I am thisclose to having the Christmas decorations put away.
The tree is still here. I tackled the rest of it after the kids were in bed. If I had even gone so far as to retrieve a single box from the cupboard under the stairs with any of them in the house and conscious I knew it would end badly. I had them gather the items they used in their rooms and put them on the table after dinner and then once they were zonked out I put it all away. Nativity sets, books, mini trees, stuffed reindeer, everything. Then I got to the tree and I decided I should let them help. (heaven help me)
It’s my mother’s fault really. She always had us put up and take down our own tree ornaments. I remember enjoying the take down as much as the put up so packing things neatly away myself makes me feel guilty for depriving my children of the privilege and I’m going to have to muster extreme patience come morning when they’ll all want to swarm the tree, rip things from it’s branches and shove them into boxes.(deep breath)
The good news is, very few items are breakable and I’ve taken care of those already. The bad news is what I said before: This could easily become mayhem.
I will employ two tactics to keep things under control. First I will take deep centering breaths. Second I will make them take turns.
I hope this works.