Decking The Halls

Much to the kids' delight, we pulled our box of holiday decorations down from the attic over the weekend. The house is now sufficiently decked out in angels, candles, advent calendars, and stockings.

But no tree yet. I usually like to hold off until just a week or so before Christmas before putting up a tree. For the kids, this is much too long to wait. After fielding the question "When are we going to get a tree?" for the 53rd time, I started to insist that we were not getting a tree this year, but would instead just hang the ornaments on the vacuum cleaner. The kids thought this was funny at first, but as I persisted with this story, they started to wonder if I might be serious.

That night, after the kids went to bed, I followed through on my threat. The kids woke up the next morning to vacuum cleaner perched up on the tree stand, wrapped with lights, and topped with a star. Seeing their astonished reactions was most amusing, as is listening to them explain the Christmas vacuum when their friends come over the house to play.

The kids most likely suspect that we'll replace the vacuum with an actual Christmas tree at some point, but I like keeping them guessing.