Seriously... I *AM* going to strangle my kitten

I seriously think this cat has it out for me. I treat him nice. I clean his liter box on a twice daily basis, I make sure he has enough food and water, and I stroke behind his ears when he sits on my lap. But WHY oh why does he insist in taunting me the way he does???

My Christmas tree has been leaning up against my living room wall for the past few days, since the last time the shithead knocked it down. Tonight I got tired of looking at it sitting there, so I struggled, by myself, to get the tree back in the base, screw the bolts in, and get all the ornaments on it.

I go into the bathroom to clean up and get ready to go upstairs, and not FIVE minutes later, I hear the same CRASH that I heard just mere days ago. I knew what had happened -- the freaking cat got to the tree AGAIN.

Sure enough, I walk out in the living room and the tree is toppled over on its side again. *Sigh*. Why does he do this to me? I'm really starting to wonder if I should just skip a tree this year, but that seems highly unfair to the kids. Or maybe get one of those little table top trees and put it on top of a table. OR I can just do what I've wanted to do all along, and secretly let my kitten escape out the front door.

Ugh.