First Christmas

This year, it took us three days to get the Christmas tree decorated and all our Christmas decorations laid out.

Last year, when I was six months pregnant, it took six hours. This year, we have a nine-month old little guy who insists on having our undivided attention. That means that nothing is worthy of stealing Nathan’s thunder.

Christmas tree included.

We started putting the tree up on Thanksgiving evening. Paul hauled the Christmas tree and all the decorations in from the shed. We started pulling out the limbs for assembly when we noticed something peculiar.

Something was awry with the limbs of our Christmas tree.

For once, it had nothing to do with baby poop. But it was something else that was equally disturbing.

Something that had left clumps of insulation throughout a handful of limbs.

A MOUSE NEST.

Yes, a mouse had built a little home for itself in the bowels of our Christmas tree limbs.

Expensive Christmas tree limbs. This is the kind of tree you can’t just throw away because of some mouse. Not that our tree is some grand, magnificent sight… but for three people living off of one income, it’s magnificent enough to not just throw away.

Fortunately, the little home was abandoned. There was no mouse to be seen. Just tufts of insulation embedded in the limbs of the tree, a grim reminder of the MOUSE THAT ONCE WAS. The mouse that lived (and I’m sure died) in our shed.

Remnants of a happy life once lived.

So we spent the entire Thanksgiving evening with bottles of Lysol and paper towels, sanitizing the shit out of each and every Christmas tree limb, peeling off wisps of mouse nest from in between the fake plastic pine needles.

But then there is my allergies. Apparently, I am allergic to Fake Christmas Tree Dust and Abandoned Mouse Houses and I had a pretty severe allergy attack. My rapid-fire sneezing has been non-stop since Thanksgiving. Every time I walk into the living room, my eyes start to swell, my nose starts itching, and my chest starts that familiar I’m-going-to-suffocate-you burn.

It feels like my body is TRYING TO KILL ME.

Because apparently, when we were hauling fake plastic Christmas tree limbs out from their temporary coffin, we let loose a cloud of Danger Dust. The kind of dust that accumulates on things outside, even things that are in a shed… a dust composed primarily of leaves, pollen, and mouse-house allergens.

So I’ve resigned myself to deep cleaning the entire house. The dust has gotta go.

I banish it. 

Fortunately, it doesn’t seem as if Nathan has my allergies. Thankfully. The kid isn’t even phased. He likes looking at the twinkling lights on the tree, reaching out for the ornaments, and laughing at Mommy’s multiple sneeze marathons.

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6 Comments

  1. OK, you gotta warn people at the beginning of this. Because I have to tell you…when I hit the phrase “mouse nest,” I had a very visceral reaction. That might have involved squealing and peeing on myself a little. Might have.
    .-= Falling´s last blog ..REVEALED! Part 1 =-.

    • Ohmygoodness!! I’m not one for mice either. I mean, I feel bad when they are killed in mouse traps or whatever, but if I see a live one, my bladder starts to quiver…

  2. Agree with Falling: you lured us in with that oh-so-cute picture of Nathan, then BOOM, Mouse nest. *silent scream* I am so sorry you had to go thru the mess + clean-up. I can’t even imagine having to clean up a Xmas tree branch by branch. But I am with you: we can’t throw away our tree either. Right now I am thinking perhaps we should have gone natural. Sigh. Thanks. Now I have a new thing to fear in my basement…
    p.s. Sorry. This post is about YOU. I am very sorry about your allergy. Really. I am. Why is it that every time I “say” something I always think I sound sarcastic. I am not. Not at this moment. I am sincerely sorry.
    .-= submom´s last blog ..The Internet has changed forever what we take pictures of… =-.

    • It was really tedious. And a bit depressing. Here was our beautiful, albeit fake, Christmas tree… now marred by images of a mouse skittering around inside it. So I mentioned to my husband that maybe we should go natural. And he said, “Then you have to deal with BUGS!” and I was all, OMG I can barely deal with a mouse! But BUGS!?!? NO WAY. Totally squeamish/squeal-y, especially when it comes to bugs. Oh and I didn’t think you sounded sarcastic at all- but it’s funny you think that because sometimes I feel like I come across that way as well!

  3. Sounds almost comical. Nathan is just the cutest little boy Love that picture
    .-= Nancy@ifevolutionworks.com´s last blog ..Lightbulb & A Birth Announcement =-.

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