NewYr's Eve Amendment

Moo is done with the crows so he's wiggled his way into a two-way catdonut with Doodle.

Here's How the Crew is Spending NewYr's Eve

Huddling for warmth and sleeping with nose tucked into blankets.

Curled up in a catdonut and sleeping with nose tucked under paws.

Gazing raptly out at crows.

And I'm still in my PJs.

Busy Christmas Day!

I had to wrap some more gifts, seems to be a tradition with me: waiting until Xmas Day morning to wrap my parents/Riley's gifts. I like it, feels holidayish. Then jumped in the shower and got ready to go have Chinese food lunch with Mr. L's family: that's one of their traditions and they invited me along. Then home to get gifts. Then off to my parents' house. It worked out for them, they got to dawdle, walk Riley, have lunch, and relax before I came over. Mr. L came over for Xmas Burritos which he loved but he LOVED my mom's pulled pork more. I can make him practically swoon with some of the things I make, but I don't have anything on my mom's pulled pork.

Here's my mom's tree, she dubbed it Fatso. She likes vintage-y ornaments, ones that are slightly worn and tarnished.

Riley got his "smart dog" gift from me. He didn't do what the dog on the box was doing (using his paws to move the covers over) but tried to bite them off and the combination of his wet nose and super-saturated tongue started to break down the less-then-quality wood the thing was made of. I'm sure my father could make a more awesome one with better wood to withstand nipping teeth that can disembowel a stuffed animal in less then a minute.

Riley got his bone finally which made him very happy and he worked on that for three hours straight! One tired pup! You can see one of the Hello Kitty-stuffed Hello Kitty bags I got my mom - just filled with all sorts of HK items. I had so much fun shopping for her. I'm SOOO glad she loves the wristlet purse, that was one of my last finds and oooh was it a good one. Hope she posts a pic of it! I made my dad his usual bucketloads of pretzels, Heath-bit flavored. He'll be in Party Pretzel Heaven 'til Easter!

A view of my parents' living room. I was trying to get the tree light reflections in the window, sort of succeeded but the photo set-up is nice, inviting, like you just want to crawl in the photo and join us.

I got exactly what I wanted this Christmas:

• A mini feather pillow
• A new sturdy ladder
• Dark chocolate malt balls
• Cozy mittens
• Scarf
• Sparkly aqua earrings from Mr. L
• Time with my family
• Time with Mr. L and his family
• Time at home with my kittos

It was a lovely holiday. I'm happy.

Catmouse Eve with Tissue Paper

Here's the most beautiful Christmas tree I've had yet. So straight and symmetrical for a wild tree, hard to believe no-one snapped it up. When I look for a tree, I tend to exasperate the sales people because I make them show me a bunch before I find "The Tree", I can't tell you what it is exactly because it's not perfection or symmetry (although I lucked out this Xmas) that determines "The Tree" but a "feeling", a feeling that this particular tree was meant for me and to grace my home for the holidays.

Now this tree... quite a little story. I arrived to find the selection of wild trees was very small and I thought I might end up with a tall version of the Charlie Brown tree or sometree that did not "speak" to me. The DooBee helping had shown me 6 trees that were no-go and one that was meh-be when we started a second go-around the wild tree pile. A tree practically threw itself at our feet, it was too tall, but I said since it fell at my feet I had to look at it. DooBee propped it up and my immediate reaction was NO! I always feel bad about taking so long so I said "let me see the tree that was behind it" (still leaning up against the wood frame). He moved the NO tree out of the way and brought the behind tree up.

OMG, that was "THE TREE".

Just stunningly perfect - straight trunk, every branch in place and perfectly balanced with other branches all around, tons of nooks and crannies for ornaments, and just the right shape going from skirt to tip. Now, I firmly believe it knew it was the tree for me and just kicked that NO tree out of the way so I would find it. It was way too tall, but I had him take some off the bottom and ended up taking about 5 inches off the top (boohoo), but it was gorgeous. I got it home, set it up, watered it, and just stood looking at for a hour. Then, to give it time to settle, I put lights and ornaments on it about 4 days later. I don't know how, but I improved upon perfection and spent my days hurrying home so I could get lost in looking at it. And smelling it.

The poopers have been enjoying the tree, zooming under it, messing up the sparkly tree skirt, and knocking off the random icicle, but not having as much fun as catnipped-up tissue paper! As evidenced below. This is how they spent Christmas Eve as I wrapped gifts.

Can't wait for Christmas Day!

Weekend Wildlife

It's been a LONG time. Just too much time on the computer at work, so much so I can't bear to be on it at home. But the weekend was good and I wanted to share the wildlife that I have been feeding! I will let you guess who the uninvited diner is...

This is the Lman in a "meat stupor". Trader Joe's American-style Kobe Beef Burger stupor...