Happy Holidays!

We got our Christmas tree up! Okay, so it’s been up for a couple of weeks. I’ve just been lazy and haven’t had a chance to write about it yet! After a little nudging from Lisa last year we picked up a tree. As I was opening the box this year I worried that parts may be missing and chided myself for not setting it up last year to make sure all was well. The worry was for nothing, though, as all the pieces were there and we were able to get it set up.

Tempers only flared for a moment when I was trying to put it in its stand and Kristin was laughing at the sight of me with my head buried under the tree and butt in the air instead of telling me if it was straight or not. She finally stopped laughing long enough to tell me that it was all wrong – too far to the right, too far to the back, too far to the left …after some more laughing on her part and a death glare from me we finally got it done.

The tree sat for a few days without any decorations on it. At my begging Lisa came over to help me decorate. I decided I didn’t buy enough decorations last year and hope to buy some more for next year to make the tree a little more festive.

Surprisingly, the cats have pretty much left it alone (maybe it had something to do with our attempt at trying to force them to be in a 'family' photo - see below - none of them were very happy with the whole process, and that might have scared them off a bit ;)). Occasionally they’ll try to bite at the lower branches, but it’s been up for a few weeks now and so far hasn’t been torn down or otherwise destroyed by the cats.

We put up a few of my nativity sets. I used to collect them. I remember seeing a news thing when I was 12 or so about some weirdo who collected them. She had like 300 sets or something. I decided I wanted to have more than her. I never made it past 75 or 80 sets before I gave up on that. Most of the sets are stored in boxes at my parents’ house. My mom keeps telling me that she’s going to mail them all to me, but I always come up with a reason for her not to (the current excuse is living in a 1-bedroom apartment with 3 cats!). The cats have pretty much stayed away from the sets as well with the exception of Milly’s obsession with my s’more set (which Kristin thinks is totally sacrilege!). For some reason Milly thinks it’s hilarious to knock the marshmallow Mary and Joseph off of the shelf they currently reside on, so every day I search the floor and behind the couch to find them and put them back on either side of Jesus so she can knock them off again.

That’s about it for decorations this year. We’re leaving for Utah/Idaho on the 22^nd and won’t really be around until New Year’s, so I figure a tree and a few nativities are good enough for this year.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season!