Fake Christmas Tree, God Forbid
Last night my husband FINALLY climbed the ladder to the attic and brought down our- it's hard to even write-fake Christmas tree. I never in my entire life thought I'd have a fake Christmas tree. Not only did I grow up in the country where we grew and cut our own trees off our own ancestral land, we also sold Christmas trees- nice tall, thin, elgant ones. And now I have a Christmas tree my husband bought on clearance one year. I finally gave in that year after a huge fight over my lousy housekeeping, pine-needles-stuck-in-the-rug-still at Easter, well-your-family-is-so-tacky-anyway, well-your-family's-tree-might-have-been-perfect-but-it-was-all-a-lie. After that text book, leading-up-to-the-holiday-stress-induced-marital-blow-out, I agreed to a fake tree while we still had a child who couldn't resist the temptaions of a real tree: playing in the water, putting things in the water, shaking the needles off the branches, etc. I think we're finally past that point now actually. And while my older son still longs for a real tree- having had them before, Walker is more than satisfied with the fake. Last night he "helped" his father put the tree together. This always makes me a bit queasy to watch. It's like watching one of those surgery channels. Some things I just think we're not meant to see. One of them is the sawing into the skull of a person lying on an operating table. Another is a naked pole covered with a slight green fuzz of something that I guess is supposed to suggest a trunk. Except for being green instead of brown.?? It's kind of an embarrassing sight- I just wanted to throw a blanket over it or something. However, Walker was absolutely delighted. He knows most of his colors now and some of the branches are color-coded so he could help his father. "I elp you daddy, here daddy, here ellow. Yea tree. I elp. I big man elp daddy." Yes I got out the camera and actually recorded the assembling of the fake tree for the first time. Walker is like that. He is always turning things around for me. Last night I was so glad my husband had the foresight to get a tree his little boy with Down Syndrome would be able to help "build". Now Walker calls it "my tree" which makes his brother less than happy. But I know it's not my tree. I can take no credit. This years tree- fake though it is- is perfect to Walker. And that's more than good enough for me.
6:45:26 AM 
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