An ode to my mom

My mom has a great eye for decorating.  She ALSO has the disgusting ability to skillfully execute her ideas...at least, it's disgusting to those of us still trying (and failing) to tie bows that don't come out looking like snarls.

(Explanation of the bow irritation:  I'm in charge of the PTA bulletin board at school, and it took me FOREVER to tie a bow for the present on the Christmas board...and in the end it was mostly just stapled to ***look*** like a bow.  But I digress.)

Back on track.  I didn't inherit Mom's mad skills.  I can't arrange flowers or decorate cakes, and I DEFINITELY can't tie a decorative bow.  I didn't get her cute nose and perfect toes, either..curse you, FrankenToes!!!!

Looking on the bright side, however, the list of stuff I do have includes--and this is a huge relief--a Christmas tree without a spider infestation.

So life's pretty good.  We decorated the tree tonight.  I think I stress too much about things that aren't very important.  For example, I'm kinda bothered that our tree clearly illustrates the theme, "A Toddler Lives Here," as seen below:

If you look carefully, you can CLEARLY see just how far Gabriel can reach.  For those of you who can't, here's a helpful photo edit (please note the tree is currently bow-free.  I haven't finished wrestling with the new blue and silver snarls.  I mean bows):

We didn't even finish decorating before I gave up on the pipe dream that I would be able to keep Gabriel away from the shiny stuff.  But now that I've had time to bemoan my tree (yeah...shallow), I've decided that I would far rather have a toddler-friendly (if slightly goofy-looking) tree and a Gabriel than a beautiful tree with no Gabriel.  So things balance out.  Besides, it's not just Gabriel who wreaks havoc on our Christmas decorations. For example:

It's a Jurassic Christmas!

Those poor villagers...MWAH HA HA HA HA!

In other news, Jon and I have taken to torturing the boys, at least to hear them tell it.  OH YEAH!  It's all part of our intricate plot to lighten Santa's payload this year:

I only WISH that was a staged picture...they were literally bracing themselves to choke down dinner.  Granted, it was tomato soup, but still...har har har, you're welcome!

To sum things up:

1.  Mom, you are amazingly talented.  Also, thanks for being so patient with all of us Tree Destroyers, as I'm sure this isn't a unique occurrence.

2.  Living with little boys is hysterical.  You just have to take Ferris Bueller's advice:  life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.