2013 decorations before and after

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I had to re-appropriate the tree decorations. First, are the before.

 The tree before the leaning...

 The mantle and stockings (Santa brought Bill a new personalized Star Trek stocking).

 The nutcracker suite.

 These are the after pictures. Starting with additional ornaments on the mantle (they're probably difficult to see, they're tucked in the garland).

 More ornaments hanging from the light fixture.

 Ornaments nestled in a decorative bowl (birthday cards and gifts are the extra stuff around it).

 The garland on the hutch was bare, now planes and crocheted ornaments adorn it.

 And ornaments are hung with care, wherever a hanger can be supported, including the drawer pulls.

 Look carefully, cars are hanging from the top shelf!

 Yes, Juliette is alive. She loves to sprawl across the vent. The Muppet ornaments were moved to the bookcase.

 This is the doorway into the dining room. The ribbon is hung when the decorations are put out, then the cards are added as they come in the mail. This is the first year both ribbons (see photo below) were filled to the max. This did not change with the tree situation, I just didn't add them before.

 This is the doorway into the side entry and kitchen. More cards stapled on ribbon!

 The stair case (and a better shot of a few of the cards).

Me, playing with my camera and a close-up of the bells on the garland on the stairs. The choice of ornaments varies from year to year. Some years I hang the Noah's ark collection (and other Biblical themed ornaments) on the stair garland. Sometimes with the bells, sometimes without. Some years I hang the Santa collection. This year I stuck with bells only.

undone

I was going to post pictures and write about Christmas. I still will. But for now, I'm sitting here, eating breakfast as fast as I can (and typing as fast as I can) before the tree falls. Yes, our tree is leaning. I swear I'm watching it move. This is not good.

Yesterday, I swore I smelled cat urine. Bill pointed out that decomposing Christmas tree has a similar smell. He could not smell cat pee. Any time I was close to the tree, the smell intensified. I finally conceded that it must indeed be the tree.

And now it leans. So the rotting must have led to the leaning.

We have a dire situation on our hands (at least for the tree's sake and the ornaments). I must undecorated the tree. Something I had not planning on doing until Epiphany, or at least next weekend.

Pardon me while I go finish my breakfast and start the less than cheerful process before nature does it for me.