Christmas Decorating

I was so excited to start Christmas decorating this year! Putting up our own ornaments in our own home . . . wow! It felt like an adventure to figure out where I wanted what, and my husband was so kind as to participate - it made for a relational memory that did my feminine heart good.

Except, I knew we were going to have a bit of a problem with the Christmas tree. The problem looked something like this:

Yes.

I had pulled our tree up from storage a few days earlier to see how Louis would interact with it, and it wasn't long before he let me know.

He had so much fun scratching that "bark" and rolling its papery substance around in his mouth! And of course he had to climb it once and tip it (I was surprised that it was only once, actually).

As you can imagine, I was starting to see visions of broken, bitten, scratched, and otherwise destroyed Christmas ornaments that represented many happy memories in my life.

Houston, we had a problem.

Well, as my husband is so fond of proudly saying, I am an engineer's wife, and with a little thought and a little of his muscle, we engineered ourselves a solution.

Ladies and gentlemen, our cat-proof Christmas tree!

You may notice in the foreground a small, carpeted structure meant for cats' enjoyment and relaxation. Louis had never paid it a whole lot of attention, but it is now his favorite place to sit, eye-level with the lace tree skirt, looking wistfully at what he cannot have.

Of course, I supervise his visit with the tree (he's already stolen one of the pine cones from off the skirt), but - all things considered - I do believe we have found the best of both worlds: that of owning a cat and an intact Christmas tree!