Christmas storage problems

Its been snowing all night and still is - just small flakes. I suppose there'll be more talk of it being 'heavy' , but it really isn't much. Barely ankle height. Mike should be on his way home from the hospital. He got there OK, but I haven't heard from him since his arrival. There were some signalling problems again yesterday, and his return journey took a long time,

Dave, the postman, delivered my Christmas tree storage bag today, so I can at last put the tree away. He was fully kitted out in warm clothing, from head to toe. Until this weather arrived he would normally be attired in shorts, and never hat or gloves. When I remarked on this he said he'd told someone else that 'these are not my legs'!

Last year, after always having a large, real Christmas tree, I finally relented and bought an artificial one. It was quite pricey, but has fooled nearly everyone. However, I do miss the lovely smell of the real ones. We struggled to replace the three sections of the heavy tree into the original box, at the end of the first Christmas. It insisted on trying to burst out of the box, which was finally secured with some thick rope, and left in the garage as it was never going to make it to the loft. This worried me slightly. What if 'something' got into the box? Well, guess what - something did. When we pulled the box out of the garage we disturbed a number of mice, and upon opening the box there were more - and a nest. It took me some time to check the thick branches of the tree, outside in the garden, before I was convinced it was mouse free. So, this time it is going up into the loft, in the new bag. It's such a big tree though that not all of it would fit into the bag, so I may have to get another one. I've done a quick sketch of what could have been this year's tree decorations.

When my sister, husband and son lived in Norway, they sent us, one year, a traditional 'yulebok' (think that's how you spell it), which is a traditional straw goat. We have always stood this on our window ledge, along with other Norwegian Christmas decorations that they had sent us over their years there. Unfortunately, a few years ago, when we opened up our bags of Christmas decorations that had been kept in the loft, we discovered that the poor thing had lost a leg - to a pesky squirrel, that had used the straw as part of its nest in our loft. So now the yulebok stands on three legs only. Trying to get resident squirrels out of a loft is a nightmare, but we succeeded eventually. We have to be ever vigilent though. Very entertaining they may be, but they are not my favourite animals - or should I say 'pests'. Love the red ones.