Christmas Decorations

Christmas decorations - a funny thing about them - one day they look soft, beautiful, decorative, and fill the house with color and cheer.

The next day they look like tired clutter that you can't wait to put up away.

I'm still in the color and cheer phase. With so much cloudy weather, I've enjoyed the Christmas tree lights so much.

I am ready to put away all the kitchen stuff (except the mugs) and Daughter is going to help me do this tomorrow as she has to practically crawl under the kitchen sink (oops I said "kitchen sink") to put the stuff up.

But the rest? Well, my Christmas mugs are a lot of snowmen and winter scenes with snow (hint, hint) with few real Santa stuff. I think I'll keep 'em out a few more weeks - or more.

Meanwhile, if you drive by my house, you'll see the lights still twinkling.

Come on by, I'll leave the light(s) on for you.

Just Another Day at the Hill House

If you live on this side of the United States, you know it snowed.

We got a good three inches, if not four. Fat, fluffy snow that makes the yard looked quilted. Stuck to everything, so it is lovely. It didn't get above 26 degrees today, so we still have it with us. I think the wind chill factor in the morning will be ten degrees.

But they promise a better afternoon, highs in the forties.

Of course I nagged   encouraged Husband to build a fire in the 'real' fireplace. It's been so very nice as we have taken down all the Christmas decorations today.

Right now the house looks like someone ransacked it, but it will take less than half an hour to have it looking pre-Christmas again.

During all this, we had company. He forgot his pants and left them in the living room.

You'd think as cold as it is outside....

AND

We had another mouse!

Have we become a mouse motel and no one told us? The drama ended when all three cats surrounded the tiny thing, Frost hissing at it (!) and all of them going in for the kill.

Husband jumped in the middle, caught the trembling half inch long mouse in a paper towel and took it down the road, into the woods on the other side.

I am sure neighbors will thank us profusely.

What a day!

Guess I'll go clean up the kitchen now.

Better that than help with the rest of the Christmas stuff.

Plus, I gotta find a place to put his pants.

There's a Mouse in the House OR I Hate Meeses to Pieces...You Pick

We came home the other evening, and as I passed by Daughter's room, I saw two of our cats, Mimi and Frost, staring intently behind the Chest of Drawers.

"There's something in  your room," I said to Daughter.

She looked, said, "I don't see anything."

So, I went on my merry way.

Shortly thereafter, I thought I heard Daughter hollering, "Ow, Ow, Ow!" Not in a terribly injured way, just semi dramatic, so I went about my business. Then I heard, "Ow! Mama! Ow!"

I walked into her room, "What?"

"Mouse! Mouse! Mouse!"

Oh. Sometimes being hearing impaired can be fun.

"I told you there was something back there."

She got a flashlight and had taken a better look and found two little eyes staring back at her.

Then she wanted to know what to do. I suggested leave the cats to it. Meanwhile, Eli, my big bruiser Maine Coon Cat strolled by, sniffed, shrugged and walked into the bathroom and sat down by the food bin. He arched a brow as if to say, "I don't eat mouse. Put some food in my dish."

Daughter continued hollering. "Daddy! Daddy! Mouse! Come here!"

Husband arrives upstairs and shoos the cats out of the room.

Wait. What?

"Why are you doing that?" I ask.

"I don't want the cats to catch it. I'll set traps tonight."

Sheesh.

Praying the cats don't get hurt in the traps,I give up. He promises the room will be closed up so the cats can't get in.

The next morning, the mouse has had a fine breakfast of cheese and peanut butter and is resting comfortably somewhere in the house.

I think I heard it burp.

Daughter says it is 'sorta cute'. It must be a field  mouse, as she describes it as about an inch long. It probably came in with the stored Christmas decorations or came in while we had the door open toting said decorations into the house.

All this was a few days ago, and we havent' seen hide nor hair of the mouse.

But I feel certain we will.

Soon.

Take it away!

It's time.

Hopefully next weekend I will be fully recuperated and all the Christmas decorations will be dispersed and vanquished.

Suddenly, I'm tired of 'em.

If our tree was a living tree, it would be droopy for sure. We didn't put it up until the 14th, which is more than 2 weeks late for us. But, still, it would be droopy.

I guess, it going up late and all, is why I haven't tired of the stuff until now. Quite suddenly, I want it gone.

We did a lot less decorating this year, due to everybody being sick, so there is a lot less to put away.

Any volunteers?

Is It Tacky Yet?

When does it become tacky to still have your Christmas decorations up?

Let me clarify by saying: I ain't asking ya'll what keep 'em up year round. That pretty much goes without saying.

