Text 18393, 62 rader
Skriven 2008-12-25 15:31:00 av Nancy Backus (1:124/311)
     Kommentar till en text av RUTH HANSCHKA
Ärende: Re: stollen
===================
-=> Quoting Ruth Hanschka to Ruth Haffly on 12-22-08  23:08 <=-

 ->  RH> Too true.  I never had a cat try to climb a real Christmas tree. 
 ->  RH> They just seem to go for the fakes.
 -> My parents have always gotten real trees.  I think they had maybe a
 -> couple cats try climbing them.  Most of the cats were just happy to bat
 -> at the lower hanging ornaments.
 RH> Cats that can get outside don't climb pine trees.  The fakes just look

Cats that live outside DO climb trees... I've seen them use arborvitae
to get to a porch roof... and climb a spruce (that had been an indoor
Christmas tree before it was planted... I helped my neighbor plant that
one).  They also get into a little redbud tree... I think both the
latter are in hopes of squirrels or birds to stick around long enough to
be food.  They get themselves back down, too... contrary to commonly
held beliefs.

 RH> and smell like climbing toys.  We always used unbreakables on the
 RH> lowest branches, and would hang some that the cats were supposed to
 RH> grab.  Not that we told them so.  Otherwise they'd go after something
 RH> more fragile. 

We had a cat climb up on the lowest branch of our artificial tree.  It
had looked more natural than most available at the time, and for various
reasons, a real one was not a good option that year.  He managed to
break the branch... lending even more authenticity with the lack of
perfection.  After that he stayed out of the tree... and as far as we
knew, none of our other cats then or later tried the same trick.  We
also always left the unbreakables on the lower branches, and tried to
keep the "irresistables" out of reach and out of normal line of sight
for the felines... :)

 -> And to a cat, that's what counts.  We decided to go with a non
 -> traditional dinner for Christmas and use up more of what's in the
 -> freezer.  So, we're going to marinade and grill some lamb chops, have a
 -> mixed blend of rice, some vegetable (to be decided) and cherry crisp.
 -> We may add some other things but that's the basics.
 -> 
 RH> Sounds fine to me.  I'll be eating ravioli; they're traditional in my
 RH> brother in-law's family.  My family doesn't have traditional foods
 RH> unless you count prune whip, stollen and cookies.
 
We don't have any really traditional foods for Christmas in our family...
my husband's sister-in-law was Swedish, so for his family's Christmas
we'd always have a Christmas Eve smorgasbord, with many of their food
traditions.  My family got so big, that for a while turkey was the norm
just so that it wouldn't be too expensive to feed us all, and so that
there wouldn't be too much fussing... then we gave up on a sit-down meal
and have just had some variety of hearty hors d'oevres buffet.  I'm
thinking that for the two of us today, I'll just fix some duck leg
quarters with stuffing, and some sort of veggie... my family doesn't get
together until Saturday... and my Swedish s-i-l goes to spend Christmas
with her sister, now that my m-i-l is gone and the kids are grown and
don't always come home, so we don't have Swedish Christmas any more.

ttyl       neb

... I have a watch cat!  Just break in and he'll watch.

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