« winter blues and anxieties | Main | back in the saddle »
December 04, 2004
wishy-washy hypocrite; or, my complete lack of conviction
Two confessions here for this entry:
Confession #1: I've let my cats (what's left of them, anyway) back into the house. Yes, they (or, at least one) were peeing in various and sundry NON-CAT BOX places. However, the freezing place that is CNY where we live is simply too cold. Yesterday I went out 15 minutes before I had to leave to start the car, and Ginger ran up to my ankles, mewling hoarsely, and SNEEZING of all things. I get home yesterday, and Muffy is sitting on the back stoop SHIVERING (I am not, as Dave Barry would say, making this up!).
This morning I get up to schlepp 8 bazillion kids off to dance class, and I let both kitties in. I tell Brian to get their litter box ready and bring the food in.
We have cats again. Sorry, Mom, that the entire time I was at your house for Thanksgiving I kept telling you to relegate your furballs to the out-of-doors.
Confession #2: We put up a Christmas tree this afternoon. We bought one from a U-cut farm down the road here in Parish. I was cranky and in a hurry (it was cold! I didn't want a tree!!), so the first one the kids pointed at, I told Brian "Hack it down."
He asked cautiously, "Is it too tall?"
I respond, "No. We have tall ceilings. Hack it down. I'm cold."
So, we get it home, and sure enough, it is too dang tall. Brian (saint that he is) patiently cut another foot and a half off the bottom (and still we had to put the star IN FRONT of the top of the tree because it would not fit ON TOP).
So we decorate it. After three glass balls are shattered on the floor and Hannah's Beatrix Potter baby's first Christmas ornament gets busted (some Krazy glue should make it OK, though), I've had enough. "All right, that's good everyone. Let's just put up the rest of the cross-stitched ones from Grandma Betty, those don't break."
I suppose we'll see about that, though.
Posted by mryonker at December 4, 2004 10:12 PM
Comments
you've discovered one of our family's holiday traditions, without me telling you about it.
it's the tradition of the festive holiday sound. smash! in our family, something must be done to uphold the tradition of the festive sound at least once a day.
Posted by: mean regression at December 5, 2004 10:02 AM
When you're old and the kids aren't coming for Christmas, you can just skip the whole tree thang. But in a sense, we still face these quandaries, with outdoor lighting. We have an enormous antique, untrimmed juniper in the front yard, and for the past two years (including for 2 hours today), I have tried unsuccessfully to string it with lights. The thing is, I have no gift for light-stringing (I was absent that day), and this juniper would require some 500 feet of lights to be done properly. Last year I lit the wretched attempt anyway. This year, blessedly, they shorted out while I was stringing. Sometime next weekend I'll skulk out there and take the damned things down.
Posted by: senioritis at December 5, 2004 10:58 PM
Wow, that must be a heckuva tree! We're using an artificial tree, which has its own hassles, and my kids will surely someday identify "fake tree" as a Bad Parenting paractice.
Posted by: Beth at December 5, 2004 11:25 PM