on (not) decorating the Christmas tree

Decorating the Christmas tree didn't go as well as I'd hoped (quite apart from the fact that none of the strings of lights seem to work).  Last year, we brought the tree inside - we decided that Gramsci really wasn't a kitten any more, and could be trusted.  And the red birds were all over it, and he ignored them.  This year, I went full-on avian camp, and bought thirty six more white birds to match the scarlet ones.  They were irresistible!  Grammy tried to pat them off their branches, pulled out some tail feathers, looked as though he was going to climb into the entire tree ... This clearly wasn't going to work.

So I rehomed the white birds onto the withered stalks of the morning glories outside, where they are now probably confusing the real birds (or not - they're still happily splashing around in the heated bird bath), and are glowing interestingly in different lights.