Christmas, Cats and Chaos

Hello everyone, I am finally back from the land of viruses and sickness! And just on the behalf of married women everywhere, I want to say, "Sometimes we have the misfortune to catch a virus that makes us throw up. This does not in anyway mean that we are expecting our third child, because we are not. Thank you."

I was looking for one of my more famous stories to give you all the link and realized that I never, ever wrote it on my blog! Most people know about it because of a lesson I have taught that is called "Medicine Moments". Anyways, it must go into blog history, so here it is.

Way back in 2008, we had a chaotic Christmas. It all started one night about a month before Christmas when Chris and I decided that the church needed to have a Christmas musical that year. Yes, I did indeed say one month. What followed was the two of us writing a musical, finding songs, having them translated, rehearsals, making costumes, breaking one sewing machine and almost two, rehearsals, and "oh yeah, by the way Honey, I think we should have a cast party here at the house after the final performance on Sunday night"! Right in the middle of all of this, our six month old cat went into heat. On a Friday night. The vet couldn't get her in until Monday. We have two cats. A male and a female. Jango, the girl, was locked in the bathroom to keep her from Vader, the male. We had no desire for kittens to be arriving in a few months. She meowed. And meowed. And meowed. And meowed for 24 hours straight. I even tried to drug her with infant Tylenol, but it had no affect whatsoever. (I only wanted her to sleep, so I could sleep.)

Well, we got the cats fixed and here in Taiwan they do things a little different. In the States, I believe the vet would place a cone shaped thing around the cat's head to keep it from disturbing the wound. Our vet took an old x-ray film and cut a hole in the middle of it. She then slipped it over the cats head. The result was a large black square around their necks that totally obscured their bodies. Walking heads, if you will. Remember this, it will be important later.

Well, the Sunday of the Musical arrived and it was busy to say the least. Jango had found a nice safe place to sleep away from all the hectic rushing underneath the Christmas tree (which was sitting on a small table). As I was grabbing the last few things I needed to take to church and calling to the kids to get their shoes on, Ethan decided to be a boy. For no apparent reason that I could see, he just walked over to the Christmas tree, bent down and yelled "RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA"!!! What ensued can not fully be described in words. Jango flew up from her nap and tried to get away. That x-ray film got caught in the lights and the cat and the tree when to the floor. She continued to struggle as I tried to untangle her. Once set free, she took off like a pack of dogs were after her. The Christmas tree was now void of all ornaments and the living room floor was littered with Christmas balls and ribbon and flowers. Both kids just stood in shock as I tried to right the tree back on to the table. I should also mention that the top half of the tree was dangerously crooked. Realizing that I didn't have time to deal with this right now, I told the kids, "Just put your shoes on and let's go."

The Musical was a great success. When I returned home, Chris had beaten me there and was trying to fix the tree. The first thing he said when I opened the door was, "Honey, I think the cats must have gotten into the tree". Maybe it was the stress or the ornaments ever where or just the memory of that cat struggling to get free, but I started laughing hysterically and the kids had to tell him what happened!