“Decking the Rations”

Once upon a time, I used to post on this blog…  Over the last few weeks, I have had several thoughts, potential and half-written posts, family updates and lots of pictures floating around in my head.  So, why the lack of posts?  I don’t know – it certainly isn’t for lack of material!  I will try to get back to posting more regularly soon, although, I may have to resort to backdating the posts just to keep everything neat and tidy…both here on the blog, and in my little head.  But, for the moment, I will start with the here and now, and the other stuff will come later.

“Decking the rations” is Hannah’s phrase for both the Christmas decorations, as well as the process of putting them up.  Our version of decking the halls, I guess.   But, in our house, “decking the rations” is a week-long process, and not just because I enjoy the process – which I do.  Really, I would love to be one of those people who can get it done in a day…but when you have two little tasmanian devils, uh, I mean, cats the whole thing takes a little longer.

Let me introduce you to my kitties…The black and white one is Katy, and the striped one is Charis.  We are convinced that these cats are tasmanian devils in disguise.  They will eat anything…and pretty much have.  Their favorite seems to be the plastic grocery bags…but, they have also eaten plastic wrap, ziploc bags, mesh bath sponges, kleenex (if you have ever visited us, and wondered why the kleenex boxes are all upside down…now you know!), toilet paper, tissue paper, ribbon, wrapping paper, and tape (that makes for interesting giftwrap under the Tree!)…Oh, the tree.  Yes, they eat the Christmas tree, too!  We’ve also caught them trying to nibble on the light bulbs!  (Despite their quirks, and crazy appetite, they are good cats…And extremely patient, and tolerant of Hannah’s “unique” expressions of affection!)

So…On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Jason was kind enough to pull all of our Christmas boxes out of the garage.  He and Hannah put together our tree (it is a fake, because, I worried about the cats drinking the water…silly me!).

Then later that morning, we “bundled up” (in the 70-degree, and I am wearing a sweater anyway weather!) to ”help” Jason put up the Christmas lights!  Hannah had a great time pointing out all of the colors, and holding the lights for him, and generally just being outside.  (She’s been cooped up in the house since Thanksgiving with another nasty cough!)  The outside of the house looks great!  It is all sparkly, and ready for the season…

The inside however, well, it’s getting there!  We finally decorated the tree last night…  It has been up, and lit, for a week without decorations.  We have had to do a little “cat training” before risking the ornaments…  In the past, we have found chewed needles everywhere (and everyone thinks a fake tree means no needles on the floor!), lively games of “ornament hockey” at midnight, or, my favorite, finding a cat napping in the branches, about halfway up the tree!!!  Have you ever tried to “train” a cat?  Yeah, as you would expect, it is pretty much an exercise in futility.  Even so, the past week has been spent with a full spray bottle close at hand, zapping them whenever they begin chewing, batting, or climbing…And, they were pretty good last night as we unwrapped the ornaments.

  Hannah really got involved this year, which was so fun to watch.  She loved looking through my collection of angel ornaments.  And, she even helped put several on the tree (all clumped in the same general area, but…).  It is not a designer tree by any stretch of the imagination…it is a family tree, complete with communion cup bells (that I made way back when I was Hannah’s age!), and a paper plate angel (that Hannah made last year)!  We think it looks pretty good, and…it is still in one piece this morning!

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…”