Christmas is officially over.

I decided I had procrastinated enough and so, yesterday, I took down the Christmas tree and removed the wreath from the front door. It had not been lighted since Iowa beat Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl, but taking down the tree means hauling all the boxes for the ornaments up from the basement and then bringing the big bin for the tree up and lugging the filled containers back downstairs. The tree isn't really in the way so I just left it up. Plus, it looked kind of nice since I hadn't put it up in a couple years.

But it's been bugging me so I finally hauled all the containers up over the course of the week and decided to take it down yesterday.

Of course, I have "proof". Duh.

Off came all the ornaments. Mija is checking out the smells on the lid of one of the ornament bins. As I was removing these and reorganizing the bins (I have 3 just for ornaments.), I realized I can remember where I got 99% of all the ornaments. I would say 3/4ths of the ones pictured were purchased by me but a few were gifts.

In the upper right corner, a cat ornament in front of the glass Scottish Saltaire, is a Maine Coon and was given to me by Carole because her cat, Faux, is a Maine Coon and Faux came to live with us when she lived at home.

If you can find Herkey, the Hawk in the lower right, look to his immediate upper left and you'll see a flat brown cat. My dear friend, Patt, gave me that this year. It's a piece of painted metal and it's really just a decoration. But it has this great gold swirl on the top of it that's purr-fect (sorry, couldn't resist) for hanging on the tree. When I opened the package, I knew it was going on the tree.

About middle left is a square rocking horse ornament. That was given to us by a college friend who made the counted cross-stitch panel when Carole was born. I've lost track of her but I think of her every year when I pull this out and put it on the tree. At some point, it and a few other ornaments with Carole's date of birth or her name, minus the "e", will go to her.


There, half-way down and then completely devoid of branches. I discovered that I had put some smaller branches in the middle, having misread the tag on the end that hooks into the trunk. I have this wild idea that since the actual framework of the branches is the same size, it's just the length of the branches that's different, why couldn't I stick the small ones at the base and the larger ones on top, or in the middle. I don't HAVE to build a traditionally shaped Christmas tree. I seem to remember, many years ago, Nieman-Marcus had an upside down tree you could buy for thousands of dollars. It came fully decorated, if I remember correctly. There's all my Christmas presents, which I hadn't put away, excepting the money from my mother, the tea from my sister, the M&M's from my brother and the page-a-day WOW calendar from my future son-in-law. (That's another upcoming post and trust me, that sounds really weird.)

Nope, I had no help. They just supervised.

I decided to open the tree bin in the basement and haul the branches, trunk and stand down there. It gets so heavy when everything is in the bin, plus it's a big container and tough to navigate up and down the stairs. I'll probably drag it up in November but this way was darn-site easier to put it away. It was one of those, "Why didn't I think of this before" moments.

The living room doesn't feel "empty" without the tree. It was time to take it down. The only problem is that Mija now has a window sill on which to sit and chew on the spider plant. I guess I need to look into getting some of those "kitty greens".

What does feel naked is the front door. I don't have anything to put up until late March when I have a wreath adorned with spring flowers. I guess I'll go back to the "Cats Welcome" sign.

Beverage: Scottish Blend tea

Deb