shock and dismay

After some happy playing sessions with his trains and tracks and airplanes, and the Plan Toys City Station that has become his combination train station, bus station, and airport, well, we broke his little heart to pieces. We took down the Christmas tree. I began pulling ornaments off the tree and he began hovering and wringing his hands and whining. It was terrible--the end of the world--and he screeched almost the entire way through it. Yes, I should have waited until he went to bed. I had planned to, but after I brought all the boxes in from the storage building, Dennis was occupied. So I began de-Christmasing the house, and soon enough he came in from the other room to express his displeasure. He cried the worst when we put away his Fisher Price nativity set, pulling David's pants and crying while he put all the figures in the box. We did keep the black sheep out so that he can play with it with his farm, but that wasn't much consolation. He whined when the Advent calendar went in the box and he tried to open all the doors again. It was a tough day for him, it really was, and I'm happy that he's in better spirits now. We're in the kitchen, waiting for the macaroni noodles to boil so that we can quickly assemble our supper and then eat it. I know he was sad to see the Christmas tree go, but we'll be going to Gatlinburg in a couple of weeks and it stays Christmas there until February. He'll see more trees and more lights and he'll be thrilled all over again.