A Georgia Girl in Germany

The kids have been very excited about getting the house ready for the holidays, and we have the perfect spot for the Christmas tree -- in the alcove at the bottom of the stairs. It doesn’t require any moving of furniture (other than the getting-settled-rearranging that we’ve been doing). Since Nana and Papa were here, I was able to convince Papa to lead the effort on getting our tree up. The kids were very willing participants, and they all helped fairly equally.



In true leadership style, Papa orchestrated the entire mission, sorting the different-colored branches and divvying them out to the kids.

The best part of all was that I convinced Papa to string up the lights. I was limited on how many strands could go on the tree since we have to use a transformer (therefore, only one 9-outlet extension cord instead of two). Nana had commented earlier that she was missing that they weren’t putting up a tree at home (with being in Germany for Thanksgiving and Texas for Christmas...barely a week home in between trips), so I tried to convince her that I was allowing them the wonderful opportunity to put up a tree -- our tree. I don’t think she bought it {grin}.

MacKenzie was in charge of looking for burnt-out bulbs to replace. She did a wonderful job having the strands 100% ready well before Papa needed them to string up.

Of course, Zachary and Nana helped too. Zachary was on burnt-out-bulb patrol too, and Nana helped string up the lights. Me? I watched. And handed out replacement bulbs. And took photos. And stayed out of the way.



When the lights were up, Benjamin was ready to hang his new ornaments: Lighting McQueen and Sally from the movie “Cars,” and a puppy on a scooter.

Benjamin was very excited when we finally pulled out the ornaments to decorate the tree. I gave in this year, and opted to do the kid-themed tree instead of my glass-and-crystal-decorated tree. It made decorating a bit easier since the kids were heavily (almost exclusively) involved! However, Benjamin found my crystal “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament from 2003, and was adamant that “his” ornament go on the tree. Of course, I obliged.

Benjamin found good spots for all his ornaments, and was mostly interested in only placing his ornaments. He was so quick at hanging his -- and not putting his boxes away -- that he was soon done. Zachary had the most ornaments (due to his three-Christmas head-start on MacKenzie, and eight-Christmas head-start on Benjamin), but Benjamin wasn’t interested in helping Zachary with his ornaments...and actually seemed a bit down that he didn’t have as many ornaments as his big brother. I’m sure he’ll catch up soon enough.


Zachary was determined to place the angel on top of the tree -- from our winding staircase that climbs just behind the tree. He had the right altitude, but his arm wasn’t quite long enough to get her placed just right, so I had to help straighten her up a bit.

Mission accomplished!

To help make sure we stay in the Christmas spirit, we've been listening to a variety of Christmas carols. Benjamin’s favorite is Dolly Parton’s rendition of “Go Tell it on the Mountain.” He especially loves the double-time portion of the song, when he gets to sideways-head-bang to the beat! He also sings about a “partridge in a pantry” as part of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Too cute!!

Labels: Benjamin, Christmas, MacKenzie, Nana and Papa, Zachary