They didn’t see.

The holiday season is here and Big Brother is the one with the most Christmas spirit at our house. We had waited and waited for snow. Big Brother didn’t believe it was winter until we got some snow. Even though at first it was a light dusting that blew away with the wind. To him, the swirling of snowflakes and the patches of ice around the yard meant one thing...Christmas was on its way. Little Brother doesn’t understand yet but he is excited about all the snow we got the past week.

What started it off was all the Christmas commercials before Thanksgiving. Like the Black Friday ones for Wal-mart and Target. The Target ones were so funny, about the woman who can’t sleep and is first in line at the store doors. Big Brother doesn’t even know what Black Friday is but tried to tell me that is where all the moms go. Lucky me, we had to go to Wal-mart that day for diapers and some snacks so the brothers and I got to peek at all the deals. Big Brother begged for a small christmas tree. It was only three feet tall, artificial and blue! He went on about how it was a boy tree and Little Brother’s and his gifts would go under that one. I let him get it as long as he picked out what he wanted on it. He chose all pink ornaments and wanted red lights for it. The tree was prelit with white lights and he thought red was the best match. Big Brother picked a star for the top and then grabbed some silver ornaments to add at the last minute.

Within minutes of walking in the front door, Big Brother started to bug about putting the boy tree up. So we did. With his decorations and the color combinations we ended up with what looked like a Dr. Seuss tree in the living room. It was tiny, blue, had mismatched lights, the bulbs were too big and there was too many. And the tree topping star was too big so the tree started to bend. But what I saw they didn’t see. To the boys, it was beautiful and they loved it. Then about an hour later, Little Brother started to smack ornaments off in a cruel game of catch me if you can. Poor Big Brother he was so sad, to him Little Brother was wrecking their magical tree and breaking his heart. To Little Brother he was getting the attention he craved from his brother. It’s too bad they didn’t see. I saw that one was taking it to the heart about a one year olds actions, and the one year old didn’t know it wasn’t a game. I tried to put the tree up on the end table out of reach but Little Brother just climbed it like a monkey and before I could think of my next move Big Brother did. He grabbed a little tote and said, “Here mom, we have to let him take them off and put them back on if he wants.” Little Brother was thrilled that he now had a job. Big Brother and I snuggled in the lazy boy rocker and watched “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.

The novelty of the little tree wore off after two weeks and Big Brother began to ask if we were getting a real christmas tree like we always do. I asked what we would do with the other one and he said, “We’ll put it in my room and it can be the bonus tree. I bet the special presents can go there!” We made a trip to Massena just for christmas lights for the outside of our house and a ‘real’ christmas tree. We checked out Home Depot first but nothing caught our eye. So the boys and I drove over to Wal-mart. There Big Brother spent a half hour picking out lights and about four seconds finding the perfect tree. Once we bought it and the Wal-mart worker carried it to our vehicle, we found out he couldn’t tie it to the roof. Only Home Depot provides twine. We did fit it inside the truck with the top sticking out the back window. The kids loved that and I had the heat blasted all the way home. They complained a few times about being too warm but I just pretended to turn it down like Big Brother requested but really didn’t.

Both of them fell asleep on the drive home. I carried each boy into the house and let them sleep on their own couch while I rushed with that tree. I got it on the stand. Managed to string the lights and hang the bulbs on it before they woke up. Big Brother opened his eyes and that was the first thing he saw. He was amazed. He laid on the couch staring at it with a little smile on his face for about ten minutes before he said, “Our tree is beautiful mom, I love it!” His exclamation made Little Brother sit upright from sleeping. I got to watch his face too as he took in his first sight upon waking up. The only thing that was left was a few bulbs I purposely left down for them so they could pitch in and feel like they decorated it and of course the star. I helped Big Brother with that and then we stood there and looked at our accomplishment. The scrooge in me saw how it was slanted to the right a bit. It was hard getting that stand screwed into the tree so I had to be happy that it didn’t just fall over when I let go of it! But all my precious boys saw was that we were now ready for christmas. Hmm, slightly slanted but they didn’t see!