A very special Christmas Ornament

Last Friday Carly brought home a very special gift for Justin and me. Justin was still at work but Carly was too excited to wait so we opened the gift a little early. Out of the reindeer decorated brown paper bag Carly pulled out a beautiful red snowman ball ornament. The snowmen were made out of her sweet little finger prints. I squealed in delight which made Carly beam with pride. She very carefully walked the ornament over to our tree where it was to take it's place at the top, where everyone could see it. On her way over she dropped the ornament on the wood floor. It shattered into hundreds of small pieces. I'll admit, I was devastated but could tell Carly was too so I tried not to make a big deal of it. "I'm sorry Mom." Carly repeated over and over as I cleaned it up. Poor little lady felt so badly. I gave her a hug. We decided to make a new ornament to replace the one she had made at preschool. She seemed content with that idea.
A few hours later Justin came home excited to see the gift Carly had made for him. When he asked her about it she started crying saying, "No Daddy, I don't want you to see it!" He looked over to see the broken ornament on the counter and realized she felt badly about what had happened. Justin picked her up and told Carly, "Honey, even if it's broken I still love it because YOU made it for me." A huge smile came over Carly's face and she squeezed her Dad tight. I could see the relief and pride come over her.
In the car and on our way to Target that night Carly tells me, out of the blue, "Mom, my Dad loves broken presents." I giggled and then she said, "and he really love me."
I hope our kids always know no matter what mistakes they make we will love them unconditionally. Even if they break a teacup (that's for you, Janie).

In other ornament news...our Christmas tree is becoming top heavy. The kids keep sneaking ornaments off the tree. Swiping of the ornament is usually followed by three minutes of me chasing Nolan (yes, it's usually Nolan) around the house trying to get the breakable item back. I pry the ornament from is chubby little fingers and place it back on the top of the tree so the kids can't reach it. The top 1/3 of our tree is now packed with ornaments. I'm sure you're asking yourself "why doesn't Dana just move all the ornaments to the top of the tree then Nolan won't get them?" Good question, I ask myself that as well...my answer...wishful thinking. Maybe one of these days he'll listen to Mama and not touch the ornaments. Hey, a mom can hope, right? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!