Friday, December 16, 2011

This Holiday Season

Our Yule tree is up and dressed. It has 300 LED lights, silver tinsel garland (since I have a cat who loves eating string), glass ball ornaments, White House ornaments (compliments of Dad) and Swarovski crystal ornaments plus the ubiquitous candy canes. RP and I got it all pretty a couple of days ago, but now the ornaments are on the move.

Aine is probably the main reason for this migration. Her tail gets going and knocks the ornaments off and onto the ground. RP's solution is to pick the ornaments up and replace them on the tree at a higher location - preferably one that involves him standing on his activity table and reaching across the distance to try to place it as high as he can. Need I mention that this puts him off balance and strikes fear in the hearts of protective mothers everywhere? He is so anxious to grow up (or at least get taller) ... but weren't we all striving to "get older" so we could do more things - until we actually grew up and realized how much responsibility went with growing up?

We also have a Holiday village comprised of 13 porcelain buildings that light up plus one that doesn't, oodles of cordage (2 6-light cords, one single light cord and an extension cord with an on/off button) and a white flannel sheet to act as "snow" and provide cover for the tangle of cords. It has had a fighter jet land in the middle of town, has matchbox cars come in for visits, had an LED "searchlight" (finger LED light) added to the roofline, had "Happy Meal" toys come calling and may eventually have a gigantic kitty marauding through town terrorizing the villagers. Granted, it has no trees or people outside - the giant mutant kitties have a habit of running off with the trees and people so they are safely tucked "inside". I have tried explaining that the village is not a toy, to no avail. All I can do is watch carefully to make sure that nothing actually gets broken.

Another trend this holiday season is RP trying to "ride" Aine. He doesn't actually expect her to walk around with him on her back, but if she is sitting or lying down he hops on and just sits on her. If I needed a demonstration of just how GOOD my puppy is, this would fit the bill. She rarely complains about it, just gives me long-suffering looks (she has to have practiced these while I've been busy or asleep) and tolerates the 46 lb jockey. This leads of course to me saying "RP, get off the dog!" or "RP, you can not ride the dog".

Actually, I think that I am very lucky in the animals that own us. We have a real tree and have yet to extract a cat from it ... this being Micah's first Yule with us we were a little worried about that - Dylan has NEVER tried to climb a Yule tree in his 9 years of life. The tree has never been knocked down - even by the 5 year old human animal I gave birth to. In fact, the only Yuletide funny business has been disappearing village trees and people in the past.

I have all the presents purchased for the variety of holidays my family celebrates - Yule, Christmas, Solstice. They aren't quite all wrapped yet ... I need to get the energy to sit down and do it. I enjoy wrapping gifts ... choosing the paper and which stick-on bow plus the tags makes it a creative experience. I love watching the faces of my family as they open their gifts - it's a very rewarding experience. I have found myself getting more into receiving gifts as the years have gone by. Maybe it comes from a better self-esteem which allows me to feel worthy of gifts.

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