I did it.

I finally came up with a solution to my Christmas tree dilemma! It was really getting so depressing, I was so sad about my poor, poor Christmas tree. Every day another ornament (or several) would have to be moved up to the top, or be completely destroyed by the dog. This is what my tree looked like...

SO SAD! I wanted to cry every time I saw it. Ben kept grabbing the garland and pulling out the tinsel strands, and he kept reaching higher than I expected and getting the ornaments. So frustrating. It was also sad because I really only had some blue and silver balls I bought, we got rid of our old ornaments (nothing special) when we moved and I didn't buy much this year.

I came up with this (slightly ghetto I suppose, but better ghetto gate than ghetto tree!):

Yes, we had an old door in our garage from when we changed Kaylee's door out, and it just happened to be a perfect fit! I just sectioned off the entire living room.

I had to use a bit of creativity for this part. A clasp, a hook and eye without the hook, a very large washer and a screw from an old hinge. Yep, it's...interesting. But it WORKS! It's easy to unhook, and I can slide the whole thing behind the piano when I don't want it. The kids and the dog pretty much just leave it alone when it's closed, and I can open it when we want to use the room or when we have company. Today I finished decorating the tree. Now it's beautiful, I can have presents under it, and nobody can get to it unless I allow them. It works really well because we don't use that room much anyway.

 Since I had hardly any ornaments, I spent the last couple of days making some. I made a dozen of these little guys:

And some of these, with salt dough, spray paint and glitter. Juvenile?? Perhaps a bit, but that's okay. I just needed SOMETHING.

I also went to the park today and picked up some pine cones to make these.

It was 65 degrees and sunny today. It's weird to me that people say the winters here are bad, because nowhere in my mind does "65 degrees," "December," and "bad winter" go together. It just...doesn't. Anyway, we had a GREAT time at the park! And I really wore Benjamin out:

Neither of my kids have ever fallen asleep at the high chair before. He didn't have a nap today and was apparently extremely tired! Poor kid just couldn't get comfortable.

(He was asleep the entire time in the video)