Monday, January 08, 2007
Oreo Ends Christmas
The twelve days of Christmas officially ended on Saturday. Thanks to the mild weather, I was able to disconnect the outdoor Christmas lights and bring in the extension cord. And yesterday Cheryl and Sarah dismantled our new artifical tree and put away the lights and decorations. A far as I was concerned, that marked the official end of our Christmas.
But I forgot that there is a new member of our family, the one and only Oreo. And it turns out that he, not us, determines the official end of the Christmas season in our house.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, I helped Sarah and our neighbor's little girl Danielle construct a gingerbread house from one of those packaged kits. Even though I managed to crack one of the walls in half, I was able to salvage the structure with the strong-as-mortar icing.
The completed gingerbread house spent the next two weeks as the centerpiece of the dining room table. When Christmas arrived, we moved it to a safer location atop the stereo which sits on the table near the front door in the living room. And there it stayed - until this morning.
Cheryl was out this morning and returned to find Oreo in the kitchen munching away on what she assumed was a bone. 'How cute' she thought as she approached her ever-adorable pup. On closer inspection, however, she discovered that Oreo had one of the walls of the gingerbread house in his mouth. His whiskers were coated in icing and the rest of the edible edifice was nearby on the floor.
It's hard to know how or why Oreo got his paws on the gingerbread house. He would have had to get up on the table and drag the house down from on top of the stereo. Given that it's been around for about a month, the 'why' of its destruction is also a bit mysterious. Cheryl suspects that because today was the first day that we were all back to our usual routines, Oreo was not pleased and decided to show his displeasure by helping himself to the nearest gingerbread display he could find.
My theory is that Oreo has decided that Christmas isn't over until he says it's over. And with the demise of the gingerbread house, it's now official - the holiday season is done.
But I forgot that there is a new member of our family, the one and only Oreo. And it turns out that he, not us, determines the official end of the Christmas season in our house.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, I helped Sarah and our neighbor's little girl Danielle construct a gingerbread house from one of those packaged kits. Even though I managed to crack one of the walls in half, I was able to salvage the structure with the strong-as-mortar icing.
The completed gingerbread house spent the next two weeks as the centerpiece of the dining room table. When Christmas arrived, we moved it to a safer location atop the stereo which sits on the table near the front door in the living room. And there it stayed - until this morning.
Cheryl was out this morning and returned to find Oreo in the kitchen munching away on what she assumed was a bone. 'How cute' she thought as she approached her ever-adorable pup. On closer inspection, however, she discovered that Oreo had one of the walls of the gingerbread house in his mouth. His whiskers were coated in icing and the rest of the edible edifice was nearby on the floor.
It's hard to know how or why Oreo got his paws on the gingerbread house. He would have had to get up on the table and drag the house down from on top of the stereo. Given that it's been around for about a month, the 'why' of its destruction is also a bit mysterious. Cheryl suspects that because today was the first day that we were all back to our usual routines, Oreo was not pleased and decided to show his displeasure by helping himself to the nearest gingerbread display he could find.
My theory is that Oreo has decided that Christmas isn't over until he says it's over. And with the demise of the gingerbread house, it's now official - the holiday season is done.
