O Christmas Tree

We have a long history of bizarre things happening to our Christmas trees.  We've had them fall over, one was covered with tiny black bugs (which I vacuumed off the tree daily), one had a birds nest inside, one had praying mantis chrysalis's (sp?) all over it, one with double trunks that wouldn't fit in our normal tree stand...  We just seem to always have some funny story to tell about our trees.

Our normal tradition is to go on Thanksgiving weekend and chop down a tree.  The last two years, we went to the only place in the area you can chop down your Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend.  Their selection was pitiful (double trunk trees all over) last year.  We decided to try again this year and hope for the best, but no decent trees to be had.  So for the first year ever, we went to a Christmas tree lot and picked out a tree.  At first the kids were disappointed, but the tree was beautiful and smelled so nice!

Fast forward 2 weeks after getting the tree.  It's not drinking any water and is increasingly brittle.  Eric started asking me what we should do.  Should we replace the tree?  Ugh.  It's at the point now that if you touch the tree it falls apart.  So today the kids and I have the distinct pleasure of taking all the ornaments off the tree, getting the tree out of the house, cleaning up the thousands of needles that are all over the floor.  Tomorrow we will go get another Christmas tree and start over again.  Hopefully this one lasts until after the 1st of January.

This makes two firsts for us with Christmas trees!  First time we got one from a lot and first time we have to replace a dead tree.  Now we just have to figure out what our new tradition is going to be.  Obviously getting a tree from a lot Thanksgiving weekend will not work.  The one tree farm will not work.  We can get a permit from the forest service guys and go into the woods and chop down a tree, but not until the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Or we could get a fake tree.

I know, I know.  We live in Colorado.  Aren't there Christmas trees EVERYWHERE?  Apparently it is not so simple.

Ummm, Hello?

Apparently one of my past blog posts caught some attention this week.  I'm a bit intrigued by the whole thing.  A post where I was in a horrible mood and posted exactly what I thought is being read, lots.  So people like it when I throw a temper tantrum?  :-)  For those of you who don't know what post it is, here's the link:   Foul Mood.  I did post a follow up to that one the next day, about trying to figure out the solution to my frustrations.

My husband said I should say something else, since new people are reading this.  But, truthfully, I don't know what to say!!!  Life is very very hard.  Whether you homeschool or put your kids in public school or don't have kids or you're married or you're not married or whatever, life is hard.  Somehow we need to figure out how to support and encourage each other in the midst of it all!

Instead of trying to say something smart and perfect, I will point you to someone who has encouraged me over and over again with her writings, Sally Clarkson.  Her writings speak to my soul.  She communicates exactly what I'm feeling and am unable to express.  And she is REAL.  I just finished reading her book, Season's of a Mother's Heart.  It took me at least a year to read this book (if you know me, you know I read books in a day or two).  I cried pretty much every time I read it (also, if you know me, you know I don't cry easily).  It was encouraging and challenging and just what I needed.

Thanks to all who have read a bit of my ramblings this past week.

Creative Christmas Shopping

We recently decided to get rid of a bunch of toys.  The day we were getting rid of stuff, a neighbor came over and I gave her some things for her kids.  While we were chatting, she mentioned she thought it would be a good idea for the her kids to set up shop and sell toys to my kids so my kids could purchase gifts for their siblings.  I promptly forgot about the whole idea.  About a week later, she mentioned that her kids were happily setting up a shop for our kids to come shopping.  OH!  About a week after that I casually mentioned to my kids what they were planning and that they could sell toys to those kids in return.

The last couple of days, Rebekah and Seth have been busily setting up a shop in Seth's bedroom for the neighbor kids.  They even set up a table in the room with "display only" items - complete with a sign!  This morning, Rebekah told me that she and Seth had to have tea because they were using the tea bag tags as price tags on their items.  I quickly told her she was welcome to take the tags off all the tea bags as long as she didn't ruin the tea bag!

About an hour before the other kids came over, Seth and Rebekah had the Christmas lights on, the Christmas music on and were still arranging their store.  They even had Josiah stationed outside the door (with a big sign on the door reading "CLOSED") with a walkie talkie.  He was their security guard!  He LOVED this job.  He stood there while they chatted back and forth through the door.

The other kids came over and shopped and later today my kids went to their house and shopped.  They were supposed to price the things VERY cheaply ($.01 to $.25).  They didn't always, but they did let the kids pay pretty much whatever they could.  Funny though, all that prep work and my kids had VERY few toys set out to buy!!!  I think it must be because we'd just given away a bunch of toys.

My favorite thing was when Rebekah was showing me the gifts she had purchased.  She mentioned that she had a bag of gumballs because her friend couldn't give her change.  Then I asked her how much she spent.  "Five dollars.  I didn't want to bring the coins over because I only had the ones they had given me earlier in the day and I'm saving those.  So I took five dollars over."  HILARIOUS!  She has NO concept of money, obviously!  She kept a few coins - maybe worth $1 and spent five.  And happily took gumballs as change!!!