To tree or not to tree, Part 2

Mikey has decided he wants to put up the Christmas tree after all. I said, "How do we keep Brittany off of it?" He said, "We'll just keep telling her no, until she understands not to touch it."

Um, yeah. He means I'll keep telling her no, since he's gone to work all day. I've been trying to keep her out of the kitchen trash can ever since she got mobile, and she's still fascinated by it. I tell her no daily, and it seems to have no effect whatsoever.

Anyway, somebody suggested putting up the tree inside the playpen, where she can look but not touch. That's an excellent idea, except:

1. It's currently being used as a toybox, but we could move the toys somewhere else temporarily.

2. It's currently parked in front of the aquarium to keep Brittany from tipping it over on herself somehow (I'm very paranoid about that), which is not an ideal spot for tree placement.

3. The playpen measures 28 x 40 inches, so the tree wouldn't fit inside it unless we left all the bottom branches off.

(***sigh***)

I'm less than enthused about this -- can you tell?