Christmas tree II--The Sequel
Well, it was all kinda sorta OK with the tree.
And then it wasn't.
Now, you have to understand--we love Rafiki with all our hearts, we really do. He is very handsome, and he is, for the most part, the very best behaved cat we have. He is sweet and wonderful...and not very bright.
The DH says he's "special".
I say he's the feline Rainman.
In any case, he is, as Emeril would say, "hip-mo-tized" by hanging, dangling, shiny stuff. And we had a ton of it on the Christmas tree--all glass balls and assorted twinklies.
All of it put Rafiki into a spontaneous trance state, and he heard the voices in his alleged brain that said, "MUST. HAVE. PRETTIES."
Needless to say, there was broken glass and crashes at inconvenient times and the tree itself actually came down once, so enamored was he of having to touch the pretties.
So today, I denuded the tree of all smashable ornaments (which was all of them, actually) and dug the old, unbreakable ones out of the basement. So we've gone from glass shinies to fruits and flowers and pine cones...
And then I spent some time this afternoon making cinnamon ornaments, which are turning out really nicely. The dough is made of 1 1/2 cups of cinnamon, a cup of applesauce and 1/4 cup of Elmer's glue, plus just a little water to make it into a pliable dough. Let sit for an hour, roll out about a quarter of it, and then use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, making sure to add a hole to accommodate a ribbon or a hanger. Put on a cookie sheet, press with another cookie sheet and bake in a 200F oven for an hour, then remove the top cookie sheet, flip them and bake for another hour uncovered.
It makes the house smell AMAZING.
And I have 16 ornaments made, and still have a bunch of dough left over.
I'm going to need to go to Michael's for paint and glitter, but I think they're going to be great, and continue to make the house smell spicy and wonderful for the rest of the holiday.
And so I pretended to be Martha Stewart all day--and it was fun.
Did I miss anything?
And then it wasn't.
Now, you have to understand--we love Rafiki with all our hearts, we really do. He is very handsome, and he is, for the most part, the very best behaved cat we have. He is sweet and wonderful...and not very bright.
The DH says he's "special".
I say he's the feline Rainman.
In any case, he is, as Emeril would say, "hip-mo-tized" by hanging, dangling, shiny stuff. And we had a ton of it on the Christmas tree--all glass balls and assorted twinklies.
All of it put Rafiki into a spontaneous trance state, and he heard the voices in his alleged brain that said, "MUST. HAVE. PRETTIES."
Needless to say, there was broken glass and crashes at inconvenient times and the tree itself actually came down once, so enamored was he of having to touch the pretties.
So today, I denuded the tree of all smashable ornaments (which was all of them, actually) and dug the old, unbreakable ones out of the basement. So we've gone from glass shinies to fruits and flowers and pine cones...
And then I spent some time this afternoon making cinnamon ornaments, which are turning out really nicely. The dough is made of 1 1/2 cups of cinnamon, a cup of applesauce and 1/4 cup of Elmer's glue, plus just a little water to make it into a pliable dough. Let sit for an hour, roll out about a quarter of it, and then use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, making sure to add a hole to accommodate a ribbon or a hanger. Put on a cookie sheet, press with another cookie sheet and bake in a 200F oven for an hour, then remove the top cookie sheet, flip them and bake for another hour uncovered.
It makes the house smell AMAZING.
And I have 16 ornaments made, and still have a bunch of dough left over.
I'm going to need to go to Michael's for paint and glitter, but I think they're going to be great, and continue to make the house smell spicy and wonderful for the rest of the holiday.
And so I pretended to be Martha Stewart all day--and it was fun.
Did I miss anything?