I think I’ll start with the tree.

Because HRH was home on Thursday, we took the opportunity to go get the Chistmas tree. We decided to go to the IKEA lot, because hey, twenty dollars for a tree is a good deal, and so is the coupon for $20 off a purchase in-store as of January 1. And you can’t beat the promise that IKEA will donate a seedling to a tree-planting project for every tree sold. We’ve had good experiences with IKEA trees in the past.

Despite the weather being very warm, we were in a very seasonal mood as all three of us bundled into the car and drove up. All the trees were still wrapped up, so we couldn’t see what shape they were, which was only a very mild handicap to the process because all trees change shape radically once they’re in stands for a few days, I find. Besides, wrapped trees are easier to transport. All of them were green green green and very fresh, and the lot smelled wonderful. HRH pulled a tree up and looked at it, and I picked one up and looked at it, and then we made polite noises at one another about how we really didn’t have a preference. (We honestly didn’t — well, at least I didn’t.) The decision was made by Liam in the end, and he chose mine. (Toddlers point a lot.)

It fit in our car, and Liam talked to it all the way home. HRH set it up in the stand and we cut the string that held it all together, and when released the branches began to settle into an interesting shape — it’s kind of an oval. It’s wider than it is deep, and it fits right up against our bookcases.

Liam was all for stroking the branches, and we kept saying “no no no, look don’t touch” in the sing-song way that means “you’re not being bad per se, you’re just doing something that we don’t want to encourage”. By Friday he would walk up to the tree, put his hands behind his back, and say “no no no” in the same sing-song fashion, showing us how good he was!

Sunday afternoon was the day we had blocked on the calendar to decorate it. HRH did the lights in the late afternoon, which excited Liam to no end, and I started to hang ornaments. I stopped, however, when Liam darted in and grabbed a life-sized apple ornament rolled in tiny artificial ice crystals, brought it to his mouth, and tried to take a big bite. He froze, released it and handed it back to me with a look of distaste, saying “no no no” before walking away. I laughed so hard that I was almost in tears, holding the ornament with a set of teeth marks in it. I will keep this apple and years from now I will pull it out and show him how at the first Christmas he could walk, he tried to eat the first ornament he got his hands on. Although I can’t blame him; it looks exactly like a real apple with ice on it, size, colour, and all.

We finished decorating it after he went to bed. I put the old pompom ornaments from my childhood tree on the lower branches, along with Jan’s ice-drop ornaments, because he can’t break those. Yesterday morning he came out of his room and stared at the tree, then ran up to it. We reminded him that the tree was for looking not touching, and we have had to remind him several times, but overall he’s been good. He does have to be reminded every morning again, though, and when he gets overexcited because he’s tired or hungry. And I caught him kissing a wooden penguin ornament today, and later he tried to feed it a cracker. He absolutely loves it all.