rinsemiddlebliss

Closeup photo of a glass octopus ornament hanging on a Christmas tree

Yule nap time

by AK Krajewska

I'm so tired. Are you tired? I think we were probably meant to hibernate or at least sleep a lot more this time of the year[1]. I think it would be restful to neither read nor write any words for a little bit[2], so I'll just share some photos of my Christmas tree. Or Yule tree, as you will.

A Christmas tree decorated with colorful paper chains, white lights, red baubles, paper mushrooms, and glass mushrooms.

I like decorating my tree with representations of forest things like mushrooms and pinecones and little forest animals like hedgehogs and the Pacific Northwest tree octopus.

A whimsical hedgehog ornament nestled on a pine tree branch

Several different kinds of mushroom ornaments on a pine tree. The mushrooms have red caps and white spots.

A glass mushroom bauble is in the foreground. It has red cap and wite spots, and the stem is white with sparky green lines at the base representing grass. There are several more mushroom baubles in the background hanging on a Christmas tree.

When I first started decorating my own tree, I didn't have much budget for decorations so I made lots and lots of paper mushrooms. Over time, I've bought fancier mushrooms made of glass. I still like paper decorations though, so I've made some paper chains. Paper chains remind me of childhood Christmas in Poland.

A Christmas tree with many colorful paper chains lit by the white fairly lights hung on the branches

This is my first Yule with a cat in the house, so I carefully didn't hang any paper chains or delicate babubles at her normal walking level.

Paper chains frame several different glass pinecone baubles on a Christmas tree

So far, she hasn't shown any interest in the tree, except for a likely attempt to drink the Christmas tree water. I only infer she drank the tree water because the day after we put the tree up her, er, output was rather strange and kind of green and she seemed out of sorts. I taped up a plastic bag around the base of the tree the next day and she returned to her usual self.

A tabby cat lies on a gray warming pad on top of a shelf. She's looking at the camera and one of her paws stretches towards the viwer

Learn from this cat: take naps and don't drink the Christmas tree water.

  1. Unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere in which case don't forget to wear sunscreen. ↩︎

  2. If, on the other hand you're not that tired, actually, and would like to read something longer, might I suggest a post on a seasonal topic I wrote last year? Worship the sun It's traditional, it's natural, and it's reasonable ↩︎

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