Communication is key to a good marriage

Last Saturday we put up our Christmas tree. It's just a smallish fake one that we got at WalMart about 3 years ago for $19.88, but it doesn't look too bad once it's all decked out. Jonathan and Elizabeth had lots of fun helping me put on the ornaments. Jonathan, of course, wanted to put them as high up on the tree as he could reach. As he was stretching up on his tip toes he kind of fell into the tree and we heard a snap. Eric looked at the tree, pointed out a crack in the plastic base, said, "Don't worry about it", and left the room.
I interpreted, "Don't worry about it", to mean it's no big deal, it's just a surface crack, the tree is still structurally sound and we could continue to decorate it. Apparently, Eric intended it to mean, "It's no big deal, the base of the tree is destroyed beyond repair but I will heroically save the day by going to the garage and employing various power tools, fasteners and lumber to create a beautiful and functional new tree stand in less than an hour."

Well, the kids and I continued to decorate. At least we did until the tree came crashing down on top of Jonathan. Thankfully, he wasn't hurt and none of the ornaments broke. In the picture of the tree above, the garland and ornaments are kind of haphazardly arranged because we just didn't have the energy anymore to fix it perfectly after cleaning up all the mess. But, it's still beautiful to me.

And, obviously eight years of marriage is not enough to master the art of communication. Good thing Eric and I are in for the long haul. I figure at this rate it will take at least 60 more years for us to get it figured out.