Mean Mom!!!

 

You are a MEAN MOM!!! 

 

We cats are depressed – and it’s all YOUR FAULT!!! 

 

You took away our joy and happiness – our reason for getting up in the morning (other than our Tunafish, that is)…… 

 

YOU TOOK OUR TREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You Big Meannie!!!! 

Our beloved tree is gone 😦  Our pretty “soccer balls” have vanished.  😦  No more fun stuff for us to abscond with….. 

 

No more tree to hide under for surprise ambushes…..BIG MEANNIE!!! 

 

How dare you!! Why did you take our toys and super-secret-hidy-place away?!?! What have we ever done to you??? 

 

I mean – REALLY?!?! It’s OUR STUFF for crying out loud!!! 

 

YOU let those boxes in that ate our toys! YOU let that bag in that ate OUR tree!!! What were you thinking woman?!?! 

 

Will they EVER come back?!? Where did they go!?!?! I MUST go find them!!!Ooohhh….the nerve of you!!! It’s all your fault!!! Our beloved tree – it’s all gone!! Gone I tell you!!! despondency and sadness….  😦  Sad, sad day…..our lives will never be the same, and it’s all your fault – MEAN MOM!!! 

 

Now you must pay for your actions you bad woman!!!! Shame on you!! And by the way, where did you say your yarn was stashed???? 

 

I’m just saying………

Naked Trees and Thieves

  

Yet again, I had the distinct pleasure of waking up to a naked tree, and ornament thieves! While trying to stumble to the coffee pot I came upon the latest “soccer” game unfolding down my back hallway leading to my office. “Bang”, “bang”, “crash” were the lovely sounds emitting from what was once a hardwood floored hallway that had just been converted to a feline Pinball Game arena. The deep freezer, walls, tables and open folding Pantry doors having been transformed into bumpers, backboards and ball returns! 😦  As I scrambled to retrieve the flying red and gold (plastic) shiny and sparkly “balls” from their feverish game, without being taken out by one of them myself, I came around the corner and saw my tree….my once beautiful tree. Naked except for her lights, and a few desperately clinging poinsettia sprays (also fake – just so you know). She was still upright, which is a good thing because a 7 1/2 foot tall tree toppled across the doorway would not have been a good thing – especially since she was still plugged in!! But, there she was – pitiful, and missing all of her ribbons, ornaments, flowers and stars. Her lights hung on for dear life – but that was all. Everything else was in assorted piles and heaps on the floor around her, as if she had had the worlds worst “hotflash” and couldn’t shed her clothes quickly enough.

She was a pretty tree....

Now, it was bad enough that she had to deal with a visit from “the grinch” a few days ago (her top STILL won’t stand perfectly straight!), but to add insult to injury, she now was disrobed!! I gathered all the “balls” up that I could find – I know there are still a few missing that “THEY” have stashed for just such an emergency as mom taking their toys away – and placed everything I could find back on the tree where it went. She still doesn’t look quite right.  However, at least she looks like a Christmas Tree again – for the moment. 🙂 I say that because the thievery has ALREADY began once again!! As I sit here the gray ringleader has already batted 2 glittery “balls” down and is taking off for the hallway, dribbling the madly as he goes. My cries of “Stop It!! Not Yours…MINE!!” go unheeded, as if I were cheering them on instead, saying “Go Socks, Go!!”  😦  

Socks, Official Ornament Thief

UGGHH!!  

So, it’s off to re-confiscate ornaments and get ready for work. Hope Y’all have a great day, and watch your ornaments….The Thieves are at large!!  

Shady

Mamaw’s Christmas Tree

Mamaw

 

Everyone has special memories of Christmases past; a childhood Christmas, a more recent Christmas, the last Christmas with a loved one, the Christmas as a child when you had a dirty trick played on you that you laugh about now, the year you got EXACTLY what you had asked Santa for, the first Christmas you spent with your someone special, your baby’s first Christmas, or the year your present was ALIVE!!! If you stop and think, everyone can remember at least one treasured Christmas memory, some have been truly Blessed and have several. But, we all have at least one that makes us smile. 🙂  This time of year a smell, a sight, a song, a word, an ornament or a picture can bring these memories flooding back – making us smile and warming our heart. 

Mamaw's Ornament

Someone asked me yesterday what my favorite childhood Christmas memory was. I stopped and thought, and I realized that my favorite Christmas memory was more of a montage of memories. The first one that came to mind was of a Christmas party my Mamaw had when I was a child. Basically, Mamaw raised me so most of my childhood (that I do remember) involves Mamaw. That particular year we had our annual Christmas party – you know the kind (you generally only see them on T.V. now) where the front yard has 30 vehicles parked on the lawn because the driveway won’t hold them all, there is more food floating around than anyone could ever eat, and the house is overflowing onto the front porch with friends, family, distant relatives, neighbors and even local acquaintances who have nowhere to go for Christmas. Mamaw NEVER turned anyone away – invitation or not. 🙂

 

We ALWAYS went out to our back fields and cut down our trees for Christmas, but this year (for some unknown to this day) reason, Mamaw decided she wanted one of those new-fangled Aluminum Silver Christmas trees. I think it was because we (meaning me) always put so much icicle tinsel (long individual strands of silver foil tinsel you hand-placed on the branches for those who don’t remember) on the trees that you couldn’t see the green tree anymore. 😉  Anyways, we got this silver tree (so I couldn’t put any tinsel on that year) and set it up in the front room like always. The only neat thing about this tree was that it came with one of those rotating light-changers that projected color onto the tree (red, blue, green and yellow). At least it seemed neat until the party and we all got a really good look at the tree, when it turned to the yellow light it looked like someone had peed on the tree, green and red reminded you of stop lights and the blue was the only color that actually looked cool. Hey, it WAS the seventies!  🙂  So, we decided to take matters into our own hands. The “Disco Tree” was out, a new tree was cut, and decorated –  at the party – and we all participated while Mamaw supervised from the kitchen. After dinner, the “UNO” games began, and we all had a good laugh for many years over Mamaw’s “Disco Tree”.  None of us remember what happened to that tree after we took it out to the barn, but I think Mamaw had Bad Boy (my grandpa) burn, or bury it!!

  

 

I am now the “Keeper of the Ornaments” from that tree, and several others Mamaw had over the years. My favorite ornaments of hers, however, live in the china cabinet where they are safe from “marauders” and accidental dismemberment and breakage. That way, they are also “out” year-round and I can look at them and smile at will – without having to wait for Christmas to do so. 🙂 So, what are your favorite Christmas memories? Traditions? Keepsakes? May you think of them often, and smile!! 🙂 

 

Here’s wishing you and yours many happy memories, a laugh or two, and a very Merry Christmas!! 

Shady