We put the tree up early this year because the woman at Bayberry Nursery where we always buy our tree warned us that people were swarming their lot and they were going fast. With the border to Canada shut, they wouldn’t be able to get as many as they usually have for sale.  So, on December 2, we put up the tree.  By today it is dry and if  you try to move an ornament, needles fall off.  It’s still a great sight.

Because of all the hype about the huge storm we were supposed to have with hurricane winds and power outages, we cancelled dinner yesterday with Dale and Stephen and bumped it till Saturday. By the time [around 11] I we realized there was no super-storm, it was too late to thaw the spoon roast.  I never use the microwave to thaw a roast like that, as it toughens. As we were both tired and Woody hurt his back last week, we really didn’t mind having a day with nothing much to do.  We didn’t even tidy up till today. 

The cats are going to be very sad when the take the tree down next week.  They have had a lot of fun with the non-breakable ornaments on the lower third of the tree although Scwartzie did manage to reach up and knock down a red ball that broke into 500 pieces that I’m still picking out of my socks and the rug.  They have also greatly enjoyed the box of wrapping paper that went back into the closet yesterday and Schwartzie’s attempts to unwrap various presents.

 Monday, Dale and I will have an enormous pile of end of the year work to plow through.  We have to add  up my contributions so far and do some more.  but I can’t do that will we have all the ones I’ve done over the course of the year.  Otherwise, I’d give too much to one place and not any to another.  I have to return two gifts that Woody gave me that don’t fit.  Weirdly enough, one is too large and the other too tight on the top.  Two of the gifts I ordered way back the first week of December from Walmart never came. I won’t order from them again.  What I ordered from Amazon all came.

Believing all the type about the storm, Woody had filled five buckets with water and stowed them in the bathtub.  in the middle of last night, I was wakened by Schwartzie crying loudly.  Afraid he was sick or hurt, I got up and found him standing next to the bathtub.  He was holding a mouse carefully, gently in his mouth.  He always puts them in the bathtub to admire and wash.  But the bathtub was being used to hold six buckets of water (which we fill to flush toilets in case the power goes out). He was standing there  complaining. While I watched,  he put the mouse down with a paw very lightly on it and zip! the mouse was gone under the sink cabinet.  He had been watching that area most of the morning, but of course, the mouse escaped down the hole for the pipes and is long gone. I hope he left the house.  The heavy rain yesterday evening probably brought it in.

Stephen is off crutches and on a cane now after his hip operation.  He has had a more difficult recovery than others of our friends and acquaintances who’ve had the operation.  I hope he is able to get into the  house without trouble.  With the spoon roast we have scalloped potatoes and a Greek salad.  Dale is making an apple cake for dessert.  We have read-made appetizers; Woody’s favorite: Hebrew National Pigs in Blankets.

I have been watching Tiny Pretty Things on Netflix. It doesn’t appeal to Woody, but I am enjoying it.  I’m reading a book by cat behavior experts, one to each chaptes, to continue with the newest research to understand our feline housemates.  So far, little I didn’t know. They say cats only meow to people but Mingus calls Willow by yowling.