Snakes on a tree......

Ok, this is a shocking realization for me this morning. I am sitting here and realizing that I have totally lost control of my Christmas tree. Was it just 5 years ago that I had a beautiful tree with white lights and tasteful, matching ornaments? Well that year I agreed that for the sake of my DD and DH, we could switch to colored lights. From there on, it has been downhill....We started adding ornaments that the kids picked out and those beautiful "back of the tree" ornaments that my kids look so hurt if they are not front and center. I will never forget last year when my boy was 18 mos old. He had seen his big sister come home from church with Christmas themed art projects for weeks. The Sunday before Christmas, I picked him up and he was holding a piece of paper in his had like it was a treasure beyond measure. It was a large piece of paper about 10 inches long and about 4 inches wide. It was a black and white picture of baby Jesus cut out of a coloring page. It had the words "Baby Jesus" in black marker written on it and my little Picaso had "colored" on it with blue crayon. They had taken it and punched a hole through the top and put a piece of red curly ribbon through it to make an "ornament". I am not criticizing the person who came up with this because in a room of 15 t0 18 toddlers ranging in age from 14 mos to 2 years, that is a GREAT craft. My boy gently cradle this ornament all the way home sitting in his car seat and when he came in the house, tried his best to manuever his fat little toddler fingers to place it on the tree. He was so proud that he had made an ornament for the tree. Did that ornament get placed in the back of the tree? NO. Is it on the back of the tree this year? NO (it is on the side of the tree that you dont see from the front door though). I now have many such ornaments. Apparently the ENTIRE month of December is ornamental craft month at our church. But this morning took the cake when I discovered that one of my kids had hung plastic snakes on the tree. I draw the line at PLASTIC SNAKES!!! I want to encourage their creativity but that is going too far. Well better get ready for church. They have ornaments to make......