Nothing Better.

There is nothing better than sitting in your pajamas and you bathrobe, with your warm slippers on, behind the computer on a cozy weekday night, with your dog by your feet in the vicinity of many brightly lit branches with silver balls hanging of them, to give you that Christmas feeling that you have been looking for since you started sending those first Christmas cards.

All that is missing now is a pumpkin pie in the oven and a container of real whipped cream, but I made up for that by buying some real chocolate chip cookies this afternoon of which I have eaten enough now to make me slightly sick. So, hold you horses on the cookies. There really can be too much of a good thing, Irene. You greedy old thing.

The sparkling branches give a festive feeling to the room and there are ten of them in the vase so it makes for a pretty show. The silver balls reflect the light and make it look like carnival. I am having my own Christmas Eve with the slumbering Überhund who is oblivious of the importance of the occasion. I did give him extra hugs tonight, so a little bit of joy would rub off on him.

One cat took off with one silver ball and pitched it across the living room, but I managed to retrieve it intact and put it back in its place secured a little bit tighter. There is too much temptation for them there and doubtlessly it will not be the only ball that hits the dust. They are pretty sturdy, though, not having been made of fragile glass, but some sort of plastic.

So you see, I was swayed by the spirit of the season after all and could not withstand making it a little bit festive. The balls were a late addition. I have strings of beads too, but I think that will really be too much temptation for the cats, so I won't put them on. It is good the way it is.

I had to move two plants to make room for the vase with the lights and the plants look perfect where they are now, which makes me think that I will buy another big plant where the vase with lights stands now. It has to be a plant that can stand low light conditions, so I will have to search for something in the nursery in January and find a big pot. So you see, I always have some scheme brewing.

I am managing to keep the plants inside alive that are hard to kill and that I only have to water really well once a week. If they need special care, they die or don't thrive. I don't have a green thumb for indoor plants. They have to have their own will to live. Nothing can be dainty or fragile, all has to be hardy and tough. Tough broad plants.

The Überhund and I are having a stand off. He is refusing to eat his food, because he only wants treats and I am refusing to give him any and tell him to go eat his kibbles. He looks at his kibbles and then gives me these pathetic looks as if he wants to say that I treat him badly for making him eat that stuff and walks away from it. I know that secretly during the night he eats it when he thinks I don't know about it. I am refusing to budge. He resigns himself and goes to sleep.

Now I am going to watch some TV and hopefully something good will be on No choirs singing Christmas hymns.

Ciao...