The Hoppy Okapi

Time for Toys and Time for Cheer!

We got our Christmas tree just over a week ago – we’ve been away from home for the past few Christmases, so it’s been three or four years since we last put up a tree. We had some concerns about the kittens attacking the tree this year, so we got a small one and decorated it with only non-fragile ornaments. It was fun (and a little overwhelming!) to get all of our Christmas decorations out of storage and go through them to pick the ornaments for the tree. We struck a good bargain though – I decorated the tree, and Chuck packed up the ornament boxes back and took them back down to storage!

our Christmas tree with its purple lights

We have a fun mix of our childhood ornaments and newer ones, but the most fun thing for me was finding all of my Madeline ornaments – I have five different kinds! They’re mostly visible (if kind of small) in this picture:

Christmas tree - how many Madelines do you see?

Trying to keep the kitties out of the tree has been challenging! Most of the time they don’t mean to attack it, but it’s a convenient hiding place to attack each other from, and so we hear the bell on the bottom branches ring a lot when they’re feeling playful. Other times though, their curiosity gets the best of them, and so every evening I do an ornament check to see if they’ve knocked anything down. Last week a Madeline took a dive:

Poor Madeline and Genevieve!

I’m happy to report that Madeline and Genevieve were unharmed in their fall! Unfortunately I think the kitties are becoming immue to the squirt-of-water deterrent method – they keep going back to the tree no matter how many squirts they get!

This weekend I had a Christmas cookie baking party, where we listened to The Oak Ridge Boys Christmas and When My Heart Finds Christmas, and made some old favorites:

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies:

Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies

And Buttermilk Sugar Cookies:

Colorful Sugar Cookies

They’re not the most stylishly decorated cookies, but they do have bright colors and sprinkles. Plus I added some crushed candy canes to the white frosting to turn it into peppermint frosting – it was the hit of the evening!

Merry Christmas!