Yesterday was the start of December. It's scary thinking of how time flies. I know i've said it many times but i still feel compelled to say it again. Last weekend, we went to get our real Christmas tree and spent the day decorating it. When we were at the shop, i reminisced about how i was so reluctant to get a real tree last year since we never had one before- how we were gonna keep it alive for a month, if it would attract some bugs into the house, how to dispose the tree blah blah... This year, i was really excited. I'm a convert. Plus i told M, it's our last Geneva Christmas so let's go all out. Then he looked at me and said "it may not be..." I glared at him. We are due for home next year and M has been talked to by bosses on each side about the end of posting. This has been on our nightly prayer list, that God would make straight the paths so that we don't have to go through the agony of deciding what to do.
Anyhow, the tree was put up and we had so much fun decorating it! E was particularly well behaved until sunday night... Actually it wasn't completely his fault. He was just being a kid. M was in the room attending cell group on Zoom. I was cooking dinner and E was playing on his own. He was really excited about the tree so he stood up on the Poang kids' armchair and pretended his reindeer soft toy was munching at the leaves. I was busy and my back was facing him. I could only hear him saying "Mama see the reindeer loves the leaves so he is eating all of it... crunch crunch crunch..."
And then DISASTER. THE TREE FELL OUT OF THE STAND. It's 1.85m, taller than me and pretty heavy. It came crashing down, shortly missing the dining table. I panicked because i knew M would flip. On hindsight, i was ashamed that i didn't thank God first that E wasn't hurt. I was just so mad with the kid. Poor thing, at first he laughed but he started to cry when he saw how mad i was. He got the vacuum and helped clear the fallen leaves. Thankfully too, the fragile glass ornaments fell on the carpet and nothing broke. They were all collected from our travels.
What was hilarious was how good he was for the rest of the night. He stayed away from the tree and M put the tree back and quickly returned to the Zoom meeting, promising to return at dinner and give E a good scolding. E was so worried and i told him that if remained good till dinner and let me cook in peace, i would put in a good word for him later when his father returned. He kept bugging me and telling me he heard footsteps and that Papa was coming (all imaginations of his mind). I almost went mad telling him not to freak out and that i will help him. This kid... so maddening and yet so lovable at the same time. 😖
