Oh Christmas Tree - part two

I've been thinking about part two of the Christmas tree saga for a few days now and wondering when it would be the right time to write it.  I was hoping that we'd have a lovely decorated tree to show, but alas, that was not to be...I really don't know how others do it, but the tree here is a mess.  It's not beautiful, but it's ours.

We got the lights put on last Sunday afternoon. It's not quite as bright and glowy as I'd like, but it'll do.  Maybe we'll pick up a few strings of lights post-Dec 25th on sale.  We put on decorations Sunday night.  It was perfect.  What's the theme?  Christmas.  All colors, all shapes and sizes.  Ornaments collected over the years from vacations, trips to Target and Waterloo Gardens.  We made sure to put only non-breakable ornaments on the bottom 2 feet of the tree to keep things safe for Chris and Rosie.  We sat back and admired.

The next morning Chris came down and all hell broke loose.  He pulled every ornament off the tree he could reach, he yanked branches, dragged the tree skirt off, tried to undo the lights, you name it.  I can't for the life of me understand how some kids show no interest in the bright shiny tree that appears in their house overnight, but Chris is just obsessed and no amount of sweetly saying no or shrieking NO!!! seems to have any effect on him.

So here's how the tree is now.  I thought about re-decorating and tidying up to make a nice pic for the blog, but I guess I'll just tell it how it is:

I am CERTAIN that things will look more pulled together before Santa comes on Saturday night, but this will not be a picture perfect Martha Stewart Christmas.  It'll be our Christmas with a toddler, a preschooler and a puppy.  I wouldn't have it any other way.