53/365: I've Become "That Mom"

I had a feeling it would happen sooner or later. I would become "that mom." You know the one I mean. Her kids have a project for school and she opens up the craft closet and the supplies billow out. Paint pens, glitter glue, ribbon, stickers, stamps, you name it, she's got it so that her kid's project is top of the line. I realized I may fit that term on Wednesday. Boo got his weekly homework assignment and he immediately asked if he could look in my supply box in the craft room. What craft room? When did we get a craft room? Then I realized what he meant. The room in the basement where I keep photos, mementos and all that stuff with which I'm going to eventually create something cool and memorable. He found my box of old sorority girl supplies and that it would be just what we needed. We looked through it and it wasn't quite what he'd expected, although he thought gluing the sparkly confetti to his tree would be the perfect solution...we still need to work on his understanding of kitschy. So what's a mom to do?

Go to Michael's of course! I spent my lunch hour on Wednesday roaming the aisles of Michael's, looking for just what we needed to decorate his tree. (I won't even go into the discussion here of how troubled I am by his public school assigning the decoration of a Christmas tree as homework. I'm not quite ready to be THAT mom yet.) I got pom poms, stickers, craft glue, and even a project for Bella to do while Boo finished the tree. Behold the finished project:

What really troubles me about this whole scene is that when I said we'd put the leftover supplies in a box for him to use later, he got really excited about having his own craft box. And I won't tell you what his sissy calls the craft room.

51/365: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I love Christmas. I love the spirit of the season, celebrating with family and friends, giving gifts, decorations, and baking. I have been decorating a Christmas tree since I was a young child and had to stand on a chair to put ornaments at the top of the tree. That's because as a child, we didn't do a lot of Christmas hoopla. For a number of years, my dad and brothers put trees on a 80 foot Cyprus tree, but that was it. (and Mom didn't have to do anything with it.) So I began collecting ornaments in college. For about seven years, I put Hallmark ornaments in layaway so I could be sure to get the ones I wanted and then I'd be in line at the Hallmark store on December 26 to pick through the ones that were half price. I will not admit to you how many ornaments I have . . . I actually can't because I've never counted them. All I know is that my current tree is about 8-9 feet tall and I have a few totes still full of ornaments I don't use.

When I moved into my first apartment, I also set some strict holiday guidelines for myself. The tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving. That's to give me the maximum time to enjoy it because, on December 26, by sundown, all signs of Christmas will be erased from my house save the evergreen wreath on my front door. Again, this goes back to my childhood because we often were taking down the tree on Valentine's Day. Last Friday my tree went up. The garland and Santa were on and other decorations displayed throughout the house. But I didn't get to the ornaments, much to Bella's chagrin. She asked about them on Sunday but I was spent after the cx race. And Monday after work I was on the trainer and didn't have time to get them out to put on the tree. I was planning getting to it tomorrow.

Tonight I came home to this glorious sight. Klucker and the kids had decorated the tree for me. I can't tell you how huge this is. Klucker will put away my ornament boxes and schlep things up and down the stairs for me, but decorating has always been my realm. (In all fairness it's probably because I'm uber-picky about my ornaments, boxes, storage.) But he took the chance because he knew how much I hated to making Bella wait. And because of that, in my eyes, it's the most beautiful tree I've seen.