Putting up the Christmas tree

Last night was that time of the year again …time to put up the Christmas tree.

First order of business, retrieving the tree from the storage room.  Of course the box was buried all the way in the back, under a ton of other stuff.  While trying to get to the boxed tree, we found – among other things – a box.  "Oh here are the Halloween decorations."

Another complication, while trying to get the tree out of the room, was juggling a few cats who wanted to get into the room.  “Move Mickey!”
"No Gabriel, you can’t go in there!”
“Out of the way Charlotte!”  Their ears were apparently on their backsides, but eventually they joined Charlie and Chanel who were keeping an eye on things from a distance.

When the tree was assembled phase one could start … opening all the tree branches.  Don’t ask me how long it took, but it was a prickly, dusty affair accompanied by several sneezes.  Next year, before putting the tree away, I’ll put him on the balcony for a while so the wind can blow him out.

Now for the lights.  The plug was plugged in and … oh oh, while the top section and the bottom section lit up with white LAD lights, the middle section did not.  Fortunately there were some spare lights. 
“You’re gonna have to go through them, one by one, and see where the faulty one is,” I said to Dieter.  He responded with “Say what?”
Fifteen minutes later the middle section of the tree lit up.  I’ll spare you the coversation Dieter had with the lights.

Next up, a red ribbon.  We can’t use tinsel or angel hair for the tree on account of the cats.  They grab it and chew it.  So, to prevent an emergency visit to the vet’s office we had to come up with an alternative.  Last year we used pearls, but that wasn’t quite the success I thought it was going to be.  So, this year we would try a ribbon.  It was rather nice until Charlotte came along, carefully reached out with a white paw and made a “little” adjustment.  “Charlotte, don’t do that.  Just look, don’t touch!”

Finally, the decorations.  The theme … red and gold.  Small balls on top, bigger balls in the middle, even bigger balls on the bottom.  A ball here, a star there, some tear drops, some birds … yep, that looked nice.  “Charlotte, don’t touch!  I said just look.”  “Gabriel!  Where’re you’re going with that ball?  Drop it.  Drop it!  Don’t do that!”

Now for the angel on top.  Where is the angel?  Must be in one of the boxes with other decorations.  Oh I’ll look for the angel tomorrow.