Around the House...

This morning is a foggy day. It's "dense patchy fog," which means you can see 200 feet, and 200 feet later, you've got zero visibility. And when they say, "zero visibility," they mean ZERO. Been there, done that, NOT a fun time to be on the road.

This is the view from our house this morning.


The camera actually sees better than I do, because I could barely make out that house across the street. It's going to be a few hours before I venture out to run my errands...
***I guess they had a big pile up on the freeway this morning. No one was killed, only two went to the hospital...I think I heard a 35 car pile-up? yikes. I'm glad I stayed home!
*** And today's paper says it was 60 cars and 6 people hospitalized. egad! It was equally bad this morning! (12/11)

Yesterday was Tree Day, and I focused on the tree quite intensely. I even took pictures as soon as I got the lights up, forget the decorations. Here's the tree by flash,

Here's the tree without the flash...

I had to show them both, because I was admiring the quilt above the fireplace. It looks pretty good there, doesn't it? :)

I didn't stop with the lights, I moved on to hanging ornaments. I laughed when I read the Cathy comic strip a few days ago. Does she monitor my house? Does she monitor me? "The lights must be up before the ornaments are hung! The ornaments must be hung one at a time, and hang free! Only one ornament to a branch, no crowding! Hang the tinsel, one at a time!" I could go on and on. My mother's voice rings in my head with the proper way to decorate a tree, and last year, after comparing notes with my sister, I find that she has the same obsession with "proper" methods of tree decoration. I don't think any of my kids have absorbed our wisdom. I think they found it too demanding. They'd rather Mom decorate the tree and be done with it. ;)

This morning Charlie and Edgar were thrilled to see that their giant indoor tree now has goodies on it for their entertainment.


Charlie is making moves on the jingle bell, while Edgar is trying to eat the ribbon on my camera.


But the blue plastic tarp continues to be the most fun, for both of them. It makes a great noise when they paw at it... (Can you see Malcolm in the background? He's above all this...)


Here's Edgar, behind the tree, playing with the tarp. The chairs and ladder are still in place because I have 100's of ornaments still to hang...

And I have the feeling that while I hang to my heart's content, I'll still find more ornaments to hang on a daily basis. Those kitties! They're into everything!

And there you go. Hopefully the tree will be finished soon, and be crossed off the UFO list! ;)