Chrismannukah Spirit

I have been feeling pretty down lately.  With this cycle most likely being a bust and then our kitchen renovation being delayed there has been very little to distract me from negative thoughts.  The holidays are always a hard time, Christmas especially.  Facebook will explode with albums of baby's first Christmas, adorable pregnancy announcements, and wide eyed kids enjoying the wonder of the day.  As for me, I'll likely be on the rag and trying to get into the Christmas spirit as to not ruin the day for my family.

Dave has been really wonderful.  On Sunday morning, while letting me sleep in, he cleared out the ugly wire frame shelving we had in the corner of the living room and moved the cat tree to that space.  I had been wanting to get rid of that terrible dorm room quality shelving for a while and replace it with a more adult bookcase.  After waking up and going out to the living room I nearly cried.  He smiled, pointed to the empty space where the cat tree had been previously, and said it would be the perfect place for a tree.

We've never had the space for a Chrismannukah tree before and that has always made me a bit sad.  After browsing the Target site I found a great 6' pre-lit tree.  We went on Monday to pick it up, but the store by our place had sold out.  Luckily they were in stock at another store about 25 minutes away.  We stopped on our way home from work Tuesday and picked up the tree (which was 50% off!), some "shatter resistant" ornaments, penguin tree topper, and we each picked out a personal ornament from their white and silver animal collection.  I picked a penguin and Dave got a fox.

Once home we set up the tree, fluffed it up, got it plugged in, and hung our two personal ornaments and the topper.  We had no idea how the kitties would react to the tree.  The only previous experience with trees was when Sakura and Hikaru were 6 months old and we brought them up to my parents.  They hid under the tree and tried to eat it.    Miria had never seen one before and we weren't sure if she would try and climb it.  They were awestruck, Hikaru sat on the ottoman and just stared at the lights.

It's right behind me, isn't it?

My penguin and Dave's fox

Mr. Penguin topper

Luckily when we came home yesterday the tree was still upright, though the topper was askew, and there was little evidence of chewing.  We put up a smattering of the ball ornaments and if they survive we'll add a few more tonight.

Sakura was under the tree, still not quite sure about it

Hopefully next year we'll be adding a few more ornaments.  Specifically, a few baby's first Christmas ornaments.