I am not a knick-knack type of person.
In fact, throughout the year I have no displays carefully arranged in curio cabinets, no treasured Hummels, china, crystal... nothing. Yet last year I got the knick-knack bug at Christmas. Suddenly, I felt a strong urge to have a Christmas Village prominently displayed in my home. Why? I don' t know, but several hundred dollars and a few Christmas gifts from the in-laws later my little town was born. Tiny homes were trimmed with mini Christmas lights, I had a ski hill (complete with moving skiiers), a chalet, a winery (of course), a bed and breakfast, and other little odds and ends. It was like a mini Napa Valley- and I was pretty pleased.
So this year I decided to expand my town into a booming metropolis and added several more homes and businesses- my tax base was growing, and the people were happy. Oh yes, my city even has lots of little people scattered about the fluffy snow covered streets. This required me to re-locate my village to an 8ft card table in the dining room, which again, I thought was pretty cool that I had a whole table dedicated to my Christmas biosphere. I can't believe my husband puts up with this!
Yesterday morning I woke up, got ready for work, got the kiddo up, and headed downstairs. As I walked through the dining room I glanced over at my town, and stopped dead in my tracks. There was an intruder in my village!! Staring back at me with a look that says trouble, is my large, clumsy, very sweet, but not-so-smart cat Harry. And he is standing in the middle of the town square.
"Harry!" I hiss- and he knows he is busted.
In his haste to get off the table before I *ahem* "take" him off, he starts to stumble through the town, like Godzilla after a night of drinking. The people in my down are knocked over like dominoes, and I realize there's a real danger that he's going to take some of my precious porcelain with him as he jumps off the table. I grab him in the nick of time and get him off the table with minimal casualties. But the poor town is forever traumatized, as this will go down in the history books as the day the town was attacked by a big, black furry beast, and something tells me this won't be the last invasion, either.
