Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

So my Christmas tree has finally been put up. Luckily my little sister did it for me this year. Of course she broke it in the process. But beggars can't be choosers.

After my last blog, I rearranged the furniture to make room for my tree. Then I pulled out the tree and ornaments. By the time I got everything ready to begin erecting my tree, I was so exhausted that I just left everything still in all the boxes and went to bed. Well, a new work week began and I was too busy to deal with decorating my apartment.

My mother and sister eventually ventured over to "clean" my apartment. I gave/loaned my mother some money to pay her bills and she decided she wanted to clean my apartment as a way of paying me back. I have no problem with that. Plus it makes her feel productive. My mother has Multiple Sclerosis and is limited on the things she is capable of doing. So being able to do a little cleaning makes her feel not as helpless and prevents me from having to do my own dishes. So everyone wins. HA!

Anyway, my 16 year old sister and her friend decided to put up my Christmas tree for me. Mom vacuumed the area where the tree was to be placed and the two girls worked on the tree. When I came home there was a note on my door stating the tree stand was "cracked" and that the tree was severely leaning to one side.

So I went inside to inspect the damage. The stand was not just "cracked" but actually broken. And the tree was leaning worse than the Tower of Pisa. I immediately called my sister and asked her what she did to my tree. "Nothing! It was like that already." Yeah okay.

So a couple of days later, I made her tape up the stand and rig the tree so it was no longer leaning over. Then she began to decorate it. Unfortunately we discovered that my tree lights were missing. I guess I threw them away or something 2 years ago. So we went to Wal-Mart and bought new lights. $166 later we leave Wal-Mart. Don't even ask...

So she decorated the tree while she fought with Oliver. They battled over each other's space, the ornaments and the lights. Oliver wanted to play with the bright colored strand while my sister struggled to put the lights on the tree. He nipped at her legs when my sister maneuvered around the area invading his nap space. Then he decided that the ball ornaments were his new play toys and proceeded to bat at them once she carefully placed them on the tree.

Several hours later, after much frustration and many obstacles, my tree was done. My sister left the final touches for me and wearily went home to rest. I looked around my apartment for my old tree skirt. I guess I threw it out with the lights. I ended up using an old throw blanket as the tree skirt. Oliver is content to sleep under the lit tree as if it was put up specifically for him or something.

I have slowly began to place wrapped gifts under my tree. Although the more presents under there the more aggressive Oliver gets towards the tree. I have caught him batting at the ornaments...biting and pulling on the branches...even pawing at the gifts to try & make room for him to nap. Last week I found one of my ornaments broken. The other day I found one of my blue ball ornaments laying in the kitchen. For a senior cat he sure is active.

I keep hoping the taped stand can withstand the wrath of Oliver. The last thing I need to do is come home to a fallen tree and crushed kitty cat. Tis the season!