A New Cat Toy

We hauled the (artificial) tree out over the weekend and began setting it up. We put some lights and some beaded garland on and are slowly getting ornaments on it.

Well, a certain little kitty is fascinated by the whole ordeal. We have to move the bird cage around to the other side of the wall - we put the tree in that corner near the fireplace. So, I'm not sure if Bella thinks they're new birds to mess with or just the relocation has her interest up because she has been bugging them more lately too.

She has already pulled down a bit of garland and has been seen sitting up inside the tree! I thought I was being clever by not putting ornaments on the lower branches, but it seems like she is smarter than me and will just climb up in the tree to play with all the pretty, pretty new "cat toys".

I've been collecting Hallmark and other ornaments since 1993. I have a metric boatload of them:

Yes, all three boxes are loaded to the gills with ornaments and other holiday cheer (tree skirt, stockings, hangers, etc.) The tree is not nearly finished. I promised Sissy that I would wait until she is home from preschool today to hang more stuff because she wants to "help".

Many of my ornaments "do" things, like play music or light up. I have a little elf whose tummy is like a magic 8 ball. You can shake him and get your Christmas questions answered. Let me tell you, Sissy's grubby booger hooks are all over those "magic" ornaments. At least that keeps her attention away from my glass ones.

In all these years, I've only lost one ornament and that was on a real tree that was not properly set in the stand (not naming names here, but the initials are TET) and it was one of my black bulb ornaments (yes, black - I don't do cheery). Oh! And one other ornament - a porcelain one - Hallmark, no less and I bought it on the secondary market (meaning, they don't make that one anymore). The Evil Twin thought it would be nice to display it on top of the TV. Guess which ornament got knocked off the TV? Hmmmmm. He found another one and replaced it. :-) To this day, I don't take that one out of the box.

It's been a weird season for me this year. I just can't seem to get "in the mood" for Christmas (Baby Jesus, I have a headache! <--- I'm going straight to hell for saying that). I remember one year, when Buddy was small. We were overwhelmed, but planned on buying a real tree. In anticipation, I laid a towel on the floor, so if water spilled out of the stand, it wouldn't ruin my carpet. Well, that towel was as far as we got. We called it "The Christmas Towel" and put the gifts on it and just went with it. I kinda wanted to do that this year, only use the tree skirt. The Evil Twin wouldn't hear of it. "The kids want to see the Christmas tree!" Alright, overgrown elf. I do care if the kids are happy, but I knew it would be almost impossible to keep a (now) fat kitten away from it. She's already been chewing on the presents we have (from relatives, I haven't wrapped a damn thing) so I had to put a towel over those (again with the Christmas Towel! What is my scoop?) just to keep her from gnawing at the bows and paper. It's really quiet here. Buddy and Sissy are at school and the Evil Twin is out shopping for stocking gifts - I know he digs buying the candy and little trinkets. And, I'm here, all by my lonesome. I should probably get in the shower before the BO police get tipped off that I'm a mess. ;-) Happy Tuesday, hooligans! Love,