Last Saturday we set up our Christmas tree. Our house was clean and it seemed like a good time to do it.
(Taylor kept calling this branch his "Christmas." I told Kevin and he was like "well, that was easy, now what are we going to get the other boys?)
But then life got busy and we decided to wait until family night (Monday) to decorate it and the rest of our house. But Monday night we went up to Marne's and for the past 2 days I've told the boys "as soon as our house is clean we can decorate for Christmas!" This, however, has not proved to be motivating to a 4, 3, or 2 year old and despite all my efforts, our house has not met my standards for decorating readiness.
So I lowered my standards and hauled all the stuff up to my messy family room this morning, hoping that all will settle as it should (a clean, decorated house) by the end of the day. Now Jack is more than willing to help, with the decorating part at least. He has hung 20 ornaments in a 1 foot radius. And it looks as though Christmas has been dumped into our lives, mixed with cereal bowls and toys, so I can't help but think that putting off the cleaning was a bad idea.
Moral of the story: stick to your standards, even if they mean no holiday cheer for a few more days.
Well I like how you said you lowered your standards so you could go ahead and decorate. With 4 little boys, I think the fact that you got the tree up at all is reason to celebrate!
ReplyDeleteI miss the tree with the decorations all near the floor. I wish I had taken a picture of our tree like that but I never did...