Santa Jimmy

This was Jimmy's first Christmas

and he was a VERY good boy

Casper whispers "don't worry, it will be over soon".  Jimmy just smiled through it all.

To Tree or Not to Tree...

That is the question that I had been asking myself all month! 

I think it is terribly unfair to put up all these sparkly, dangling decorations then not let the cats play with them so I was really stalling when it came to our tree (I had also written about my misgivings on December 1st post "Christmas with Cats").  Well of course we got a tree :-)  Last Thursday Robert and I went out an got a beautiful Fraser Fir.  As far as I am concerned they are the best trees ever and I've been getting one every year for well over ten years.  It is impossible to pick a bad one.  Our tree was bound up for transport and covered in snow.  It looked about the right height so we took it home, I knew when we cut the twine and let the branches fall it would be fine.  They grow in the most perfect Christmas tree shape, as if in a drawing and rarely drop any needles.  The needles are short, which I like, and rounded at the ends so they are soft and one never gets an uncomfortable poke while decorating...they are the ideal blank canvas to create your masterpiece.

My cat-proof tree

However, this year my masterpiece is a study in minimal.  For a few days now I have been living with just twinkle lights and a star at the top and it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Also, the boys have been surprisingly well behaved!  Casper has not paid any significant attention to the tree and Ben has chewed a few branches but that is it.  Archie camps out on the tree skirt and won't move and Jimmer is so overwhelmed by all the newness in the house that this is just one more thing to him and as a result nothing particularly special.  Since all my worrying may have been for naught, I might add some unbreakable decorations now and see if my luck holds!

Can you see Archie?

One special addition though is that Ben has placed a little catnip bouquet under the tree for his lovely Clemmie and asks if she would like to come over to play and maybe sing some Christmas carols with him :-)

for beautiful Clemmie

Christmas with Cats

I would never opt not to have cats in my life, but my gosh sometimes they are a challenge!  I was just wondering how Christmas will play out this year with both Archie AND Jimmy experiencing it for the first time.  We always have a real tree and it starts out beautifully decorated.  Then slowly as if by magic the decorations move to the top half of the tree leaving the bottom as unadorned as mother nature made it. In past years this magical migration was caused by my so called mature cats, Casper and Ben.  Who knows what will happen with a five and fourteen month old added to the mix. 

Casper is such a good sport!

A couple of weeks ago I lobbed the idea to Robert about maybe not having a tree this year. After all our little beach house gets very crowded when all the family is over and maybe no tree would be helpful for space management?  NOT...Robert wasn't having any of that.  So I am thinking that maybe this year I will just decorate our tree with twinkle lights and a star; sort of a minimalist theme.  Perhaps a beautiful, fat velvet ribbon wrapped around it for a pop of red and voila "kitten-proof Christmas"!  I'll let you know how it works out, but in the meantime I would welcome any suggestions :-)

But who will wear the santa coat this year?

I would like to thank Judi from Sammy and Andy's Place for making a beautiful Christmas card for my kitties to exchange with their friends.  This is our first Christmas in the CB and we would have felt terribly left out without her generous help.  You Rock Judi!!!  Please feel free to grab our card for your sidebar if you are exchanging ecards :-)