When The Cat Is Away, The Mice Will Play

Last weekend I made a quick trip back east for a funeral, spending just two nights away from home.  Before leaving, I pulled out all the Christmas boxes so that the kids and Daddy would have something to do over the weekend.  How thoughtful, right?  :)  In my excitement about coming home to see all of that taken care of, I even cleared a spot for the tree so no furniture had to be shuffled about.  Mind you, it's the same spot that we've placed the tree for the past 2 years or more.

Walking in the house on my return, I see this stunning tree and it's not in the empty spot which had been cleared for its arrival.

Let's analyze:

• Beautifully showcased between two windows, optimizing the view for those on the street.
• All clutter in this corner cleared away to highlight the tree.
• Decorated with several of the kids' masterpieces of art.
• Ornaments are not uniformly distributed making it obvious that the kids had tons of fun putting them on.  I love this about it.
• Very pretty white garland.  Ok, we probably need to get something a little longer, huh?  :)

So, if we take everything into account... meaning the things that this photo doesn't show... we see a totally different picture.  Certainly I can appreciate the effort that went into this and the fact that I didn't have to lift a finger to make it happen, however it became obvious to me the moment I walked in that some changes needed to take place.

Let's look at what's not showing in the picture:

• The tree is overwhelmingly filled with green lights.  It seems that our Christmas tree strand of lights (red, green, blue) had one-third of the lights not working.  So, handy-man Bartee opened up the control box, fiddled a bit, put it back together and voila... now two-thirds of the bulbs would not light up.  Only the green lights were working and so he went ahead and strung the lights.  Obviously.  :)
• A recliner chair, which had regular use, was moved out of this corner to make room for the tree.
• This recliner chair had an end table next to it that also seems to have disappeared to make room for the tree.
• All this is well and good, IF they had some place to stay for the next couple of weeks until the holidays are over.  Sadly, they do not... and this seems to be the "best?" place he found for them.

It is possible that one recliner chair could have been salvaged, but shoving the end table between it and the couch nudged it far enough towards the other end of the room that viewing the TV from that angle would certainly cause neck strain.  And, the other chair... well, it might as well be in the back yard.  :)  

This is Bartee's response to my questioning his decorating decisions over the weekend, "I'll admit... the living room with the christmas tree etc... not my best decision".  So, things have been rearranged and the room is functional again.  Now before Christmas gets here, I need to get outside and string some lights!

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Although the occasion for heading home was filled with sadness, it was nice to see so much family.

The Potomac River on a somewhat gloomy day in West Virginia

There are just three cousins (on one side of the family) missing from this photo: