Momkat tried to pull one over on us this year.
The past couple years she would haul out the Christmas boxes and put up a little 4 foot tall tree on the end table. Just the right size that us cats can't climb in it. I figure it was because the first couple years when I was a kitten I kept trying to climb the big tree, sometimes making it really far up! Of course, I was an only kitten back then, now I have Roxie and Tiger to play with, and mom says 3 cats climbing the tree can only lead to disaster, so we have had the little tree.
This year was different. Mom decided she wanted to put up the big tree, but thought she'd be sneaky. The first night she only put up the tree without any pretty toys on it. This was to get us "acclimated" to the tree without breaking anything. We would go and lay down under the tree because it was so warm from the million lights on it, but we were careful to stay out of the tree itself.
The next night mom put the toys on the tree, making sure the bottom branches had only soft mini beanie bears or plastic ornaments. We were very good and left them alone, but still liked to sleep under the warm lights. Every day mom put out something new..window lights, wreaths, and the Nativity set that we were not to touch ever. SantyPaws was watching thru the window, she said, so if we were naughty, he's leave us chunks of coal instead of catnip toys.
The week before Christmas, mom came home with a present for us. Seems the Christmas tree skirt she had was old, so she bought a new one. She got down on the floor and laid out the new one, flipped the tree lights on and stood back to behold the effect. Let me tell you, that nice warm felt tree skirt and those lights made laying under the tree like a tropical vacation....so nice and warm; I fell asleep dreaming of a warm Hawaiian holiday on the beach waiting for sushi tidbits to be dropped by unsuspecting beach goers.
All of the sudden, WHAM! SLIDE! HISS! Roxie and Tiger were playing tag and they ran down the hall, cut across the tree skirt going in to the kitchen and what do you know? Turns out the tree skirt with it's satiny backing is better than a slip and slide! WHOO HOO! Imagine the fun we can have with this! Guess mom heard me thinking out loud again, because she took the skirt away.
She did put the skirt back on Christmas eve morning, and proceeded to cover it up with boxes and packages with fun bows and string. We got distracted by the smell of holiday ham baking, and then everybody came over to the house for the Christmas Party and we were too busy begging and doing our cute tricks for food tidbits.
Our little Christmas stockings were hung by the TV with care, and after dinner we were surprised to smell catnip! Santy Paws had left us each a little catnip fishy in our stockings! The people also had bows they threw on the floor which we loved to chase and bat down the halls. We sure slept good that night.
By noon on Christmas day the slip and slide disappeared again. Mom says maybe she'll put it up next year if we are good.
Meowy Kitmas!
