25 Days of Christmas

For the first time, the kids and I have been keeping an Advent calendar. And in the spirit of all Christmastime activity in our home, it has nothing to do with religion or Jesus. We just want to do something fun everyday and we like the package:
So we have been doing things like watching Christmas movies and sipping hot cocoa stirred with candy canes (don't get me started...I'll never be able to look at another candy cane without thinking of Jesus), baking cookies, reading Christmas stories, and looking at light displays. We will do most of the super fun stuff starting Friday when Emma gets out of school. On day 10, the kids wrote letters to Santa.
Emma's letter was very sweet until the very end when she wrote "Even though our tree looks really bad this year, I hope you will still come." :( I admit, it is the worst tree we've ever had but this is what happens when you share a home with a 17 month old Tasmanian devil:
That's right. No decorations. The lights are just thrown back on after he has pulled them down and attempted to strangle himself, oh 49 times.
I did try to put some ornaments on. As soon as he caught sight of them it was "BALL!!" and the ball broke :( It is dying from the heat and the constant stripping of the lights has left 11 billion needles on the carpet. I can't begin to quantify the amount of joy this tree has brought our family.
At least I have one pretty place in my house. So far, the boychild has not figured out a way to get his grubby little fingers on my favorite snowfamily.