How to Sarah proof your Christmas Decorations

No judging allowed! When I mentioned to a few people that we were delaying and way scaling back our Christmas decorations this year because of Sarah, I got a few looks. Some understood. Others gave advice. "Just tell her no", "Put all the breakable ornaments up high", "Put a gate around the tree". No offense, but clearly none of these people actually know Sarah. To tell Sarah "no" for the 15 hours a day that she is awake (which is how many hours she is in trouble), is plain ridiculous. Putting the ornaments up high is really just a bigger challenge to her. She can climb, and I really do mean climb. Still waiting for the day I find her on top of the cupboards in the kitchen- it's coming, I know it is. Gates are really just a useless invention meant to keep out "normal" 2 year olds. Sarah can not only climb them, she actually knows how to unlatch and open any gate we could possibly put up, so why bother? So, instead, we decorated in our own, "Sarah-proof" way. In case you have a similar 2 year old at your house, here are the recommended steps:

Step 1-  Make sure the Nativity scene is completely unbreakable. This will mean that none of the actual animals that belong in the scene will be able to come out of the box this year. Instead, use various other animals you find around the house- turtles, elephants, deer, dogs, warthogs and hippos. A real "equal opportunity" type manger scene. (in case you are wondering the people in the nativity scene are plastic- unbreakable, but the animals we have for it are ceramic, thus why they will not visit this year)

Step 2-  Find as many stuffed animals that have the color "red" on them as you can. These can double as pillows for a soft landing under the tree and add some festive "Christmas" color to the house.

Step 3- Break the older one's hearts by letting them know that absolutely none of their cherished ornaments they have ever received will be coming out of storage this year :(

Step 4- Tell them, that instead, a whole bag of "not such a big deal if they break" wooden ornaments will don the tree this year.

 Step 5- Realize that within the first 30 seconds of said wooden ornaments being introduced, there will be casualties. Expect them and move on.
Step 6- Make sure to allow a path for Sarah to get behind the tree. If you don't do this, she will find a way anyways and likely knock over the tree.

Step 7- Quickly take a picture

 Step 8- Realize that while the tree doesn't really look the same without all of our favorite "stuff" on it and that there will be absolutely no presents under it until Christmas morning (I don't feel like re-wrapping everything), it is still beautiful and it is still Christmas, with Sarah :)