12-26-11

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In case you missed it over the weekend, on Saturday I announced that BUSTER HAS BEEN ADOPTED!!!!! and shared a couple of very short videos. On Sunday, Patty and Chuckles wished y’all a very Merry Christmas.

Posting will be light, content-wise, this week (more pictures than anything which, I know, y’all are like “How is that different, exactly?”), but first a couple of stories from Christmas Eve.

Fred’s parents are divorced (have been for many years, and both parents are remarried), so we spend Christmas Eve morning with his mother and stepfather, Fred’s sister and her husband, and her son. Usually they all come to our house, and we have breakfast and then sit around and talk for a couple of hours then they leave and we take naps because we are old and socializing is exhausting. For the past three or four years, we haven’t exchanged gifts with Fred’s parents or his sister, because it got to the point where we were giving them cash or gift cards and they were giving us the the same, and it was just silly.

So this year – as she did last year – Fred’s mother emailed to make sure we weren’t exchanging gifts. And this year – as last year – Fred confirmed that. Then Christmas Eve morning, after we’d eaten, she handed us a big container of cookies.

Then this year – AS LAST YEAR – when Fred handed her the bag we’d prepared for her, of cookies and a couple of jars of jam, she got all irate, saying “But you said we weren’t exchanging gifts!” Which is when Fred said “We put that bag together last night, and decided that if you didn’t give us anything, we wouldn’t give anything to you. But you DID, so we DID!”, and she had no good comeback to that. Heh.

Christmas Eve evening, we always spend at Fred’s father and stepmother’s house with Fred’s stepsister and her family (husband and two kids), and Fred’s sister, husband and her son. We gather, have dinner, then sit around and talk and exchange gifts. So we’d eaten dinner and were sitting in the living room talking while Fred’s stepmother cleaned up the kitchen (yes, we offered to help. No, she wouldn’t let us). The TV was on, and Fred walked in and glanced at the TV and said to me “Look, it’s George Bailey!” We watched the TV for a few minutes, and then everyone started talking again.

A while later, Fred’s father walked into the room and looked at the TV.

“What’s this?” he said. “A Miracle on 35th Street?”

Fred laughed and said “Well no, first of all the movie’s called A Miracle on 34th Street, not 35th, and second of all, it’s It’s A Wonderful Life. How did you not know that?”

Fred’s father and sister had never seen the movie before, and for that matter, I don’t think anyone in the room had ever seen it before, either. I myself have only seen it once, but it’s an American institution – EVERYONE knows It’s a Wonderful Life. Don’t they?

While they were in the middle of the discussion, Fred’s stepmother walked into the room, caught part of the conversation, looked at the TV and said “Is that the one where he dresses up like a rabbit?”

(Aside: I knew immediately it was Harvey she was talking about, but Fred kept saying “Roger Rabbit?” Please note: I have never seen Harvey, and I have far too much useless knowledge taking up so much space in my brain that I had to surf to Internet Movie Database to recall Toni Collette’s name when we were watching Fright Night yesterday.)

An American Christmas classic, and we were the only two who knew what it was! That’s just WRONG.

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Outtakes from the Christmas Day picture shoot.

“Ooh, this looks tasty!”

“Why is this on my head, please?”

Kitty Christmas gifts.

Tommy started out in the giant Croc slipper cat bed…

and then moved to the round bowl-like scratcher bed.

So I took the giant Croc slipper cat bed up to the kittens. Who thought it was the bomb.

In case it’s hard to tell, what they’re doing in this picture is fighting with each other through the holes. Silly boys.

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A big branch fell off one of the trees last week. When Fred and I were walking back to the house after feeding the chickens and ducks (and dogs, oh my!), I suggested that we drag the branch into the back yard for the cats to climb on. He was all for it. We wouldn’t want the cats to get bored, would we?

Elwood was the first one to check it out, a few hours later.

Speaking of Elwood, he let Fred’s nephew pet him and pick him up on Christmas Eve, and we stood around and talked about what a big cat Elwood is. Fred was insistent that Elwood must be at least 20 pounds. So later, before I took my Christmas Eve nap (what? It’s a thing!), I weighed Elwood. He weighs 15 pounds, 12 ounces. Which, granted, is not tiny. But it’s not 20 pounds!

Some cats carry their weight well. Elwood is not one of those cats.

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Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: I know the Wonka girls had to be sound asleep when that Cookie crawled into the bed, because I’m fairly certain there’s no way they would have put up with THAT if they were awake.
2008: No entry.
2007: Sleeping Punki Pie.
2006: No entry.
2005: Mister Boogers likes to live dangerously.

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