A different perspective

First of all let me start by saying that I am most definitely NOT the mother that I thought or said I would be. I was, to say the least, a much better parent before Isabella came along. If only I could do what I said I would and not do what I said I wouldn't at least half the time, my parenting would be out of this world.

Luckily this is not a post about my parenting shortcomings; certainly no one has that kind of time. It is however, a direct result from a conversation I had with my friend Christie today after we picked Isabella up at MDO. You see, Isabella proudly showed me an ornament she made today in class and I couldn't wait to get home to put it up on our Christmas tree.

OK, so rewind about 6-8 years to an era when my Christmas trees were a "work of art". Every year I slaved over the tree for days decorating it in a specific theme (a different one each year mind you, which can get really expensive, really fast). Year after year Scott would find some of his childhood ornaments and hand them to me to incorporate into the tree decor. This is probably what I worked the hardest on ~ I was determined to find the best possible hiding place so that they were concealed, but yet I could tell Scott they were on there. Yeah,... not one of my proudest moments.

I also remember telling Scott numerous times that some day when we had children I would still have my very own beautiful tree but that we'd have a different tree to house all of the kids' ornaments. This is where that different perspective kicks in. Seriously, what in the world was I thinking?

Like I mentioned on the previous post, I love my big beautiful tree which is packed with a huge assortment of ornaments ~ some from years of collecting, others brand new, some are Scott's childhood ornaments and yes, ALL of Isabella's handmade ornaments. Would you like to take a guess as to which ones are my favorite? I can't even imagine her art not being a part of our tree. Her ornaments actually make the tree and she's so incredibly proud to point them out to us.



Hey, I guess this counts as one of those things I said I wouldn't do, but I am doing and I actually feel like a better mama for it.