving. Our other TV died. I think something happened when we moved because ever since March we have had some small white lines across the top 3 inches of the screen. The color has also been going "wonky" since then too. So we dealt with it till all the good after Thanksgiving sales and found a REALLY good deal. The kids love it and tell Ryan and I just how cool it is often. As you can see from the picture the old staple at our house is still "Yo Gabba Gabba". That is almost all that is on during the day anymore, well other than Ethan playing Mario Cart.

The kids are very excited for Christmas and are just bouncing all the time. Holly is calling the Christmas presents Jesus' Birthday presents. We have already had the discussion about why we celebrate Christmas and she asks if she can open one of the "Birfday presents" almost everyday. I just hope that we can keep everything under wraps till the big day. I am out numbered now a days 3 to 1.

Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.