Unsurprisingly, I have very few Christmas tree ornaments this year.  It’s still more than I’ve ever had before.  The whole trove consists of two boxes of shiny Christmas balls and not enough hooks. There is never enough hooks.  Surprisingly, I do have a tree.  Since my divorce, I haven’t really put up a tree.  Last year was the first and my mom left the one she brought from Boise.

Well being poor and fund less, my daughter and I decided to make some ornaments this year.  Actually, she decided we were going to make some ornaments.  I had the choice of helping and keeping the mess contained or cleaning for a long time when she decided she was done and running the risk of glitter and glue and all over my dinning room.  She’s very determined.

The Beginning, Fabio Cominotti

We started with some paper, ribbon, glue (regular and glitter) colored pencils, crayons, and a few printed coloring book pages of Santa, Angels, and reindeer.  Oh, and one bossy little girl.

Like her previous gingerbread lady project earlier in the week for school, I had no creative control. Although, I did get a lot of positive feedback with the gingerbread man

The Gingerbread Girl, Fabio Cominotti

.  I heard, “That’s beautiful Daddy” and “Good job Daddy, you’re good with the scissors.”  She’s such  a little supporter.  Anyway, I was given a lesson on using colored pencils.  According to my daughter, I’m not supposed to press too hard or they will break.  If they break, I have to put them back in the box until we can find a sharpener.  They pretty much work like crayons, but are for big girls.  And finally, she’s been using the light red so it will probably break soon.  She also directed me in making the paper balls to hang on the tree, which consisted of wadding up pieces of paper and sprinkling glitter glue of different colors over them.  I also had to color the snowflakes that I cut in a specific pattern according to my little boss and cut out the pictures that she colored.

All in all it was a great time and one that I think will become a holiday tradition.  I can’t believe how confident she has become in giving directions and leading.  I’m a proud father right now.

We came out with quite the hall of home-made ornaments.  We even have a paper angel to put on top of the tree.  I think that the tree turned out pretty well.

The Final Products, Fabio Cominotti

Christmas Tree 2014, Fabio Cominotti