battle royale

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is playing Ornament Wars with my sister. You see, my parent's tree still contains many of our crappy homemade ornaments from when we were little girls. Kiki made a really cute sleeping mouse in a walnut that always gets prime placement. That same year, I made The Christmas Turd, which is supposed to be a brown mouse in a Santa hat, but even I can admit it wasn't my finest work.

But the ornament we play Ornament Wars with is a construction paper wreath with a glued on bow and sequins...with a picture of Kiki circa 1983 in the wreath hole. Yep...smack dab in the middle is a picture in her Dorothy Hamill/bi-level glory in an outfit that involved a monogrammed sweater and blue corduroy KNICKERS (seriously! I couldn't have made it up if I tried.)

To play the game, once the tree is decorated, Kiki moves the ornament to the front and center of the tree. And, I move it to the way way way back of the tree that faces the wall. Every time we pass the tree, we perform our little cat and mouse game. We try to be stealth, but usually break out into the giggles before it is rehung. It just wouldn't be Christmas without this little game we play.

And, last night, I found I had a worthy competitor at home. Even though the girls are young, they have amassed a large amount of crap ornaments already. One of A's is from last year...it's a triangle frame made of tongue depressors, with some faux gems on it, and in the middle is a picture of A...wearing a Halloween t-shirt. Because, really, nothing says Happy Holidays like an orange shirt with a witches hat and black cat (which are *clearly* visible in the picture). It's also huge.

So as we decorated our (still taking water and not dead yet!) Christmas tree last night, I moved it from the middle of the tree to a more...ahem...out of the way location. A few moments later I heard,

"Mama, I moved my ornament to where I could see it!"

Sure enough, it was back up front.

The master has become the student, indeed.