Merry Christmas from Lou, Jenna, and Maia St. Hilaire

We had a little more trouble than usual getting everyone in the picture this year.

Wait for it...

...wait for it...

...there it is.

Well. There are Lou and I. I attempted to catch Maia, and she meowed angrily and bolted. Lou later got a nice shot of her relaxing and looking at the tree, though.

OH MY GOSH.

My dad emailed me this last night:

Lou and I had just come home to find broken bits of one of the family ornaments all over the house—we're still missing one of the pieces—as well as water splashed all over the floor around the tree. Our survey and cleanup of the damage were closely watched by one very excited cat.

Maia: "You put up the GIANT PLANT and hung it with SO MANY TOYS AND you filled up a WATER DISH under it!!!!" 

Me: "Normal cats avoid water. Why do you have to obsessively bat it onto the floor?" 

Maia: "I can reach that knitted doll where you just hung it. Also, I can dig past that towel you're wrapping around and around the water dish. I will DIG TO THE WATER and I will FLING IT EVERYWHERE OH I DIDN'T KNOW THE WORLD COULD BE SO FUN."

She can, too.

Right now I've got the Christmas tree stand swaddled in cloth, which I've taped all the way around the trunk. I've spread a red blanket over the top of that and weighted the ends down with a bronze Mary bust. That had better work, because I'm out of ideas otherwise.

...and that's all I've got for today. I've got to go wrap some presents and finish the laundry.

Blessed Christmas! Much love.