Squirt's 12 Days of Christmas...

    The twelve days of Christmas are taking on a little different mindset this year at Johnson House as I attempt to get a bit of holiday decorating done around the house.  This year I have two feline companions who have never seen a Christmas tree.  My hyperactive badboy, Squirt, is known for getting into everything.  The world is one big wonderful play toy.  It seems nothing escapes his attention.  A few days ago I placed a silvery wreath on the livingroom wall for starters.  Squirt noticed it immediately and sat pondering how to scramble up the wall to reach it.  Okay, so much for that.  When he attempted to knock over the floor lamp next to the wall area where the wreath was hanging, I knew that I had to move the wreath.  Yesterday I placed a wooden primitive angel on the wall spot where the wreath had been.  Again, Squirt sat pondering the angel.  He kept looking at it, then at me, and then he meowed profusely as if to say, "What is it?  How did it get there?"  After a while he lost interest in it.  Success.  Next I began to drag out my potted artificial Christmas tree from the storage closet.  After placing the tree in my front window in the livingroom I sat back and watched to see how Squirt would respond to it.  So far the tree was undecorated.  As soon as I sat the tree down Squirt was there inspecting it.  He pranced around it, cautiously touched it with his paw, and eventually he attempted to bite one of the lower branches.  Aparently he didn't like the prickly texture in his mouth because he gave up that approach.  You can't eat it, it doesn't move, so what good is it?  Squirt moved on elsewhere for new adventures.  Yeah!  Another day closer to having a decorated tree for Christmas!  Tomorrow I will put the lights on the tree and light it.  The test of shiny things will be the big one.  If all goes well, I will put my precious collectable decorations on the tree in phases so as not to overload Squirt's curiosity quotion, and just maybe I will manage to have the tree fully decorated in time for Christmas with Squirt leaving it to stand triumphantly undisturbed.  I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on the progress of my holiday decorating versus Squirt, the terminator...

      A delightful surprise was found with my prostrate rosemary plant when I went to water it this morning.  Several full blooming areas of the bush greeted me.  I know that the rosemary's will blossom in winter indoors, but it is always a surprise to me when I see them doing so.  Precious blooms in winter, a holiday treat for sure.  It takes the dreariness out of the cold days and the time of spent gardens. 
       It's sunny today here in Ohio with an unseasonably warm temperature of 45 degrees.  It is December 13th, it's not supposed to be this warm.  But we'll take it.  That nasty cold white stuff is coming soon enough.  This was a perfect day for me to do a project that I was hoping to do before the snows come.  The holiday crafting juices have started to flow for me, and not a minute too soon.  I got happy spray painting a wooden coffee table silver. (The color is actually nickle which is a duller pewtery kind of silver.) We all know that I am the spray painting queen, and usually I am painting everything gold.  But this year I am newly turned on to silver. After painting a small chair silver a few months ago I have liked the effects with my decorating efforts.  The silver looks great with my mercury glass accessories, too.  Jingle bells, jingle bells...wait a minute, aren't they silver, too?  So, there we are, silver is the thing this year!  I'm on my way to decorating for the holidays...with Squirt's tolerance.