Moving out meerkats

The Christmas tree comes down for Epiphany tomorrow, so the meerkats have packed away their Santa hats and moved outside.

This Christmas season's two ornaments were:



Christmas ornaments for 2011: a Hallmark "Where the wild things are" depiction of Max and the great sea monster (a cameo character disappointingly omitted from the recent motion picture) - an eBay "Buy it now" purchase, because I can't bear to lose an eBay auction; and a bird-handled souvenir miniature umbrella from "Mary Poppins: the Musical", which played in Sydney earlier this year.

Previous entries include:

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2007

Epiphany 2007

On the twelfth day of Christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas

On the fifth day of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas.

A corella epiphany

Epiphany 2011

Today is the traditional day for taking down Christmas decorations. This year, I didn't actually get around to decorating the outdoor pine tree, but I did notice it had a very healthy display of pine nuts. Until yesterday.

I had heard some happy parrot noises out in the yard, but it was only later in the day that I noticed that some galah had been munching on my nuts, to coin a phrase.

Today, they're back! Six corellas have returned to the scene of yesterday's crime! When I snuck out with the iPhone, the "boss cocky" flew up into a neighbouring tree and kept watch for his mates, sending chirpy noises to them, warning that I was still approaching. It was a textbook assault, obviously planned well since yesterday. They started at the top and are slowly working their way down, like a well-oiled machine.


Epiphany 2008

Back - and down it all comes

Well, it's Epiphany - the 12th day of Christmas - the day when we are supposed to strip the house of Christmas cheer, beating the chain stores as they prepare to put out chocolate Easter eggs, and commiserate over all the broken New Year's Resolutions. More on those later?

Before I disassemble the tree, here are my two ornaments - dated, as per usual - for Christmas 2007:



Christmas ornaments for 2007: a snowman in a light bulb - literally, a "snow globe" - came from Penrith's Target store in the January sales of 2007, and kept hidden away till Christmas, and a Hallmark "Shrek 3" figurine. He swings from a string of Christmas lights, with his pal Donkey under his arm. This ornament came from a Perth Target store during my vacation last October.

A bonus this year were 25 little glow-in-the-dark cherubs. I originally saw this in a Penny Miller catalogue, but they were about $19.95 for 50 cherubs, and no indication of just how tiny they were. When I was in Perth last year, I saw packets of them in a $2 shop ... for just $2 for 25. A bargain! Except that: when do you ever have all the lights out in a room with a Christmas tree? The cherubs can't glow in the daytime, of course, so I got to see them glow for about 30 seconds each night when I turned off the lights and headed to bed. Way to glow, cherubs!



I have lots of news from my recent holiday to Brisbane but, as each day creeps/flies by, the anecdotes seem to become a little less compelling, or less essential to tell when there are so many new things to talk about. Suffice to say that I must mention that I owe Virgin Blue a big thank you for letting my new (extra) bag onto my flight when I was running late. After seeing all those poor, angry, frustrated easyJet customers and workers on the UK TV show, "Airline", I was expecting a similar embarrassing scene, but all was calm and cool!

Sunday's magic number: 91.9 - Drat. Creeping up, even though I thought I was being fairly ruthless. Ah well, this week last year was like the beginning of the end, so tougher rules will have to apply from now on. There's still so much Christmas food around the house, though, and people gave chocolate, too. Sigh.

Epiphany!

Today's the traditional day for taking Christmas decorations down. I was in the local supermarket yesterday - and, of course, the shops are already putting out stocks of chocolate Easter eggs!

As you've dutifully followed my virtual Christmas decorating ritual for these past twelve days, you've now earned the right to see my tree topper:



A US penfriend once sold me his collection of "Star Trek" character Christmas ornaments, originally from the "Star Trek Experience" in Las Vegas and - as I already had a Spock and a Picard from the annual Hallmark range - this new Spock, complete with Vulcan lyrette, ended up at the top of my Christmas tree as the angel. All he needed were some golden wings from Spotlight and a copper wire halo. This year I finally got around to customising the blue uniform shirt to make it reflect the uniform that Spock wore in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", the film in which Spock did end up singin' with the angels. (At least until the next sequel.)



The next batch (below) includes some ornaments I couldn't help but purchase from the beautiful Ahwahnee Hotel, at Yosemite National Park in California. It was the morning of 27th December 1983, if I recall correctly and, after a sumptuous buffet breakfast, we discovered that the hotel was selling off its stock of Christmas ornaments. Okay, so I weakened. So much for "just one ornament per year", my original intention.



Clockwise: Stuffed fabric unicorn handmade by US penpal, Francine; Ahwahnee Hotel bargain bin cloth partridge (without the pear tree); Ahwahnee wooden unicorn/Pegasus; Ahwahnee wooden ballerina; felt Australian Christmas bells (wildflowers), a leftover souvenir/gift of Australia that somehow never found a new owner; and Super Pickle, a cool superhero clip-on I found somewhere in the States! (Every sandwich in USA comes with a pickle on the side, it seems.)




Clockwise: The "Rodney Reindeer" stuffed toy was very popular in that same San Francisco department store that sold the clowns (see previous blog entry); and some items found in my stocking at Rhonda's parents' house on Christmas morning, 1983. These all get put onto the tree each year: a Santa Claus pen; a little toy truck (Rhonda got girly stuff); a miniature picture book called, "Christmas Around the World"; and an aluminium Steadfast Tin Soldier, which was originally filled with unshelled peanuts. (Yep, five grown adults in a room, generating as much Christmas morning present-opening as possible.) The kazoo was sold by Farrell's Ice Creamery somewhere near Martinez, California, where I celebrated a birthday. The staff traditionally sing you "Happy Birthday", accompanied by kazoos.

Thanks for joining me on this virtual tour of my 2006 Christmas tree. Now I have to go pack it all away...