Cat...er... Christmas tree...

Well, I have decided to go against the advice of our realtor and put up my Christmas tree this year. We’re “supposed” to keep the house free of clutter and decorations, but I’m compromising – I’m putting up the tree, but I’m not bringing out the various Christmas-y knick-knacks I usually place around the house. I mean, a tree is nicely contained in a single corner of the house, so it really can’t be considered “clutter,” right? And I didn't put up a tree LAST year, because we were in the process of selling ANOTHER house. So this year, I want a tree...

I announced my tree-decorating intention on my Facebook page, where my friend Tim declared it “sad.” Not because I was putting up the tree – but, since Rick flew up to Chicago this afternoon, I was putting up the tree ALONE. I suppose tree-trimming is considered a “family” affair… and I do have my own memories of anxiously waiting for my dad to finish arranging the lights so my mom and Eric and I could place ornaments on the tree. My favorites were a purple ceramic bear and a cardboard angel covered with orange feathers. It was rather garish, as far as angels go – but when it came time to decorate the tree, I was the one who had to find a place for that (startlingly bright) angel. And then we would all take turns finding empty space for tinsel (which no doubt had to be rearranged by mom as soon as Eric and I were in bed…).

But honestly, I don’t mind my moments of solitude (except when I’m trying to get to sleep – yep, White Noise Fan is at the ready tonight), so I don’t find decorating the tree by myself sad at all. I’ve been looking forward to it, actually. Of course, I didn’t account for the fact that I’d have to pull the tree box down from the highest shelf in the garage – by MYSELF – when I was looking forward to it. But SOMEhow I actually managed to lug the box off that shelf without seriously injuring myself. I got up on the ladder, and moved the box a few inches to test its weight, and then I decided it was too heavy to be moved in a quick, impulsive manner. No, this was going to take some careful planning. The second rung of the ladder was too high – I had to move down to the first rung… and the box was too unwieldy in its length-wise position – I had to maneuver one end of it off the shelf, and s-l-o-w-l-y lower it down to the grill (which happened to be sitting in just the right place to be of assistance to me). Once I had part of it resting on the grill, it was easier to slide the box from the shelf to the grill, and at that point, it was low enough that I could grab the handles on the top of the box and pick the entire thing up. Whew. I probably should’ve waited until someone could help me to get that box down, but what’s done is done…

So now the tree is assembled and the lights are up, but I’ll wait until tomorrow to put the decorations on. I’m a little concerned about what the cats might do to this tree – they’ve both been munching on the branches, and Piva has actually CLIMBED the tree. She just shimmied right up the fake trunk and peeked out through the branches. And I haven’t even added the ornaments yet – who knows WHAT she’ll decide to do with those. I’m just hoping she doesn’t manage to knock the entire thing over… Even I managed not to knock it off the shelf in the garage... so the least Piva can do is NOT knock it over now that it's in the house...