It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

So, yes, we did get some snow in Asheville on Saturday. We woke up to some big, fat snowflakes circulating around our house and got super excited. And then it stopped after three hours, it all melted and everything was green again. Green and COLD. Brutally cold for the South. I’m talking 35-degrees cold. Not-able-to-wear-your-flip-flops-outside cold. And here is where I’ll pause for all my non-Southern friends and family to roll their eyes and groan. PAUSE.

So while we didn’t have the winter wonderland of a landscape that I had hoped, we still had a fire in the fireplace and proceeded to decorate one of the prettiest Frasier Firs I’ve ever seen. Much thanks to our good friends, the Sparks family, that grew this gorgeous tree and then so kindly delivered it to us. THANK YOU! BEST TREE EVER!

And leading into decorating the tree, I had a mini panic-attack trying to predict how Toddler-T would handle everything. I already knew that my days of having a perfectly trimmed and decorated tree were long gone, but I was seriously wondering if she would even allow this new, shiny, blinking embellishment in our living room. Just the other day I overheard a mother at the YMCA talking about how her two-year old knocked down their tree, shattered all the ornaments and then hid under their table for two hours. And then she said they just decided to scratch the whole tree and threw it out on the curb. And the other mother she was talking to was all horrified, disgusted and disappointed. And I was all, OH MY GOD. Don’t let that be Taylor and our tree.

But my daughter surprised me. I mean, Chris and I were definitely still the only ones hanging up the super-breakable, valuable ornaments, but she was totally in charge of the sturdy decorations. And she acted like a pro, spacing them out around the bottom of the tree. Taking a few moments each ornament to find the perfect spot.

Needless to say, I was a very proud Momma. Even this afternoon, a full 24-hours after putting it up, the tree is still standing and fully decorated. I mean, she may rearrange an ornament or two, but I’ll definitely take an unevenly decorated tree over one that’s been smashed and is laying by the curb.