I've been looking forward to setting up our Christmas tree and hauling down the boxes of decorations. For the first time in many years, the kids are actually old enough to reason with. I've got high hopes that the kids will leave most of the ornaments on the tree this year, sparing me from repeated redecoration efforts.

The problem has always been this: the kids are set-players. I have lots of ornaments that come in sets. Rather than allow these sets to be scattered pleasingly over the branches of the tree, the kids want all the families to stay together. This means we have a clump of snowmen over here. A clump of reindeer over there. A colony of gingerbread people. A little family of angels.

This is not the way it is done. And yet, it is the way we do it.

This year, however, I had it all explained, with the help of a few catalogs showing beautifully decorated trees. The kids seem to get it that we are decorating a tree, not creating ethnic neighborhoods. So far, so good, right?

We carried the tree inside yesterday, and set it up in the stand. We put the lights on the tree, and cleaned up the downed needles. Taking a breather while we enjoyed the glowing lights, we saw a grey streak cross the floor at high speed.

The cat climbed to the top of the tree in about 5 seconds flat. Before we even realized what had happened, the cat was swaying perilously at the top of the tree, and the dog was barking at the base of the tree.

Yeah. Forgot to factor the new cat into the holiday decorating scheme. I mean, I got her an ornament, but it didn't dawn on me that she would want to live in the tree.

I filled a squirt pistol and took aim. She hissed at me and began a rapid descent, encouraged by a few more squirts. The dog did the honors and chased her the rest of the way out of the room while I danced around, shooting off a few celebratory rounds in front of the twinkly tree.

"Mom, should you be putting water on those electric lights?"

Hmm. No, I probably shouldn't. But then again, the cat hasn't set a single wisker towards the tree since.

This would have been helpful when the kids were still wee babies.