Finally
We put up our Christmas tree two days ago. I got the tree for free so it was a happy event. This tree is about 10 feet tall. We had to get out the ladder to decorate the top. I like to call the decorating style "eclectic" which is code for 'whatever shit i have collected or been given over the years gets thrown on'.
At the top of the tree rests a teddy bear who dares not speak his name for fear of getting killed in Sudan by an angry mob.
Of course we had help:
Here is my favorite Holiday tchotchke. It's my favorite because it was given to me my a man who used to work for me. He is Hindu and i am an atheist, and it's a nativity scene. I find that amusing. It plays "Silent Night" and the part of baby Jesus is played by two tiny blinking light bulbs. 
The End:
46 comments:
HEY! That looks like the kind of help WE got, too!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7794572@N05/2110515931/
Your home is so inviting and lovely. My Christmas tree is quite eclectic too.
i've got a kitty that is anxiously awaiting to help tonight too. i think frosty is a deadman
I like that blue butterfly.
I usually attach ornaments instead of bows to gifts to help out folks like you. And I go shopping at Yankee Candle in January. While I don't go for the "coordinated" or theme tree, I take my ornamentation pretty seriously.
Because the Yankee Candle store sells a lot of ornaments. Not Candles.
Too cute! One of our dogs keep insisting on sleeping on the tree skirt. Not only is she gonna knock the tree over, but she has big globs of tree sap on her head.
Great tree (and awesome helper, too)! I love the eclectic style of tree decorating. It's the style I personally devote myself to. I look forward to each of my ornaments having meaning someday...
mrs. chili, Awwww, great kitty shot. And that picture of your two tiny redheads? Spectacular!
marsha, well c'mon over. Thank you. I like eclectic.
furious, one year, our cat brought the entire tree down. So, good luck with that.
de, thanks, i think my mom gave me that one. Maybe i should hire you to take my decorating seriously for me.
franki, well, the sap smells good, but it does make things like small children stick to the dog's head.
andrea, it is a pleasure to unwrap the ornaments each year and remember the people and places they all came from.
I love eclectic too. My tree is mostly Santas and snowmen - I got a thing for wintery male figures I guess. But my Grandma's tree - now there is a wonderful eclectic: Seattle ferries, mexican birds and God's Eyes, Maine lobsters, and so many more from all over the place. I love that kind of stuff.
Zola has it all wrong he's supposed to be halfway up the tree....just like Dirty Girl.
You're grey kitty looks just like my former Kitty. She's beauteous.
The nativity tchotchke (I just cut and pasted that word from your blog into these here comments because I had NO IDEA how to spell it) story is hilarious. :-)
ok, I am having such floor envy that I so totally didn't pay attention to your tree.....
Great tree, Meno. Last year was supposed to be our last year with a phony tree, but Bridget faked me out and bought one that she knew I'd approve of: it's upside-down. Our dog didn't help decorate it, though. Thankfully. LOL
OMG, You have quite a nice view from your living room window.
And I love the label for this post.
yep, i'm with peevish. very nice (and large) tree but the view?
sigh. yeah.
Does the kitty tail indicate that a kitty is drinking from the tree? Cuz my kitties used to love to do that...
I think that tree is perfectly lovely.
Very cool pics. I love the last one especially.
Is that Lake Washington or Puget Sound outside your windows?
I think I'm officially jealous now.
Happy Christmas!!
you sure are brave, putting ornaments that close to the cat zone. We have to keep the 1st 2 feet of the tree clear of anything breakable. And think - we are so nice as to put a bowl of water under the tree for them to drink from.
Laura says if you don't have these problems, you should get therapy for your cats, there's obviously something wrong with them.
What would we be as a race without Christmas kitties???
Bored,,, well unless you have a golden retriever that eats wrapping paper....
Here's what I want to know:In the navity scene, do the Wisemen bring catnip?
maggie, That's the kind of stuff we have, from all over. Hippos from Africa, litle men from China. It's fun.
patches, i will be sure NOT to tell him about the error of his ways.
jennifer, he is a beauty! I had to look up how to spell tchotchke too. :)
flutter, red oak, i think.
gordo, upside down! Now that's cool.
peevish, yes, we are lucky.
robin, thank you, i look at the view everyday and sigh.
qt, i don't think he was drinking, but he might have been. Silly boy.
hearts, it's neither, it's one of the "lesser lakes".
bob, the first year we had these cats, when i out up the tree i sat there with a squirt bottle. I nailed them both with it, once. they still remember.
cheesy, it would be a sad lonely life without animals. Maybe you shouldn't wrap presents with beef flavored wrapping!
mamap, any wise man worth his kitty would.
that's it. i'm coming to live with you. be my wife.
You are too funny. What a nice BIG cat.
I wonder where the cat can be...?
great shots of your 'helpers'. how would we ever get anything done without them?
I am pea green with view envy too. We've got a mountain - of sorts - but it would benefit greatly by a lake between us and it. Thats really beautiful.
We cut a cedar from the woods, such a nice scent, though prickly! when decorating and particularly when UNdecorating and the needles are drier.
Our cats are in the same under-tree positions but I know for a fact they like the stand water, even learning to paw away the skirt and small presents to get to it.
My cat Monk has already figured out that the tree makes for a great scratching post.
The tree might be on the floor by tonight.
We haven't decorated it yet. Sunday we cut the tree down. Last night we brought the tree in. We might decorate it in time for Christmas day. Too bad you can't come here and take charge of things around here. Sigh. Not that you probably want to do more.
