And so this is Christmas...

Christmas officially arrived in our house yesterday. We have a fake tree. Sorry to those of you reeling in horror but we purchased it six years ago when we lived in a flat on the third floor and Husband (then Fiancé) didn’t relish the prospect of hauling a real one up (then back down) the stairs. I am also allergic to real ones so it seemed like the most sensible option and has also turned out to be cost effective because it looks pretty much as good as the day we bought it – there is a lesson here, spend a bit more on your tree and it’ll last you longer!

So the tree was up but looking rather naked when Little E and I appeared for breakfast. I had planned for us to spend an hour or so lovingly decorating the tree together whilst Husband was playing football - this was not to be. Instead my over enthusiastic nearly three year old rushed into the front room and proceeded to empty every bauble, string of beads and trinket onto the floor in a cloud of glitter. Whilst I was grappling with the lights she spent ten minutes trying to put as many baubles as possible onto the same branch before losing interest and insisting I put Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs on. With a heavy heart I gave in but in hindsight I should have gone with The Snowman or Elf to keep in line with the festive spirit.

So everything was quite calm for an hour or so until I’d finished all the decorating and hovered up the glitter and tinsel tufts covering every surface. Then Little E noticed the decorations. She refused for any kind of beads or tinsel to be on the tree and pulled it off to use as an elaborate necklace. At this point I removed all long strangly decorations from all surfaces . She also appropriated the silver wire reindeer decoration from the window sill to be her new baby. The reindeer was subjected to a series of ordeals from being put to bed, pushed around in the pram and a trip to doctor Eloise where she performs a series of tests using her plastic doctors kit then announces the reindeer needs to go to bed to get better. At this point the Reindeer is no longer glitter encrusted and I need to get the hoover out again to clear up the trail left by reindeer’s activities during the day.  Just when I thought all had settled down I noticed all the pink decorations were missing from the tree (at least the lower 2/3rds). Yes, Little E had taken it upon herself to round up all the pink decorations and hide them. I found them eventually behind a cushion. They are her pirate treasure apparently and despite repeated warnings not to touch the tree I can see this treasure hunt being repeated numerous times over the next three weeks!

Christmas decorating (spot the reindeer surgery!)