Christmas happened

This year there were children in my home on Christmas morning for the first time since I was a child myself. My boyfriend Bill and his two daughters were at my place and the girls were awake from 04:30. They woke us up at 06:30. A few hours later I understood why their family has Christmas dinner at lunchtime. (We had a lovely Christmas dinner made by Bill's Mum at her home in Dartmouth.) Because when you get up at 6:30 a.m., especially after staying up late the night before, noon feels like suppertime.

So I had to have a Christmas tree. I think it's the first one I've had in my own home, not counting the decorated potted Norfolk pine I had one year in grad school

Bill and I bought a fake tree from Canadian Tire, that fabulous emporium of efficient shopping. It has a kind of Charlie Brown quality we liked ... and built-in lights. Here is it is all decorated up.

I bought a fancy store-bought cat toy for the cats for Christmas. Guess what? They weren't that interested in it. Here's what they liked better:

The classic Giant Paper Bag.

And in case anyone thinks Ruby is not intelligent, just because they've met her, here she demonstrates her talent for jigsaw puzzles as she helps Megan with her Cristmas present. Can your pet do puzzles?