Christmas Has Landed

We finally put the tree up. There are even presents under it now, though there are only cats under it in these pictures. Artificial tree-eating cats.
I had one of those uncharacteristic bursts of Christmas-related energy and pulled out the box and in ten minutes total tree!


("What? I was only nibbling on the outside bits!")





singing("If I lay here... if I just lay here, will you ignore me and let me eat the tree...")

I also had trouble sleeping last night, so I went to Wal Mart at about 3:30 to start/finish my Christmas Shopping. There are a few things I want to say about that...

1. Wal Mart is actually bearable at 3:30 am. Except that they are an evil corporation that exploits their workers and preys on small, locally-owned stores. But if you have to go, 3:30 am is not entirely a bad time to go.
2. My sister has way too many fucking kids. Which is not entirely true. She has four, which is not, you know, sixteen or anything. My friend Lara has four kids and I don't think she has too many. Of course, there is a HUGE ginormous difference between Lara and my sister. Which is to say that Lara could have ten kids and I wouldn't think a thing about it. Also I don't have to buy Lara's kids nice, equally priced Christmas presents. Also, Lara's kids wouldn't open their presents, look at me blankly and say, "Is this it?"
3. For as sucky as it apparently is to work at Wal Mart the 3rd shift crew seems to have a really good time. They were playing around with the floor-polisher and 2 guys were actually playing "hockey" with plastic sticks and a stuffed bear. They did have the sense to look sheepish when they realized I was watching them and that they were in my way. And the cashier was really nice - much nicer than the ones who typically are working at 3:30 pm.

More bad weather is on the way. We're supposed to get 2 - 7 inches of show in the next 24 hours. Which means my massage got cancelled. She would have to drive in from a small town about an hour from here and she's got more than two gravel roads to navigate... and she'd be driving home around 10 pm so I don't blame her for cancelling. But I'm not happy about it.

Andie and Bean and I are going to get some Chinese food and see The Golden Compass instead.