Decorating

This morning the yarn lady was busy folding up long narrow strips of paper into stars.  She had cut the paper from one of the many advertisements she received in the mail, commenting that she’d found a use for all that junk mail finally.  Clem really wanted to play with the stars, but as soon as she reached for one, the yarn lady would whisk it out of the way and put it in a fancy glass bowl on top of the china cabinet in the living room.  The cabinet itself was a new addition, and one that the yarn lady was very proud of.  It was tall, made out of dark wood with two glass doors that met in the middle.  She’d heard the yarn lady explain that it had been made by her great-grandfather from her grandmother’s childhood bed.  Clem had seen it out in the garage before this, but it had needed repair before it could be moved in and used. 

Also on top of the cabinet was a small tree, but it didn’t seem to be real.  At least the yarn lady hadn’t watered it since she’d brought it home a few weeks ago and put it there.  Clem hadn’t been sure of its purpose up until today.  When the yarn lady had finished making a whole bunch of the puffy stars she got out a needle and thread and strung the stars onto the thread.  She had to do it practically in the middle of the room, because once there were a few of them on the thread, Clem really, really wanted to play with it.  She was convinced that it was a new cat toy, and the yarn lady hadn’t let her play with the stars when she made them because she wanted to finish making the toy, but it turned out that the string of stars was something to be attached to the small tree. 

The yarn lady wound the loose end of the string around a branch (she’d used green thread, so it didn’t show) and then carefully arranged the stars so that they could be seen amongst the branches.  It finally occurred to Clem what this was – a Christmas tree, just like in the Charlie Brown show she’d watched earlier this week.  She stood and watched as the yarn lady continued to arrange the stars.   The yarn lady commented to Clem, “Although I suppose I have room for a big tree, I could imagine you climbing it and knocking off all my grandmother’s ornaments.  Unh-uh.  Not gonna happen.  Little tree, paper ornaments.  Even if you figure out how to get up here, there’s nothing to break.”  She bent down, scooped Clem up and showed her the tree. 

Clem tried her best to look as though she were a kitten who would never even consider climbing a tree, but failed miserably when she was tempted by the loose end with stars still on it.  Her paw reached out to grab it with no intention on her part.  The yarn lady stepped back and put Clem on the floor.  “And that is why it’s way up high, with no furniture in range for you to leap up from.  I think it’s  safe there.” 

She sat back and admired it from the floor.  It looked kind of nice up there with all the paper stars on it, but the yarn lady wasn’t done.  She took a tiny piece of silver wrapping paper, folded it up even tinier and attacked it with some scissors.  When she was done, she unfolded it very carefully, looked at it and perched it on the very top of the tree.  “It’s not an angel, and not a star, but I think a snowflake tops it off quite nicely.”  Clem agreed, it looked very nice.