Fakie, fakie.... NO mistakie!

I swore I wouldn't make them do it.  I promised my husband... never again.  I should have gotten rid of it last January when we moved just to make sure I kept that promise.

But right now I am sooooooo glad I still have it.  Sometimes being the Master Procrastinator has an upside ;-)

I've gone back on my word.  I wish it weren't so, but having spent the last week feeling like utter crap and then having all the kids wind up sick with something or other this weekend (of course!  it's vacation!) combined with having heavy rain and wind in the forecast from now until Christmas, well....

When I made the proposal in this way…

"So who wants to go out today in the pouring rain to go to the sopping muddy Christmas Tree Lot?  We can pick out a soaking, dripping tree and bring it home to surprise daddy!  Whaddya say?  Who's in?  We can put on Hefty bags to stay dry like we did that one time... remember?"

"Can we go tomorrow?"

"Well, it'll be the same tomorrow... the weather is supposed to be like this all week.  C'mon... you guys are so wimpy!"  (honestly, I had zero interest in going... I had been pushing the fake tree since right before I got sick... so much easier... I was using some kind of psychology on them, I think)

"Uhhhhhh.... do we still have the fake tree, mom?"

"I thought you guys hated that thing?  We have it.  It's in the garage."

"Can we just use THAT?  It would be a lot better ... and easier.  And we could do it today."

"No problem."

So even though I went back on my word, it was with full cooperation from the troops!

In the beginning, there was a bush...

The bush would be met with a top...

And attended to by a Tinsel Bearer with a smile...

They would form a tree...

Throw a few lights on that bad boy...

Get that Tinsel Bearer into the mix...

Have the requisite toddler messing playing with the lights...

Truth be told, the little person in that last picture had me on the fence about doing a tree at all this year!   Miss C is quite a monkey.  There will be only unbreakable and ugly ornaments on the tree this year... nothing that would appeal to a toddler (or probably anyone else, for that matter!).