Smackdown!

I look back at 2024 and I’m not sure what we spent the year doing.🤷‍♀️ We didn’t get to take a big trip, but we did take a few short ones. At least we didn’t spend the year making a lot of expensive home repairs; we only had one appliance die on us in 2024: our range. Now, I’m side-eyeing our refrigerator because it’s the only appliance we haven’t replaced since we moved in.

I’m not really a resolution maker, but I have set myself a few goals:

  • Exercise more
  • Keep going through the items that I’ve allowed to pile up because I either a) don’t know what to do with them, or b) just haven’t wanted to deal with them.
  • This one is more of a wish than a goal: selling our old house. Our youngest son and his girlfriend rent from us and had expressed an interest in buying the house. Unfortunately, J (the girlfriend) lost her job and it took a few months for her to find a new one. However, she now has a new job she loves so it looks like we may be back on track to sell this year. I really hope it works out; Kenn and I are both tired of being landlords.

As for the title of my post, my word of the year was chosen by Merriam-Webster. Participants just had to take a screenshot of their GIF that was scrolling through a series of words, and I got “smackdown.” I showed it to Kenn and he said “Oh, crap.”😂 So… *crack knuckles* let’s do this?

Do you make resolutions?

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em

The day last week’s post went live, I woke up to this.

Someone, presumably Roxie, managed to knock the whole tree over while leaving the bungee cord securing it to the table intact. It was at this point that my enthusiasm for a tree began to wane. Don’t get me wrong. I love having a tree, I just don’t enjoy it becoming an ongoing hassle.

In a moment of desperation, I did an internet search and placed an order for a new tree. While waiting on the new tree to arrive, Roxie’s depredations continued. By Saturday, there were only three ornaments left on the tree. All but two have been recovered for use again at some point in the future.

The new tree arrived today. Kenn and I had it unboxed  and assembled in less than ten minutes.

Bear has climbed the tree a couple of times and sharpened his claws on the base. Nyx lounged under the tree for a few minutes. And Roxie? Well, she has pulled a couple of the “ornaments” off only to pay them no attention when I put them back. So, yeah. The great destructor of trees is completely ignoring the one designed for her. Jerk.

How many Christmas trees do you have? None? One? Multiple?