Cats On Christmas

At least on the Christmas tree.

"New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

So, here it is... New Year's Eve, with snow still on the ground and the very first day of 50 degree temperatures in a month just ending. New Year's Day promises to be balmy with temperatures in the 60's and rain, to rinse more of the snow away... thus beheading the already sad looking snowmen. It is the last post for 2010 and time keeps on going.

Just a month ago, the Christmas spirit was in full force with excitement to drag out all the storage boxes of decorations and lights and garland. Now it is time to reverse the process and return the house to its usual state. Is it only me, but don't the rooms look empty without the nativity, the holly and ivy, the trees and lights and candles and pillows and throws? Doesn't it take several weeks to get used to the "normality" again?

New Year's has become more of a let down over the years. We used to get up at the crack of dawn to watch the Rose Parade and then it was channel surfing between the bowl games... Cotton, Orange, Rose, and Sugar. Now they go on for weeks... only one per day and with the strangest titles... Poinsettia Bowl, New Mexico Bowl, Little Caesars Bowl, Humanitarian Bowl, Insight Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl, Compass Bowl, and GoDaddy Bowl, just to name a fraction of them. Where did all these come from? More importantly... WHY?

Who can resist a rotund, but truly angelic kitty ornament?

So, this is it... another year ended, time to take stock or better yet, just keep moving.. one foot in front of the other. I always hope this year will be better than the last and in some ways they are... in others.. not so much. But it will be here in another two hours anyway.. no matter what we want. Mom still finds the ball drop in Times Square to be fun to watch so she will stay up. She still loves to stay up and watch election returns with a big bowl of popcorn too. I've decided to revert to the days when my daughter was little and I worked hard at the lab. My supreme joy was to be at home with her fed and doing homework and me in my comfy nightgown and robe and fuzzy slippers.... by 6PM. So, it will be off to bed.. perhaps with a book and definitely with the dog (Daisy is already asleep for her pre-bedtime nap). I have no interest in the glass electric ball or the millions of pounds of confetti that will really muck up the snow mounds already in New York or the inevitable firecrackers that will go off at the stroke of midnight... For me, these days... tomorrow is just another day.

I suppose I should say a word or two about the cats pictured here, since nothing so far has anything to do with cats. This Christmas, when I lovingly took out all the ornaments and remembered where I got them and how Nyssa picked some and we hung them on the tree each year and as I was doing this BY MYSELF without her here... well, I suddenly realized that we have an extraordinarily large number of "cat", "dog" and other "animal" ornaments. Almost ALL the penguin ornaments are my brother's, but the cat and dog items are ours. It is staggering... we have enough to make a "cat and dog" themed tree full of ornaments. I didn't intend to ever have this many... didn't plan to acquire such a large number.. but it has happened. So, there you have it... pictured are just a few of our Cats on Christmas (tree) selections. Tomorrow begins the dismantling and the sorting and the packing away... so one last look.

Happy New Year....

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