Today, Mom is planning to bake some cookies for neighbors. Well that’s what she says, but we know she and dad will eat as many as they give away. MOL. And Dad is getting ready to e-mail “Blues’ News,” our humans’ annual holiday greeting. The snail mail version will go out sometime before the new year.
For the last few days, we have been offering some of our on-line friends the opportunity to make a wager as to whether or not Mom would be ready for Christmas prior to Valentine’s Day. Well…we didn’t get any takers. Probably smart on their parts as the trees are finally decorated and the gifts are wrapped and beneath them.
Did we say, “trees?” Why, we did indeed. And that is where the whole story begins.
Twinkle’s Tree 2013
We always have two trees. One is a small tree, which is called “Twinkle’s Tree,” and only has unbreakable decorations. We have had this since our angel sisfur, Twinkle, went to the RB after being hit by a car when she was only four years old. None of us lived here then. For some reason this tree is always crooked. We think maybe Twinkle’s spirit visits each night to climb it and play with the ornaments.
Our nine-foot tree in 2012.
Normally, our second tree is a nine-foot, artificial tree which is erected by mom over a number of days. This is an un-lit tree, which she usually spends a couple more days stringing with about 2,000 lights. Then even more days are spent adorning it with the ornaments she has been collecting for the past 40 years. Do not ask us how many that is ’cause we don’t have enough toes between us to count that high.
This year, however, we have three trees…yes, Santa Paws, there are three! Twinkle’s Tree, our now five-foot, formerly nine-foot, tree and our old, losing-all-it’s-needles, had-to-have-all-the-burntout-lights-cut-off-a-few-years-ago, seven-foot tree.
Seven-foot tree with five-foot tree in background behind pocket doors.
“So how did all this come about,” you ask? As mom was assembling the big tree, she found three limb supports near the bottom were broken. After multiple attempts to affix the branches, with various types of wire and then zip ties, to no avail, Mom removed the lights and deconstructed the tree. Being the queen of reuse, she dumped the bottom four-foot section, put the remaining two sections together and stuck them into the stand. That tree being way too itty-bitty for more than a couple of tubs worth of ornaments brought about the need for the third tree. Of course, after putting on too many ornaments to remove and start again, two entire strings of lights went out on this tree.
And she still had to put lots of ornaments on garland around the door to the sun porch, which she does every year. But some poor, forlorn ornaments have had to remain in the tubs until next year.
Five-foot tree with seven-foot tree in the background behind pocket doors.
This actually has been a total win for us as the five-foot tree is in the dining room AND we have access to it. Astrid and Lisbeth spent Monday morning playing crazy cats and knocked several ornaments off. According to Mom we cannot break any of the ornaments on that tree. Now, that sounds like a dare to us.
So, what makes this story totally S-T-U-P-I-D in our opinion? Mom ordered a new nine-foot tree that was pre-lit and only had four pieces to put together. It arrived in two fifty-pound boxes, which sat in the foyer for several days. When she finally opened one box, put two sections together and looked at it, she decided she hated it and back it went!
She says the seven-foot tree will be donated after Christmas, and she is hoping a tree she has picked out from Sears on-line will go on sale. We really hope Santa grants her wish ’cause we don’t want to go through this craziness again in 2014.
Meowy Catmess! MOL, HO, HO, HO, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
