Well here we are, December already. That was quick.
We’ve been riding a pretty solid stretch of decent weather here lately. It’s been on the damp side, but it was in the 50s again over the weekend, and even sunny for a little while. So I was able to put some trim around the window on the shed, move more logs, and put some lights up on the house, while maintaining feeling in my fingers the entire time. I have a tendency to delay the lights, which usually comes back to bite me as I run out of nice days. I thought not doing it over Thanksgiving weekend would haunt me, but it worked out okay. Little rainy, but at least it was mild.
We got our Christmas tree too, which is an improvement over most years. It was fairly sunny on Saturday, so we had a nice day for it. C enjoyed being out in the fresh air, and liked when I walked him through the big pines. I started out carrying him, which he had no problems with for the first fifteen minutes, but once he saw how much more fun it was on the ground, he’d had enough of that. After all, he can run now! Forget the fact that he’s only been walking for four months, he had to be down and running loose through acres of twelve-foot, tightly packed trees (where we’d lose him in about three seconds), and a minefield of stumps and holes. Heck, mommy’s been walking for 28 years, and she was tripping over stumps. I tried putting him on my shoulders, swinging him around, hanging him upside down…
But a one-year old will not be denied. He expressed his displeasure… loudly and repeatedly. Good thing we were on acres of land instead of in close quarters – people could hear the screaming, but most couldn’t see us, which saved him (us) some embarrassment. I’ve never been “that parent” with the screaming kid, so it was a new experience. And also eye-opening. I would always look at “that parent” and think to myself “Why can’t you control him?” but I realize now, there is no controlling them. You just deal with it. Very therapeutic, actually, to understand. This was probably the first real, public tantrum he’s thrown, so we’ll just look at it as a day of milestones. One more new phase of his development. Makes it sound so much better, doesn’t it?
Semi-related question of the day: real or fake trees?
Yikes. At least we didn’t have a full-on screaming fit, just some protestations when we had to go.
I would go with a fake tree IN A HEARTBEAT if any of the other members of the house would let me. Man, do I hate messing with the tree every year. Not having to string and unstring lights every year on a prickly, sappy tree would be such a great improvement.
Our evergreen is a “forever green”. I’m partial to the permanent trees myself. Saves me lots of work!