bah humbug

I wasn't going to decorate this year. Other things going on, and I just didn't have the heart to do it. Dragging all that stuff in from the garage? I don't think so. Not this year.

Then, outside decorations started popping up in the complex, so I decided I should at least decorate the windows and door. Two very pretty battery-powered pre-lit wreaths and my old standby angels in the windows and a Victorian Santa on the door. Out to the storage closet to get the Santa. Oh, wait, you can't see the Santa, I need some lights around it. Back to the storage closet. I still haven't figured out how to put the lights up - Command strips maybe? Ha. I wonder if they stick in the cold, but I suppose I'll find out soon enough.

Then, while I was minding my own business, simply picking up a refill, I saw a tabletop tree in the drugstore. A Hallmark mini-tree in a red bucket (that's what it's called). I didn't buy it - until two days later. When the clerk told me it wasn't for sale, instead of saying, oh, good, and leaving, I argued that anything with a price tag on it is, indeed, for sale. It needs decorations - back to the storage closet. Put lights on it, but they didn't suit me so I kept re-doing them. In my own defense, it's rather hard to put lights on with cats grabbing at them. Finally, everyone but me was asleep, so I decided to try again. I'm totally engrossed, tree on the coffee table, arranging lights, and all of a sudden the tree spun around - like it's on a lazy Susan. WTH? That's when I discovered that a tabletop tree apparently spins when a cat has her head in the middle of it. Finally got the lights on and started putting the little ornaments on it. I'll put it on the dry sink, no one ever gets up there. Well, apparently that only holds true if there's no tabletop tree on it.

It's been an eventful day so far. Even 4-year-old cats are stimulated by the joy of Christmas decorations. We've spent most of the day grabbing at things, them to knock them over, off, down, and me keeping them in place. Chairs have rocked and tipped, the cat tree has rocked and tipped, the tabletop tree has spun. The wreath in my office window, which, of course, still has the precariously hanging blind which I've never replaced, has little tendrils of pine sticking out under the blind, blowing gently when the furnace comes on and the air comes out of the floor vent. A source of joy for two of us.

The living room does look rather empty with no other decorations though . . . maybe I could bring just a few more things in. But, absolutely, under no circumstances, will I bring the tree in and decorate it. No, no, no. Absolutely not. For sure not. No siree.

Now I'm off to the cemetery to decorate my mother's grave - in peace. The girlies can rest while I'm gone . . . or not.