Happy Half a Christmas (Tree)

Due to the incorrigible kitten in our lives, we thought we would have to once again go without a christmas tree. It seemed so dismal as this was the 2nd year in a row that we wouldn't have a tree since last year she was truly a new kitten and also we went to Miami, so we went without. Plus I read that there is a tree shortage and the prices had escalated beyond ridiculousness. That turned out not to be true which we found out when we bought very green, very thick balsam, possibly the most beautiful tree we have ever had.

Immediately on arrival Jezebel was in the tree, climbing it, attacking it and generally getting the feeling of the good old outdoors right in our very own living room. When we put the gifts under the tree, her playing became LOUD because what cat can resist the sound of crinkling. Through the night we listened to crinkling and crashing and bouncing. So we put a cover over the presents which did help the noise, but we also realized that the boxes gave her a lift to get even higher into the tree.

We thought that we wouldn't be putting up any ornaments due to the fact that they exactly resemble cat toys. But when a lovely paper santa with moving limbs came in the mail (thank you Nanci) we thought that it would be a good experiment to see how high it could go to be out of her seemingly endless reach. After successfully pulling Santa down at least 4 times as I moved it further up and up, it turned out that the sweet spot was almost exactly halfway up the tree. Therefore, we have decorated our tree with only non-breakable ornaments and only halfway to the ground. We took out all the delicate glass ornaments, ooohed and aahed and remembered where they came from and immediately put them back in their wrapping. This year, the weird santa bears and painted seashells get the best spots. It's weird looking, but at least we will have half a christmas tree. Now if we could only eat half the chocolates...