Last night, Kate was dying to decorate the Christmas tree, so Andy hauled in the boxes from the garage and we got to work.
Ok, Kate and I got to work. Andy watched “Shawshank Redemption” in the living room.
He does not like to decorate the Christmas tree. AT ALL. I’ve wondered why for many years, but last night it hit me.
As I may have mentioned, I’m a little neurotic, so as Kate hung ornaments last night, I found myself taking deep breaths and trying not to ruin the whole experience by flipping out about where exactly she hung them. After the first ten few times she responded with “Mommy, I get to hang this wherever I want to” when I calmly suggested an appropriate spot, I realized that this year’s tree wasn’t going to be as, uh, balanced as usual.
After a while, she called Daddy in to help. He, of course, couldn’t refuse such a request, so he joined us. As I packed up the empty boxes and watched them hang the last few ornaments on the tree, I heard Andy’s breathing becoming labored. Then I saw the steam coming out of his ears. And that’s when I figured out why he’s the Ornament Grinch.
You see, Andy’s got about five times the OCD I do. So if he could make sure that an ornament of a two inch diameter could be hung on every third branch, he would be in business. But our ornament collection is rather eclectic and he can’t stand the chaos. Add a three-year-old’s randomness into the mix and we’ve got a recipe for disaster.
He was trying hard to be patient, but I could see he was getting close to the breaking point.
“This is like when she mixes different colors of Play Doh together. You’re just going to have to let this go,” I advised.
A few ornaments later, we were done… and no one was too overly traumatized.
Here’s what our tree looks like in the areas where I hung ornaments.
Here’s what it looks like where Kate hung ornaments.
And here’s what I discovered when I looked a little more closely at Kate’s area.
All of Daddy’s car ornaments are hanging in a row.
Isn’t that cute? Little preschooler OCD.
The apple ornament does not fall far from the tree.
Well, we have this in our family too! Our Christmas tree is decorated in Blue & Silver ’cause that’s the way Bobby likes it! We have a smaller tree (it was our first tree ever, all we could fit in our tiny first apartment) that we put all our non-blue-and-silver ornaments on that we have from our childhood and that eople now give us for the kids! Once the kids start making ornaments, I think the blue & silver might finally have to go!
Tell Bobby to let go of it NOW!!!! We now have too may ornaments for ANY tree. Chris & I have the kids pick out 6 or 7 of their favorites and we put up about the same nnumber for us…..I rearrange them after the kids go to bed 🙂 to make it “balanced”.
Tell Kate she did a great job!!!! 🙂
We always let the kids put the ornaments on and then even things out after.
The cars in a row are so darling! I haven’t decorated my tree yet, but I do the same thing with Cinderella, suggesting where she should/could put the ornaments. I’m hoping at 3 1/2 she’ll be more open to suggestions than she was at 2 1/2.
Sounds like my husband!
He likes everything orderly and “in good taste.”
I bought some tacky Teletubbies ornaments that my daughter liked and I thought he was going to have a heart attack!
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Bradley
The Egel Nest
As a fellow OCD’er who has two trees every year, because she cannot stand her husband’s tacky Star Wars ornaments (they are plastic, they light up, AND they make noise — come ON), I can totally identify with your husband. I would probably stay up late one night and rearrange things. Nice to see the little one is falling in line, though.
Congrats on your Egel Nest Award!
Very well deserved!!
Yo! That’s one big ol’ picture you have there. I was scrolling over and finally got to the end. All those cars in a row totally rocks and is how the tree should be pimped out. Nice work to the little one.
My husband usually has zero interest in decorating the tree–after stringing up the lights he hides in the bedroom with his beloved PS3 and lets me have at it. But this year we bought a pre-lit fake tree, so he sat in a chair and critiqued my ornament placement the whole way through. I let my three year old help decorate the tree then rearranged his work when he went down for his nap. While I was making dinner that night he got his step stool out of the bathroom and put them all back where he wanted them. We’re one big OCD family here too!