The Christmas Tree

 

       It’s Christmas morning. Willow is napping on her pillow. Barnaby is chasing a ball or plotting some sort of mischief. I’m am sitting on the couch in my traditional Christmas pajamas looking at the few decorations I managed to put up this year.

      We almost didn’t get a tree this year. Between work schedules and a nasty respiratory virus that hung  on for weeks, we went tree shopping a few days before Christmas Eve. We’ve been getting smaller trees lately so we can set them on a small coffee table. Our hope was that the cats would be unable to drink the tree water, since we’ve learned that is dangerous for the cats.

      A few months ago, I had an idea for our tree this year. I thought we should get a Norfolk Island pine. I had one before as a house plant and really liked the look of it. I am pretty sure I can keep one alive. Since it was going to be in a pot, we would not have to worry about cats drinking tree water. It also has the added advantage of being reusable.  I’m not a fan of fake trees which to me look fake. I also think the cats could easily knock it over.

     I checked with the vet to make sure that it would be safe to have around the cats. The reading I had been doing online had not provided a clear answer. The vet said it was ok. C said he was willing to look. 

     When we finally had time to look at trees, the selection was pretty small. We knew this would be the case, but we always managed to find something. This year there was nothing in the size we wanted. We looked at the Norfolk Pines that were in stock.  We picked out one and put it in our cart. We found some small battery operated lights as our string of lights we have was going to be too heavy of the tree’s delicate branches.

    We kept it in a spare room overnight as we worried about the cats destroying it while we were sleeping. The next day, I brought it out. The cats were curious about it and attempted to chew on it. I let them know that wasn’t something they were supposed to do and they stopped. I decorated it with the lights we bought. Then I got out the smallest ornaments I could find and hung them on the branches.  I dropped a handmade glass ornament that I bought our first Christmas together. It smashed on our wood floor. I was sad as I swept up the pieces. Half of it was still intact and I hung it on the tree. 

     The cats did some experimental sniffing and attempted to chew on the lights. They were warned away. C put the tree into a large, old cooking pot as he was concerned the tree might tip. We set it on a plastic bin. 

     The angel we usually put on top of the tree was too heavy. We looked for a light tree topper and found nothing. We settled on tucking a small star covered with sequins on top of the tree. It’s not quite big enough to look like a real topper, but it was all we could find.

     It’s a nice looking tree. I’m glad we have it. Maybe I can change the lights out of different holidays?