Four cats, a dog, and a Christmas tree walk into a room...

What a weekend.

The new dog came home. The cats objected. I needed my inhaler, but was happy because the dog being home meant Tim was home.

A turkey was cooked and a small Thanksgiving celebration had. Some cats were happy, others were not. I was exhausted, but stuffed myself on all the good food.

The holiday lights went up...and then came down...and then went up...and then came down...and then went up...and then blew the circuit breaker. The cats didn't care. I was so sore that the muscles in my fingers hurt. The tips of my seconds toes hurt. With that said, my back, neck, knees, elbows, etc, being sore should be a given.

The Christmas tree came home. The cats gave it their blessing. The new tree stand did not. I needed my inhaler again, something to get sap off my skin, and to not scratch the hives that popped up afterward.

The cats were in the local paper. Sort of. But again, they didn't care. I was ecstatic.

They did care, however, when their bathroom door accidentally stayed closed all night long. The instant I realized the door was still shut, I opened it and watched as cat after cat darted past me faster than I've ever seen them run before. Oh their poor little kitty bladders! I felt bad. :-(

And where was the dog through all this? Just being happy. Happy to be in a home. Happy to have a family. Happy to have a bath. Happy to have a toy. Happy to run outside. Happy to run inside...and happy to piss off the cats (who have a mean right hook, I must say...even though that's totally cliche!). I must say that the email that circulates every now and then about a cat's day vs. a dog's day is absolutely true. The dog was happy, no matter what, and the cats were indifferent, happy, clingy, or just pissed off depending on the situation. I was happy for the dog and felt sorry for the cats.

So to string this all together...here's how the holiday weekend played out:

Tim came home earlier than expected on Wednesday night, which was a good thing. Meri and Dad came over to help hang Christmas lights and to install a cat door in our bedroom door (due to my allergies, rule #1 with the dog is no dog in the bedroom, plus that gives the cats one sanctuary of their own). The door was no problem. The lights, on the other hand, gave us quite a bit of trouble. I wasn't exaggerating in saying they went up and down several times. I'll save you from the boredom of the event itself - suffice it to say that we replaced every single strand that hangs along our gutters with brand new strands (after shopping around at 4 different stores - why is it so hard to find decent Christmas decorations this year?).

Black Friday shopping has been a tradition in our house for many years now and we always get our Christmas tree while we're out. This year, Black Friday shopping was done entirely online, so we really just went out for the tree (always a Fraser Fir since I'm allergic to Christmas trees and Fraser Firs have small needles with soft, non-jabby tips). Black Friday this year also concluded our Christmas shopping. We are done. Everything already here is wrapped and under the tree. Everything else is on the way. So once Tim trimmed the tree and brought it inside, we strung up the lights and beads, adorned it with ornaments, and sat back with the cats to enjoy our 2009 master piece. Then I got up to get something from the kitchen and heard a loud expletive shouted from the living room. I ran back in and found the floor strewn with ornaments and Tim standing at the center, holding the tree up at a 45-degree angle. Suffice it to say that the stand wasn't adequately screwed in (it is now) and after about half hour to an hour of messing around with it, the tree was standing straight and secure, the ornaments were re-hung, beads were restrung, and the cats and we were able to sit back and enjoy our 2009 re-done master piece.

Saturday came, which started off with a call from Dad that the local paper had done a write up on our dog and my husband. I, of course, say our cats were in the paper because they were - it was reported that the new bomb-sniffing dog would be living with us and our cats, a detail that added an element of whimsy an otherwise serious article. And it got better from there because it was a beautiful day that was perfect for hanging lights. We took the dog outside and finished the outdoor decorating - without incident.

Well...until later that night when the lights kicked on and the main circuit breaker blew. Understandably, the main circuit breaker in our house is the one that controls the living room and apparently our exterior outlets. Suffice it to say that half of the Christmas lights are now running off an extension cord from a plug in the garage that runs on a separate circuit.

Which brings us to Sunday...the day Tim had to leave again. :-( He got all packed up and safely out on the road, and then I settled down to make some dinner and about burnt the house down. My memory problems have been so bad lately that I've had to break out the post-it notes to remind myself to do things - remember the lunch box, to blow out the candles, to water the tree, etc. It's been so hard to focus on things that I'll walk into a room, forget why I'm there, start doing something else, and then get sidetracked while doing that, which will also prompt a spark in my brain that leads back to the original task. What that means is many things going on at once, some things getting finished, and some things getting totally forgotten. I need to tie this lack of focus to my post-it notes and post messages around the kitchen to not walk out while cooking something. I started cooking something on the stove top, left to turn on my laptop in the living room, and then sat down in the living to get to work. The piercing shriek of the smoke alarm is what made me remember the food on the stove. I swear, after this week, I really question how safe I am when left to function on my own. I also feel for my husband and have a new appreciation for what he has to deal with when I'm in this MS-induced mental fog. Taking care of myself when in this fog is incredible difficult.

So, you might have noticed that the dog's part in the weekend was rather minimal. Well, for the most part, it really was. He's a good dog. He's quiet and well-behaved and happy. But he's not a housebroken dog, something our dining room floor learned the hard way - but it was easy enough to clean up.

At one point, we let him off the leash to run freely through the house and then sat with him in the living room while we decorated the tree. Lu popped out and sat with us, too. He didn't seem to mind the dog unless he got too close. Jonny appeared and watched the dog from afar, Neko took up residence in the cat tower down the hall, and Sake showed up and then disappeared when she realized the dog was out. There was no fur flying, no cat chomping, and hardly any barking. The dog just watched the cats, and as long as the dog kept his distance, the cats just watched him. The dog, oddly enough, was the easiest part of the weekend and actually played no part in any of the difficulties we encountered.

So, in summary, the dog is great and the cats will deal with it, the Christmas decorations are up, the shopping's done, and presents wrapped, and Tim and I got to spend some time together, but now he's back off to training, and with everything that went on, the weekend went by way too fast. Hopefully, this week, with no holiday to interfere with daily life, we'll both find time to relax and unwind, and this coming weekend will be more low key and "normal." The return of normality should ease some of the MS problems I'm experiencing, too, which will make the coming weekend all the more enjoyable.