On Saturday morning I started decorating the house for Halloween. I got up really early, when it was still pitch-dark, and sat on the couch in the Little House in my pajamas, drinking Coke and stitching up some dumb little ornaments for my Halloween tree–funny felt cats and jack-o’-lanterns with beads for eyes. It was very cozy. An ice-cold Coke makes the nicest breakfast, and Carl was dozing next to me in a soft little nest of felt scraps and embroidery floss. The lamplight turned the room all golden.

I made several cute but poorly sewn ornaments, and then I started decorating the Halloween tree. As you might expect, it was kind of hard with 11 cats gathered around to “help.” As soon as I got a few ornaments hung, June started standing on her hind legs and batting them, knocking them down one by one. Meanwhile, Buntin had climbed into my Halloween storage box and was rooting around in the tissue paper. She kept triggering this dumb talking skeleton and scaring everybody. The cats would scatter in all directions whenever the skeleton laughed. Unfortunately for me, they always came right back . . . to steal glitter balls and traipse along the mantelpiece, tipping over my carefully posed pumpkin people and friendly ghosts.

Gourd garland