Ba-humbug

On Sunday I decided that we would put up the family Christmas tree.  I have only looked forward to this for the past 10 months so imagine my disappointment when the entire top section of our "pre-lit" tree didn't light.  After the boys woke up from their nap we got the Christmas decorations out of the garage. I was so excited.  I turned on Harry Potter and prepared the den for all the decorations.  Finn helped Michael carry them all in.  While they were working I took the tree out of the box and started putting it together.  I was so irritated when I turned it on and learned that the top third of the tree was out. 

Michael and Finn went to Home Depot to buy a Christmas light zapper.  It sounds ridiculous, but it mostly worked.  After we zapped the strand, most of them worked.  There was a small section that didn't come back on but, we just ran a separate strand of lights on the tree.  In the end the lights turned out alright.

Finn and Sam were pretty excited about putting the ornaments on.  I was pretty nervous about them breaking an ornament, but as it turns out I was the only Begley in the house to break one.  In fact, I broke two. I was so careful to redirect Sam every three second, so I was flabbergasted when I broke one.  

Since it took so long to get the tree lit, Finn didn't get to help with too many ornaments.  However, the had a good time helping.  I let him pick out the ornament - then he picked the spot on the tree.

 He put a few on himself. 

Sam had a good time too.  He enjoyed all the clutter and empty boxes.

 To keep him away from my ornaments I put him in his chair and gave him some cereal.

Even though the night started off glumly, I did manage to finish the tree. 

Poor Sam got ignored today.  I spent most of my time trying to make putting the tree up fun for Finn. Michael reminded me that I needed to take a picture with Sam in it too.