Oh....Christmas tree...

Christmas 2000. That was the year we discovered Christmas trees and pets don't mix. Cadence and Aria loved to remove ornaments from the tree and hide them behind the piano. Bill and I learned over the next few years to keep the fragile ornaments up high and to pinch ornament hooks as tightly as we could on the lower branches. That helped some, but I would still find treasures each time we moved the piano. 

Fast forward to 2008. By now, we had figured out that the best place for the tree was behind closed doors, so we put the tree in the Florida room and kept the doors shut, thus keeping the tree safe from cats and children alike. 

Christmas 2011. Tree in Florida room falls over, lands on stone floor. Huge mess, broken ornaments, upset children and Mom. Tree is relocated to living room where Katie uses certain ornaments as 'batting' practice. Get it??

Christmas 2014. Tree is assembled in the living room. Fragile ornaments up high, non-fragile, non-sentimental ornaments down low. We were worried about the cats and Copper messing with the tree. 

But they have left it alone. Instead, Copper ate my tree skirt. 

I'm not happy, but I'm not devastated either. I got it on the clearance rack adte Christmas a few years ago. I've learned not to invest too much in decor. A pet or child will just ruin it eventually anyway.