Decorating the Tree

Last week, Ben got home Wednesday night from Orlando, and after putting Rachel to bed, we got to work decorating the Christmas tree.....otherwise, it'd be on our sun porch for about another 2 weeks due to our schedules. I'm sure Ben was tired, but we had fun. He did a great job w/ the lights and most of the ornaments while I baked some cookies. I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to decorating the tree (and I think I do better when the tree is about 2/3rds decorated so I can just come in and rearrange and finish up), so this system worked out well for us;-)

Rachel got to wake up Thursday morning to a decorated Christmas tree in the living room. She, of course, groggily said "It fall down!", but I think we've started to move past that perception that all Christmas trees fall down. Now, I'm just trying to keep her from playing w/ the ornaments. Truthfully, she does better w/ the ornaments than the cat does (we've had some years w/ just lights and other years w/ only the top 1/4 of our tree decorated). After making progress w/ her not touching the ornaments; now, she just wants to kiss some of the ornaments......which is technically touching the ornaments, but I tell ya, this toddler is really smart - she knows how to technically touch something but be so cute and innocent about it that she technically gets to do what she's technically not supposed to do. I've been bamboozled! Oh well....it's really sweet when she leans over so carefully and gives a teddy bear ornament or a soft snowman ornament a little kiss. I draw the line at her trying to kiss the bird house ornament (which she calls a church every time....despite multiple corrections)....w/ that one I know she's just trying to get away w/ touching the ornament.....I may be a softy w/ this one but I'm not that soft!
And here's our little tree......just the perfect size for us and our living room. We are really enjoying the tree....it looks great and it's not annoying me b/c of it's size...it's a win-win!