happy christmas

reader, christmas is the baron's favorite holiday. she loves the decorations, the alleged feelings of goodwill toward humankind that are evinced by this time of year. she loves the cold, and the vacation days. she loves picking gifts for the people and dogs she loves. she loves, most of all, the actual day, where she and the husband and the rest of their four-legged family can be together, totally together, without the distraction of the dreaded blackberry, without the hassle of traveling somewhere else. they all stay home, they all stay together, her small family of 7.

it's one of her VERY FAVORITE days.

this year's christmas was an exceptionally good day. the baron and the husband had a house guest, a four-legged one - sasha, who was genial and easy to please. the dogs were mostly friendly to him; there wasn't much by way of tussling over toys, and by christmas day, sasha had been with them for the better part of a week anyway... which meant that peace reigned among the dogs.

see sasha, below:


the baron usually has a good bit of anxiety about shopping for the husband. she believes him hard to please in the 'shopping for' department; this year, she took EXTRA SPECIAL CARE in selecting his gifts. and, though she is loath to admit it, portland had a hand in helping her with her shopping.

one of the very best things she found for him came from this store, in portland, purveyor of all groceries vegan, including what you see below: vegan rice crispy treats.



for the dogs, the husband bought two new, HUGE dogs beds, intended for the big dogs. baron and harlan have other plans for those beds:



reader, the baron hopes you had a good holiday season.

ps: she'd like to tell her mother to PLEASE use those place mats, which are 100% cotton and 100% machine washable. it took the baron some 100+ hand-sewing hours to make them, and the thought that they won't get used (but will instead be used for decoration) is VERY DISTRESSING to her. so please, for the baron's sake, just use them. then wash them! see how easy?

it's beginning to look a lot like we have to carefullly monitor the dogs so they don't eat the fake tree

last weekend, the baron and the husband decided, in the wake of their thanksgiving bloat, to start the christmas season. they had planned to put up the tree, etc., on friday, but they couldn't find time around their other activities.

so. their holiday decorating waited until saturday. first, they ran some errands, visiting - among other stores - target. the baron was determined, this year, to have a tree skirt around the base of their fake tree. the husband perused the tree skirt aisle and decided that the really nice ones were on the expensive side; the baron kind of concurred: seriously, she thought, $30 for 2 yards of thin fabric and fluffy trim?

so.

the baron, having made holiday stockings for the dogs two years ago, had rather a large amount of holiday-flavored felt left over... felt in the pine green, rudolph's nose red, and snowy, snowy white varieties. she decided she'd make the tree skirt instead.

this activity - the making of the tree skirt - turned out to be an all-day-saturday activity. the baron had a VERY HARD TIME sorting out how, exactly, to sew all her remaindered fabric into a skirt-shaped circle. while working on the VERY HARD PROJECT, she was heard to say, 'who knew? geometry does matter.' additionally, because she is incapable of using her sewing machine, she had to assemble her misshapen tree skirt by hand... a very trying and labor-intensive task indeed.

but.

the baron persevered. by saturday evening, she had completed her skirt; she and the husband pulled out their christmas tree (all plastic-y and forever green) and christmas-time decorations. this event (the slow assembling of the tree, the careful placement of lights, the careless placement of tree ornaments) is one of the baron's favorites, christmas being her favorite holiday and whatnot.

the series of photos* below depict the entire process: the sad, naked tree; the baron and tucker, glad it's done; and a closeup of the finished product.


*yes, reader, this is INDEED the sofa that the dogs are not supposed to be on. tucker was invited, so he's in the clear. also, those blinds behind the sofa? the mangled ones? harlan did that, chewed them into shape so that when he sits on the back of the sofa he can see out the window.

*if you look VERY CLOSELY at this one, you can kind of see the locking mechanism that keeps this faux tree together.

maybe the best thing about their decorations are the motley assembly of plush toys that take their december seats on the sun room shelf. the husband found these, the island of misfit toys toys, at a thrift store, the entire set perched on a waist level shelf, waiting for him. from left to right, they are: the bumble, santa claus, charlie-in-the-box, clarice, yukon cornelius, rudolph the red nosed reindeer, hermey the misfit elf, and sam snowman.

down in the front there, splayed out? that's a flying snowman tree ornament, a gift from one of the husband's sisters. and, yes, his nose is missing, since last year. dexter ate it.



ps: the baron wants to mention that the tree skirt turned out pretty nicely, though the colors exactly echo those in this flag, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the husband or the baron. also, baron loves to sleep on the tree skirt, around the back of the tree... and yes, peering out from behind all that fake foliage, he's pretty much the cutest thing ever.