Wednesday, December 15, 2010

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

On Sunday morning, Caleb and I headed out for a before-church run to Target while Daddy and Ethan held down the fort at home.  We got what we needed and pulled back in the garage just in time to pick Daddy and Ethan up for church.  Church ran a little long that day, and, after eating out, we didn't make it back home until around 2:00 pm.  Both boys fell asleep in the car, and we decided to carry them upstairs and let them nap since we knew they would have to be up later than usual that evening.   Marcus and I ended up hanging out upstairs until the boys woke up around 3:45 pm.  When Caleb woke up, he went straight downstairs for a drink.  Our conversation (still upstairs) was suddenly interrupted by Caleb's deeply chagrined voice wailing: "Mommy!!!  Daddy!!!!  The Christmas tree fell all the way down!!!!!!"  I looked at Marcus, whose face was registering a fast-flash of surprise, realization, and then mild panic.  We rushed downstairs to see that, sure enough, the Christmas tree was flat on its side in the living room.

Ethan, conspicuously absent from the rush downstairs, was the first questioned.  He explained with the nonchalance of a two-year-old that he pushed the tree over so he could reach the train ornament that he wanted at the top.  The next question was, when did all this happen?  Marcus filled us in on that by sheepishly admitting that he had heard a crash downstairs while Caleb and I were at Target, but he thought it was just Ethan playing with his toys and had not investigated it.  So, our once-beautiful Christmas tree laid on its side in the living room for about seven hours before the tragedy was discovered.  And, naturally, I had watered the tree just before leaving for Target, so the laminate wood floors in our living room were flooded for half the day.

After five water-soaked towels, four broken ornaments, three dustpans full of tree needles, two whining kids and one hour of effort, the mess was cleaned up enough that we could go back to our preparations for the babysitter and the Christmas banquet we were attending that evening.  We did our best to restore the tree to its former glory on Monday and Tuesday by restringing some lights, rehanging ornaments and doing lots of fluffing, but I'm afraid it is a lost cause.  Caleb was so sad on Sunday night.  He told the babysitter everything that happened and explained sadly that "our tree used to be so beautiful."  All in all, I'm just really, really glad that Ethan didn't get hurt, and that the floors do not seem to have any noticeable damage from the water.

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