Festive Friday

As a homebody and non-fan of shopping, I have never taken part in Black Friday. Instead, each year, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, I decorate for Christmas!

I always get lots of help (thanks, Evan!) decorating the tree and arranging gifts beneath it. This was Evan being my helper elf last year, and I'm sure he'll help me all the same this year.

As with everything in my life, my holidays revolve heavily around my furbabies. Of course, I'm probably just preaching to the choir on that one. (We love our furbabies!) That being said, while I love going all out on Christmas decorations, I do make sure to take into consideration my furbabies and their safety.

With the help of experience and at least a little lick of logic, I've developed more than a few rules of thumb in my house during Christmas. These are just some of them:

• no tinsel on the Christmas tree (thanks for this tip all those years ago, my sweet angel Rosie!)
• no candy canes or other food goodies on the Christmas tree (and thank you, angel pup Shellie, for this important rule!)
• and no candy canes or other food goodies kept unattended anywhere in the house (again, thank you, Angel Shellie!)
• all stringed lights and their cords and cables must be safely secured (this one's for you, Toby!)
• no breakable ornaments on the lowest branches of the Christmas tree (courtesy of puppy dog tails and curious cat paws)

This year, just as with the past two years, will also be a Christmas learning experience. Two years ago, 2013, was Astrid and Evan's first Christmas, when I learned how the holiday decorations would fare with them. Last year was Thimble's (and her brothers') first Christmas, therefore another year of decorating trials and errors. This year, if I'm going to be completely honest, I really think I might be given a bit more of a run for more my money than the previous years. Why? Because it's my active Eddy's first Christmas!

Especially after the novelty wore off, Astrid, Evan, and Thimble (and her brothers) all did great with the Christmas tree and other decorations over the past two years. Of course, there were some mishaps here and there, and perhaps a couple of decoration casualties. But, all in all, I will admit that I've been pleasantly surprised the last couple of years with how little decoration damage there's been.

My hopes are that the same will go for Eddy and her first Christmas. Sure, she's untiringly active, and comically ornery, and just a tad bit sassy and stubborn. But, she's also this momma's sweet little lap kitty. And, believe it or not, she has quickly learned and often actually heeds various commands and even seems to know what I mean when I say "no" (even if she quite literally talks back sometimes).

What's more, Eddy seems to have matured quite a bit, even in just the past few weeks. She even lately sits still long enough for me to get the occasional - have you noticed? - non-blurry picture of her!

Well, sometimes.

Anyway. I recently decided to do a quick Christmas trial run with Eddy. I set out a couple of innocent Christmas decorations to see how she'd react and behave around them.

Not bad. She did some initial investigation, and then seemed content to watch over the teddy bears and stocking (which says, "Cats love Christmas too!") like a good little girl.

Then, Eddy decided to do an up close and personal meet-and-greet. So I decided to get some video, hoping to get evidence of some innocent Christmas kitty cheer.

Bah humbug. Perhaps I'll just have to resort to calling her Eddynezer Scrooge this holiday season.

Well, happy Friday, everybuddy! I hope yours is as festive as my furbabies' and mine!