Putting Up Our Christmas Tree, aka Our 9-Foot Snake

This will be our first 'real' Christmas with our son, and it's already bringing out some hilarious and heart-melting cuteness in our wee boy.

Joseph was born in August 2007, so he's already been through two Christmas's, but this is really the first one where he'll be fully engaged with everything.

We started with an advent calendar at the start of December (thanks Grammy!), and now after opening a few he's bursting with excitement from the second he opens his eyes in the morning. OK, so maybe he's so excited he's not actually sleeping any more at all. Grammy, we take the thanks back.

The cute thing is that he remembers what number he opened yesterday, and knows which one he should be opening today, which impressed us no end :-)

We've set up our Christmas tree, too, and I've never heard so many 'Wooooowwwww, daddy - woooowwwww's in my life - he just can't believe it. The tinsel, and the silver balls, and the lights, and the...snake?

Yeah, we weren't sure either, but he insisted - the Christmas tree, mummy and daddy, is in fact a snake. Took us a while, but we finally realised that me moving the tree around was creating a brushing noise when it touched the roof, which Joey decided sounded just like a snake. Funnily enough, he wasn't bothered by it at all - he was quite happy to have a 9-foot long snake in the corner of our lounge, swaying back and forth against the roof. Mummy and daddy, not so much...

Now that we've convinced him it's not actually a snake, he finds it hilarious - he's constantly dragging me over to it, laughing as he tells me it's not a snake, that it's really a Christmas tree, and that daddy is silly. Ha! I wasn't the one that decided it was a snake, buddy.

I guess in years to come it'll be a running family joke - the year Joey decided the Christmas tree was a snake.

What goes on inside a child's head is amazing. Their imagination can be so bizarre, yet when you actually sit down and think about it, spot on. We've since tested the Christmas tree noise, and guess what? It sounds exactly - exactly - like a snake hissing. As adults, our preconceptions and experiences severely limit that imagination, and it re-sparks mine whenever I hear my son's take on things.

Before it has even really begun, Christmas is a completely different experience having a young child - looking forward to the rest of December, and all the cute moments it will bring :)