I can see the beautiful wood beams outside your windows. Maybe one day you can show us more...
yours is a very nice tree. And that ornament, heheee. I have a fake prelit thingy that all the kids ornaments go on. We are pretty happy with it.
You do realize that this isn't your Christmas tree...it's the cats'.
BTW, on a totally different note...what kind of flooring is that? (wood, pergo, ???) and does it hold up well? We are in the market for new flooring (the electrical tape isn't holding up too well) and we're trying to find something that looks good, and is durable.
Last year my youngest dog pulled my tree over, he still lives.
Love the tree but even more, love the view you have out your window, I'm jealous, I admit it.
liv, deal!
suebob, he's a beaut all roight! 15 pounds of rompin' stompin' fury!
d-man, i dunno, he's soooo sly i just can't tell.
holly, i can't even imagine.
ac, we are very lucky with our house. Cedar is one of the best smells in the world. Mmmmm.
daphne, we had a tree go over one year because of the cats. That was fun. We got to get some new ornaments after that. The beams are reclaimed from an old railroad tunnel. Some of them still have spike holes in them.
my pool, thank you. :)
lynn, i know, the whole house is theirs. I think the floor is red oak. It's been reasonably durable, and it is pretty.
deb, well come and see it in person. But maybe don't bring the puppies.
Our Charlie likes to tunnel -- into and under the tree skirt. We can tell that it's been disturbed when we return home in the evening. However, the cats seem to leave everything else alone. Once in awhile a bat at an ornament, but nothing serious.
We have had a lot of help like yours what with our three cats and that last photo looks surprising similar to the view we have had of ours, except our floor is carpeted where the tree is located. I don't think they can climb it as the branches are too dense and, as of this morning, there had been no decorations knocked off. Yet.....
hey, if liv comes to live with you, you'll score free holiday china to go with your free tree and your recently completed table runner! (Fine, if you want, I'll make you coordinated napkins...)
Kitties and Christmas trees. Perfect together.
Wow...that's one beautiful tree. And what's wrong with eclectic??? That's the best kind of tree!!
your tree is beautiful, and eclectic is best. this year the boys decorated ours, and everything is everywhere. it looks the best it's ever looked if I do say so myself.
as a non-atheist, i like your favorite ornament as well!
and, lastly, lovely view from your windows. and nice cats, they're juicy looking (which in our house is a good thing!).
After erecting my perfectly decorated tree this year, I found myself in awe of a tree somewhere else that was real and decorated with misfit ornaments and REAL tinsel, it was so pretty I had to go touch the branches..
Growing up I alwayswanted one of those trees that are decorated by theme or color and oh so perfect.
Now that I have it sometimes I wish I didn't. I think I was more grateful for all the years we had a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
Nice ending to a Christmas tale.
I decorated our tree while drunk.
So.... Yeah. :)
Your xmas tree looks fantastic Meno. I gotta admit, I seem to have trouble keeping upright; was thinking what the hell, a lateral xmas tree is just as significant, no?
I miss my cat so much, our first xmas without her; the tabby is just gorgeous, please cuddle-Pam-Australian style for me.
It goes like: pick up sort of cuddle gently while scratching cheek and around ear and all the time...."you are so beautiful".
Pam
My favorite tree decor includes whatever shit is collected over the years, and of course cat's me'asses.
Hey mofo, I mean meno, do you really live right on water? How jealous am I of that? Really jealous. Crazy jealous.
Our cats are obsesssed with the tree too. What's up with that? One of them lies underneath and the other sits just outside it, growling low. They pretty much hate each other, our girls. If they knock so much as one ornament off that tree, I'll, I'll...I'll...I'm such a cat-loving pansy, I'll just feed them some more food or something.
We miss our kitties during Christmas. They also loved to sleep on the tree skirt and "help" with the ornaments at the bottom of the tree.
Your tree is beautiful! Especially with the view out your window in the background. :)
eepersmom, a tree skirt is like catnip to a cat. I must confess that our tree skirt is really only two big white towels.
dick, how about now? Are the ornaments still safe. We have had no incidents either.
amusing, the china alone would be worth it. But i'll have you know that because of one sneaky blogger, i now have some Christmas plates. Pictures soon. And yes please on the napkins. You know, in your spare time.
candy, a match made in......well, somewhere.
joan, The Mister's mom always had a tree that had a differemt theme each year, and only had little white lights, and was very tasteful. I'm pretty sure she scorned my wild tree, and back then we even had blonking lights. The Horror!
wng, i think they both napped heavily during the event.
sari, the cats get very juicy in the winter, as all they do is eat and sleep, except when they are napping.
ttq, i could never pull off a theme tree, too much planning. Plus i love pulling out all the ornments every year and remembering who/what/where they came from.
ortizzle, a Christmas Tail?
tink, what makes you think i didn't. That ladder was dangerous.
pam, thank you. These cats hear that they are beautiful all the time. Imagine what it would be like to have someone, everytime they see you, squeal and tell you how gorgeous you are. Then you get an idea of their lives.
bo, You should open an on-line for a new kind of ornament, the cat's me'ass. I'd buy one.
anne, yes, i am a lucky mofo. I cured my cats of fucking with the tree with a few squirts from a water bottle a few years ago. They haven't forgotten.
schmoopie, live without cats is a sad and bleak life. But since you have kids and dogs, i suppose it's okay. Have a great Christmas.
A beautiful tree! My cat really likes to lay under our tree as well, but she manages to keep her tail from hanging out.
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