Deck the Halls

I am so into decorating for Christmas this year!  For the first time in almost a decade, I want to put up boughs of holly.  Well, probably not holly.  Holly is poisonous and I wouldn't want one of the cats to eat it.  But there are lots of other things to brighten the place up at this time of year.

Outside, there isn't much.  Back when the weather was better, I was fighting with that darn overhang.  (No it's not down yet.  Weather got cold.)  I did put out the red and green poinsettia windsock.  On my way to get the mail, I managed to wrestle the pole into the holder out front.  After yesterday's windstorm, I hope it's still there!  The other decoration for outside isn't actually outside.  But you can only see from outside.  Unless you open the door.  Yep, it's a door banner.  Full-length, sky blue with a dove and "Peace" above and below the dove.  Just enough Christmas-y stuff on it to look, well, Christmas-y.

I'm still decluttering.  So inside, I had to move boxes out of the way to decorate.  In the living room, I managed to push the boxes off to the sides.  Yeah, they're still in the room, but not in-your-face.  I boxed up more give away stuff, too, and piled it in the back room.  Made space in a corner of my daughter's current room to store the "keep" stuff.  And I have a couple of small boxes of stuff in my room which I want to try to sell on ebay.  I think.  But that's a story for another day.

With boxes pushed to the sides, I vacuumed and washed the couch slipcover.  I took down a picture and a mirror to hang up a wreath (it didn't fit between the front door and the storm door), and a card holder.  I moved framed photos from the largest opening of the shelviing unit and set up the nativity set.  Then I put wooden angels on the bookshelves, a candle by the TV and, today--finally--I got the tree put up.  I'm using the cheap, slim, fiber-optic tree again.  We decided putting up a nicer tree was just asking for trouble with Tabitha.

The cats, if not helpful, were at least always in the way.  Yeah, I know that sentence sounds weird.  Welcome to my world.

Tabitha watched--with great interest--as I set up the Nativity.  First, I put down the white runner that my friend, T, embroidered with "Joy to the World" on each end.  One end hangs down below the Nativity.  Then I carefully positioned all the figures.  Years ago, my mom had a different stable with a flat top.  I always put the angel on top of the stable.  Now our stable has a pitched roof.  I'm never quite sure what to do with her.  Last year, she knelt to the side with the shepherds.  (I figured they had, after all, followed her to the Babe.)  This year, I put her at Baby Jesus' head, between Mary and Joseph.  I had to put the sheep well inside the stable because, being the smallest pieces, Tabitha looked very intrigued with them and even touched one with her paw.  She didn't care about the camel, but the donkey might have caught her eye, so I moved that back, too.  I forewent the straw again this year.  Much too tempting for a mischievous feline.

Tabitha also watched me unpack, set up and fluff the tree.  She was quite interested in the ornaments, but I shook my finger at her and told her "no!"  It was really nice to use some of my own ornaments that I had found at various times during the decluttering.  I have all my Precious Moments ornaments together again.  I opened some Hallmark "sister" and "mom" ornaments that hadn't been used yet.  I will probably put a few more of my mom's ornaments on it, but it was enough for today.  I was tired.

But not too tired to have "the talk" with Tabitha.  I told her, in no uncertain terms, that she was not to touch the Nativity figures and she was to leave the tree and ornaments alone.  No chewing, no batting, no clawing allowed.  With her ears back a little and her eyes narrowed, she hunkered down on the couch and sulked.  I went to my room to take a nap.

When I came down later to eat, my mother told me I had "the talk" with the wrong cat.  Now how could that be?  I wondered.  It seems that while Tabitha sulked, Khai, our fat siamese, decided to chew on a bottom tree branch and tried to burrow under the tree skirt.  My mother, bless her, had to squirt him with water several times before he stopped.  So I had to reiterate--and add to--the rules:  no chewing, no batting, no clawing, no burrowing, no messing of any kind with any Christmas decorations by any cat is allowed.  I shook my finger at Khai during this lecture.  He squinted at my finger, then strutted away.  I have to give him credit.  It's very difficult to "strut" when you're overweight with a gimpy leg!

I'm not quite done decorating.  If the weather breaks, I want to do more outside.  We have a large, 5 foot tall silhouette of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.  The kind where the strings of lights form the shapes.  I have some 3 foot candy canes I wanted to line the sidewalk, but the ground is too hard already.

Inside, I want to put lights around the windows.  I would like to put out my little one foot Christmas tree in my room.  But every flat surface is covered with books.  I used to put one of those up at work every year, back when I worked outside the home.   I used paperclips to hang the miniature ornaments.  Most people got a kick out of that.  A few thought it was weird.  Yet again, welcome to my world!

A couple of years ago, I watched a special on HGTV about how the White House get decorated for Christmas.  What a production!  Obviously, they hire a service.  It takes several days and a couple hundred people to get it done down to the last detail.  Did you know that even in our suburban, middle-class neighborhood, there are people you can hire to hang your outdoor lights?  My nephew used to do that.  That's one of my dreams.  To hire a service to decorate with lights outside and a live Christmas tree and real evergreen swags over the doorways.  Aahhh, yes, it'll be wonderful.