Posted by terrepruitt on January 1, 2021
While I am excited to leave the Christmas tree and decorations up for another week, I don’t think our cats are. But maybe. The tree is in the spot that their cat tower normally resides, but it is on a table so that they can still have access to the spot where the sun shines. Here is Teagan and Nessa for the first Friday Photo of 2021.
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Cats, Christmas decorations, Christmas Tree, Friday Photo, Happy New Year, Nessa, Teagan | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 28, 2020
I was starting to get sad because I was thinking I needed to take the decorations down. I just start feeling like I need to take them down after Christmas and I don’t. If it weren’t for the Christmas tree in my yoga/Nia/stretch studio (AKA: living room) no one would know how long we have the decorations up. I like to keep them up as long as possible. I think we can make it. The Epiphany is NEXT Wednesday! I can start disassembling on Thursday after class my stretch class. That way I can have about two and half days to get things packed up and allow my hubby Sunday to put it all back up. We will see. I guess I can breathe easy and no need to get sad yet. I have almost two weeks left. YAY! By THEN I will be ready to take it down. 🙂
And now . . . I am sharing it with you. IF you have seen some of my previous years’ Christmas posts some of these ornaments will look familiar! Scroll down, and keep scrolling, and keep scrolling, and keep scrolling . . . I might have gotten carried away. 🙂
Merry Christmas. (I can eeek it out one more day!)
1) take down the tree December 26th?
2) wait until after Epiphany
3) take it down when it is dry and needs to go?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Christmas 2020, Christmas decorations, Christmas ornamanents, Christmas Tree, COVID Christmas | 13 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 9, 2020
I feel like there is a lot of pressure during the Holidays. I hear so many people exclaim this time of year is so stressful. Just recently I had a conversation with a friend who couldn’t sleep and she noticed that the same thing happens every year. I get it. And this year, this year could be so much worse in terms of amount of stress. There are so many ADDED stressors. We each have our own “regular” Holiday stress and we each have our own stressors that are added because of the world situation, so I am not going to list them because I don’t want to bring up one you may not have thought of! 🙂 You may have seen a few of my posts in the past about how I was trying to reduce the stress during the Holidays. I believe that there are different types of stress. Two examples of types are things we can’t control and the ones we can . . . perhaps even the stressors we cause or add ourselves. I know those were the ones I was trying to reduce. Life is stressful and this year is a doozy so why not try to alleviate some of the ones we can. I was thinking . . . .
Perhaps this year might be the year when your friends and/or family draw names. Instead of the regular everyone-buying-something-for-everyone, maybe just focusing on one person might help relieve some stress. It could also include maybe some conversations and building of relationship with that person. Maybe you get to talk to them to see what the want or what they like. To me, right now, it is precious to speak with people since I am not actually going out and seeing people. Some friends had made comments to me about how difficult shopping is this year because of the situations and restrictions. A lot of people don’t like shopping online . . . they like to be in stores to SHOP and that might not be possible this year. So buying for one person might be the answer to helping lessen the stress.
Seems like the stereo-typical stress of having to be with family is already eliminated, but for some not being able to be with family is causing stress. I know many people might be Zoomed out, but I still think it is still a great way to gather without being there in person. Whatever you regularly do, do that . . . if you dress up, dress up. If you have ugly sweater gatherings, do that. Try to keep the connection with friends and family but keep it as stress free as possible.
Maybe giving up sending out cards. Maybe not having the big dinner because it is just going to be the few in your household, so maybe skip a dish or two. Maybe decorating less. Look at what causes you stress — what you can control — and see if you can change the pattern. Whatever you can do to help alleviate stress in this stressful time of year, might be great this year.
I am a big believer that this time of year should be fun and joyful so I think less stress is best.
Also, this is a difficult one for many of us, get enough sleep. It is a fact that it is more difficult to deal with stress when we have not had enough sleep. So work on that. This is a big one for me as I tend to stay up late anyway and turning off my Christmas tree to go to bed is one less day I have to enjoy it so I stay up late.
Also . . . yeah, another one . . . eat good. Avoiding sugar is something that is really difficult this time of year . . . . although there might actually be less sweets to tempt you this year if you are not going into the office with a break room table full of treats. Sugar is not a friend to the immune system and right now our immune systems can use all the help they can get.
Stress does not help with sleep nor the immune system so it is somewhat cyclical.
This time of year is stressful. Especially this year with all that we have gone through. We are exhausted, tired, and stressed. Now some of these things are not things that people readily admit soooooo they might not even be identified. This year we’re going through stuff. So think about what you can do to help relieve the stress.
Anything you can cross of your stress-causing list?
Oh, Yin Yoga could help you with stress . . . having a free class Friday, 12.11.20 – info at http://www.helpyouwell.com/
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Christmas Tree, COVID-19 Christmas, Holiday pressure, Holiday stress, immune system, stress causing list, stressful, stressors | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 11, 2020
I was busy taking down our Christmas tree and trying to un-decorate yesterday. I got involved and forgot out posting a Friday Photo. It is past the time we normally like to take down Christmas so I as on a mission to get the tree out of the house. When my husband came home from work he jumped right in to help and we were able to get the tree out of the house. Normally I would just skip my Friday Photo, I mean, I didn’t post on Friday so technically it is not a “Friday Photo’. But as I continued to pack up the Christmas decorations I saw this card and it is way too pretty to put away never to be seen again. So I wanted to post it on my blog so I could see it.
I will title this “Faux Friday Photo” so I will know how to find it.
Happy New Year!
