Thursday, December 03, 2009

Yodeling Christmas Trees

Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, it’s time to focus on Christmas! The first step to getting into the Christmas spirit is getting the Christmas Tree.

In case you weren’t aware, the getting of the tree is a huge event in the lives of little people. You see, the countdown to Christmas officially starts once the Tree is in the house. It doesn’t necessarily have to be fully decorated but once it’s in, the counting of days can begin.

Because of the importance, parents must carefully control the announcement about getting the tree. If you tell the kids too early then you will be nagged to death. It becomes a never ending series of questions not unlike “Are we there yet?” If you announce tree getting time and then miss the date, woe is you! No matter how good the reason, you have delayed Christmas and must deal with the disappointment of the children. A week of “are we there yet?” is nothing compared to a week of Cindy Loo Who’s “Why Daddy? Why?” over and over again.

Anyway, Wife and I talked about it, planned for it, and finally decided to get the tree this past weekend. We even held in announcing it until Sunday night at dinner. That way we were sure that we couldn't miss it. Now, for whatever reason the kids were so excited that they started yodeling. I don’t know why, but they were. And they all yodeled to the best of their ability and to whatever words they thought comprised a yodel. In case you were wondering, yodeling is basically, Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo.

The kids were so excited that by the time we loaded them into the car and drove to the tree stand they are ready to explode. As soon as we turned the car off, the kids jumped out, and raced into the little maze of trees.

I live in a fairly rural area so the tree stand was literally on the edge of a field with little to nothing else around it. The trees were all precut so it looked very much like a hedge maze with movable pieces. Besides the attendants, there wasn’t anyone else at the stand so I wasn’t worried about the kids. They were screaming and yelling and having a grand old time. Just for the record, if anyone else had been there, I would have calmed them down, but there wasn’t so why stop the fun.

And, for all the excitement about picking a tree, the kids never even bothered to visit it. They were having too much fun running around.

Of course, they tried to include Wife and I in the fun. Boy fresh from yodeling practice at dinner, ran past me and said Yodel-A-Hoooo Daddy! You can’t catch me!”

Needless to say, in a high pitched childs voice, this sounds just like A-hole. So, the next time he runs past, I catch him, tickle him for a second, and remind him that it’s Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo.
We practice for a moment and off he goes again.

We finally decide on a tree, and as I’m paying the kind man, Boy shouts out from across the field of trees, at the top of his lungs HEY DADDY Yodel-A-Hoooole! Daddy A-Hooole.

Yep. Nothing better than buying a Christmas Tree while your son screams
Daddy A-Hoooole.

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