O Christmas Tree

I have a confession to make: we have not put up our Christmas tree yet. In fact, we may not put up a Christmas tree this year at all.

One day this week Gracie was standing on the couch, looking out our front window at our neighbors' house across the street. "Mr. Tom and Miss Mary have their Christmas tree up already! And they have a wreath on their door!" She thinks Christmas is still ages away, so she seemed amazed that our neighbors have already started to decorate for the holidays.

I told Gracie that we were going to have our Christmas tree at Grandma and Papa's house this year. I know Gracie would love to have a tree here at home, too, but I just don't know how to keep Drew away from it. I have had suggestions from several friends: to buy a baby play yard or fence to keep him away from it, or to decorate the bottom half of the tree with non-breakable felt ornaments. Those both sound like good ideas, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on things we won't use for more than a month or two ... so, if you have any ideas for baby-proofing a Christmas tree, I would love to hear them.