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas 2019, Christmas card, Christmas decorations, Christmas Tree, Faux Friday Photo, Friday Photo, sparkle | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 27, 2019
I posted this on Facebook already, but everyone thought it was gorgeous so I wanted to share it here as my Friday Photo. I didn’t ask permission so hopefully they won’t mind. My aunt and uncle always have a BEAUTIFUL tree. It takes days to decorate and the ornaments are just fabulous. This year it was just as spectacular as the years before.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Here’s to the New Year that is around the corner.
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas, Christmas Tree, Disney Ornaments, Facebook, Friday Photo, Merry Christmas | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 21, 2018
This year we bought our tree close to home. We went to a parking lot where they had set up a tree lot. We bought a tree there before and it was fine. So we thought we would try it again. I walked around and was trying to decide between three trees. Looked and looked – got it down to two trees. Looked some more and made a decision. Well, the funny thing about our tree that seemed like it needed a little grooming – it needed a lot of grooming. I think it might have just been cut open before we got there because A LOT of the branches were still “up”. I mean it is normal for branches to “fall”, but this one was a doozy. It has branches that stick out about a foot from the other ones. It is funny. But we like it.
Here is our 2018 Christmas Tree for my Friday Photo today.
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas 2018, Christmas Tree, crazy-shaped tree, Friday Photo, tree lot | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 7, 2018
Oh my! It is Christmastime already! How did that happen so fast? Whew! Well, I was nowhere near ready for it and so I have been absorbed in decorating and getting ready for all of the beauty of it for the last couple of days (weeks?) and I have ignored so many things and people (sorry) and I am still not feeling ready and/or organized. But here is one sweet thing for my Friday Photo.
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas, Christmas ornament, Christmas time, Christmas Tree, Friday Photo | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 22, 2017
Ahhhh. A few days before Christmas. I hope you all are able to enjoy at least a few moments. Here is my Friday Photo, just a close up shot of our some of the decorations on our Christmas tree.
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas, Christmas Tree, Christmas Tree decorations, close up photo, Friday Photo, things that sparkle | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 4, 2017
We do somethings that we think deter the cats from the tree. As with most years we put our tree on a table. This helps keep it out of the cats’ way. With our first cat the weekend we brought the tree in the house she spend two days throwing up. My husband is convinced that she ate a needle and it bothered her stomach so ever since then we are fastidious about needles on the floor. I vacuum often when we have a tree that sheds a lot. One year, when the tree was on the floor, I was vacuuming ALL the time because the cat would walk by with tail up and knock a load of needles off the tree. Another reason why we put our tree on a table. We are fortunate to have a very tall ceiling where we put the tree. We have also experienced cats drinking the tree water. That can’t happen.
BC, as in Before Cat(s), I had purchased some “Tree Saver”. It goes in the tree water and supposedly it helps the tree last longer. Well, can’t put that in the tree water with cats. Don’t know what it is in, but I bet they shouldn’t be drinking it. And so we don’t do that, but also, “they” say that the pesticides and chemicals that the trees are grown with shouldn’t be ingested by cats. So it is not a good idea for cats to drink the water that the tree is in. Plus, even though we replenish the water daily the dish doesn’t get washed and the water is just sitting in there for a month . . . cats don’t need to be drinking that. So my hubby came up with a simple cat deterrent. He just cut some cardboard and put it over the tree’s dish. Normally, it can’t be seen. But this is a different kind of tree, it doesn’t have any low branches, so the dish can be seen. But that is ok. It not THAT noticeable and it keeps the cats out of the water.
The cardboard keeps them out of the water and since they can’t get to the water they don’t jump on the table. That means neither needles nor ornaments get knocked down.
Now this is only the third Christmas that we have had these cats and so far so good. In fact, what I did this year was so out of the ordinary, yet they didn’t bother anything. I was in a rush to get the boxes emptied and put up so I just pulled a bunch of the stuff out of the boxes and left it lying around. And we had boxes in the house for weeks. And to my knowledge, they didn’t bother anything. Nessa liked to jump in and sit in the middle of some garland that took me days to hang.
I do play with them A LOT during Christmas. I make sure I get up early so we have a lot of play time. Also, since I am home, when they ask (and they DO ask) to play, if I can, I stop what I am doing and play with them. I figure if they are not bored then they will not mess with the Christmas tree and decorations.
I also tell them “No!” for just looking. If they LOOK at the tree, I say, “No.” They are really good girls because not only is there a tree in their house it displaces their tower. I figure we have about 30 days. At least we did with Spot. Day 31, she let us know she was done.
How does your cat handle a tree inside the house for a month?
Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: cats in the Christmas tree, Christmas Ornaments, Christmas Tree, Christmas tree and cats, Christmas tree ornaments, Nessa in garland | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 30, 2016
I know, I have done ornaments for the last two weeks, but I really love Christmas and all the decorations and my ornaments! Hardly anyone sees all our great ornaments so I am taking advantage of my blog and posting Christmas Tree ornaments! This will be the last one, at least that is the plan. Who knows, I might take a picture I love as I am “undecorating” and want to post it. I will try to refrain. But this is a NEW ornament. I received it as a gift and it is just so cute. She is BIG, but light, so it will be easy to find a spot for her on the tree every year. YAY! Love my new addition. So this is my last Friday Photo of 2016. I will be keeping this “feature” in 2017. This is also my LAST post of 2016.
Thank you for reading and liking. Thank you even more for commenting. I love interacting with readers. I wish all of you a happy and fun New Year’s Eve. And I wish all of you a GREAT 2017!
Happy New Year!
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas decorations, Christmas gifts, Christmas Tree, Christmas tree ornaments, Friday Photo | 2 Comments »