I've fantasized about having a secret room to roll the tree into, with a few extra, easily accessible bags of garlands and whatnot, but I don't have the means to do such.

Besides, knowing my family, we'd have it so full of other junk it would be a major chore to get to the Christmas stuff by the time Thanksgiving rolled around.

My rule of thumb on decorating is this: The day after Thanksgiving until no later than January fifteenth.

I usually have everything down by the seventh or eighth because I'm suddenly extremely tired of looking at it.

Today, I still am enjoying everything. It's getting colder and colder outside, we  might have snow this weekend, and, well, I want to have a fire, turn on the tree lights and enjoy it.

I don't care if it is the first week of January.

I have friends who barely get the gifts unwrapped before they start ripping the tree apart. (These are the same friends who make up the bed in the middle of the night if their husbands get up to go pee).

Then I have friends who consider leaving all the red ornaments up and calling it a Valentine's tree. (These are the same friends who haven't made up their bed since 1978).

And, not to criticize anyone: I don't care. If you want your stuff left up all year, go for it.

You know everyone will secretly envy you right after Thanksgiving.

Christmases Before This One Heading Our Way

There are very few Christmases in my life when it snowed on that very day.

I remember a few, one being just a couple of  years back, and if you lived here, you certainly haven't forgotten it!

We had a dusting once when Daughter was four or so, and it snowed all Christmas Day, which made for a pleasant atmosphere while gazing out the window.

Maybe half a dozen times (maybe not) besides these, there has been a bit of snow - a flurry, a dusting, a this or that.

So, why is it when I think of Christmas shopping, Christmas Trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas Day for Heaven's sake, I always think of snow?

Many secular Christmas songs have snow dotted hither and yon throughout the verses, and  you know many people (maybe even you) flock their Christmas tree so that it looks as though it has been snowed upon. (If it did, wouldn't that mean you needed to turn up  your thermostat a little?)

I doubt, like almost one hundred percent, that the first Christmas had snow. I mean, I know God can do anything, and I ain't saying it for sure didn't snow that day, just that I kinda doubt it.

So here's to sleigh bells, jingle bells, horse sleighs dashing through the snow, snowflakes on your eyelashes, snowmen in the yard, snow cream in a bowl and blizzards only at the Dairy Queen.

But, really, wouldn't a little snow this  year be nice?

I Digress

You know how one thing leads to another?

Trying to put away Christmas decorations can be disastrous. You get all the boxes drug in that are full of the stuff that goes on tables, hall tree, bookcase, mantel, blah, blah, blah, where Christmas stuff sets now.

Here's the trick. You have to have someplace to set all the regular stuff out of the boxes before you can put the Christmas stuff in the boxes.

But first, you have to get The Whites and Mimi off the top of the boxes. Even Lily, (our geriatric cat), gets in on the fun, squeezing her body into a box that does, indeed, make her butt look big. The boys, Frost and Eli are in a frenzy, each on a separate box. They are sticking their paws into the boxes, trying to see in the boxes, and sniffing the boxes to beat the band. Blink, and they've swapped boxes, frantically trying the same thing.

The Whites are big cats. Frost weighs sixteen cough, fat, pounds. Eli is a growing boy of around fourteen pounds. But he is lean and long, not an ounce of  - well, you know - on him.

Either way, it's hard on a box.

You shoo the cats away and you put all this regular stuff in the chairs and on the couch. The living room now  looks like we are preparing to have a yard sale and move.

Then the phone rings. It's, say, oh, I don't know - my mother.

Forty-five minutes later, the cats are back in place, sound asleep on top of and in boxes, daughter hasn't done a durn thing except get on the laptop (I'm waiting on you to tell me what to do, she says). And husband is in the recliner 'resting his eyes'.

Hoo, boy.

Of course, by now, everyone is getting  hungry, it's dinner time. Yes, I said dinner. That's the  mid-day meal in these parts of the woods. Tonight we'll have supper. Got that?  Good.

The kitchen is fairly unaffected by the decorations debacle, dinner is cooked, and my back is killing me. I go to lay my body down for twenty while daughter (who will NOT wait on me to tell her what to do, she's got this one down pat) cleans up the kitchen.

Now, it's mid-afternoon. I haven't written anything in the book I'm working on, I haven't blogged (hope you noticed), and a doctor's appointment stands in the way of getting anything else done. Daughter has to start on  school work, and husband needs to rest  his eyes.

Again.

You know how long it takes to go for a doctor's appointment, don't  you?

So, the evening and the morning were the first day.