Visiting Kitty Friend

Here is a pic of one of the visiting kitty friends... isn’t she (??) adorable? but looks tentative as well.

Christmas... time for friends to stop by?

Merry Christmas (belated) everyone. Yesterday was a pretty quiet Christmas for us which has become our new tradition. We did however, add in a new thing. My family all got set up with skype this year and installed web cams. So we had video calls for our Christmas calls this year. We chatted with my brother in Iceland, my sister in Vancouver, BC and my parents along with my aunt & uncle and grandmother in Edmonton, AB. It was nice to see everyone on Christmas even if it was remotely.

It looks as though Piccolo and Cosmo had some friends come over to visit on Christmas too. We noticed a young little black & white cat around our backyard a couple of weeks ago and have seen it off and on. Yesterday, we also had a young little orange tabby around visiting. The two don’t have collars and we aren’t sure if they have a home or are strays living in the sewers or swampish land across the street from our house.

We had heard that there were a few strays around living in the sewers as it seems people sometimes will dump cats off in the swampish land across the street. They looked very friendly and neither Piccolo or Cosmo were in a fuss about them being around which they tend to do for most cats that come around. They had one come around in Wake Forest that didn’t seem very nice or friendly and neither of them were keen on it coming around. These ones seem to be okay with them.

I have seen the black & white one hiding under my car a number of days (I check before driving off now because it seems pretty regular) or hiding under our magnolia tree out front so we really are wondering if they are strays.

Since it was Christmas and they looked awfully hungry and we have seen them around a fair bit lately, we decided to put out some food and water for them. They both came around again and ate as though they were indeed very hungry. We continued to put out a bit of food and water for them today and they are back around again.

We aren’t looking to have anymore cats ourselves but we thought we would begin looking after these two as outdoor cats if they will let us and we will keep an eye on how they are doing. Piccolo seems quite taken with them when they come around and she can communicate and see them through the backdoor windows.

They look so friendly and vulnerable and are soooo adorable. If it becomes a very regular thing, we will look at taking them to a vet and to a shelter. They look to be too nice of cats to just leave to the ravishes of nature.

Took a couple photos today of the tabby and will post it in a bit. She (assuming she) is sooo cute! but we must not have anymore cats! 2 is enough for us... but watching out for the strays outdoors could be our charity for the year... Mike picked up a small animal shelter today and put the food and water in it in case they do need shelter from the weather. Winter isn’t cold here but it does rain a fair bit and they could use a place to stay dry.

Mike & his mom

Mike’s mom hates having her picture taken about as much as I do. However, I couldn’t let her visit go by without capturing a photo of Mike & his mom together. Here is my favorite of them together.

The joys of shipping

The joys of shipping... our box of presents arrived today from my parents... complete with the big cleared by customs sticker and looking as though it had been opened and resealed. The customs paperwork still stuck to the side looking as though they never bothered to open it, just opened the box instead. I usually skip the customs paperwork this time of year because it goes into detail as to the contents giving everything away. So, I open it to make sure that things aren’t in too bad of shape and unintentionally, know what my gifts is. The top two gifts have lovely ripped open wrapping paper... not nicely opened, just look as though someone poked it with their fingers and ripped a nice hole in the middle of the gifts’ wrapping to see inside. My gift’s paper ripped wide open with flaps of paper there not hiding anything.

This day and age, you would think with all of the equipment that they have, if they needed to open a box to look at a certain item more clearly, they could do so without ripping it wide open like an impatient child on Christmas morning. I am sure they xray the boxes, etc and have a pretty good idea what items are without ever opening the boxes. I can see that gifts on top of gifts could cause problems so opening the box and removing individual items for further inspection. And if they had scanned the individual gifts separately, would have known what items were yet again without ripping into it. Or at the very least, maybe try to remember that these are people’s gifts and treat things with some respect.

I understand the importance of customs and that this is a very busy shipping time for them, but does that mean that they should totally forget about trying to preserve the integrity of parcels being shipped? Maybe Santa never wrapped their gifts... maybe they think wrapping paper is a waste of time...

Regardless, I received a very nice gift from my parents and will fully open it and admire it and put it to good use on Christmas. Until then, the rest of the box looks to not have been disturbed so will leave everything in it and forget about it until Christmas Day.

Christmas time...

It is hard to think of it almost being Christmas. Growing up, Christmas meant winter with lots of snow on the ground, freezing temperatures so you wanted to stay indoors and drink hot chocolate, Mom’s / Gran’s / Aunt Anne’s baking - lots of goodies! and family around. Christmas day, the last few years before we moved to the US, was a very busy day (couple of days) for us. We would spend Christmas eve with Mike’s aunts and uncle and mom for meat pie dinner. Christmas morning was sometimes spent with my family for present opening and then off to Mike’s family for Christmas lunch. Christmas dinner was back at my family’s and then to top off the festivities, Boxing Day was often my extended family’s get-together. Lots of family and lots of food!

Now... Christmas doesn’t seem very much different from any other day to us. The temperatures are more of a nice late summer, early fall day. No snow to be seen... still in sandals and shorts. We don’t bake being just the two of us and watching our sugar intake. A day of just the two of us. We buy each other “Christmas” presents still but they don’t usually happen on the actual day. They are more of a case of we would like to or would buy it anyways but a label we attach to splurging a little on things we would like but have been putting off because we don’t really need them.

This year, Mike got himself an ipod touch on Black Friday as he has been wanting one and we picked up a Roomba for me. He is enjoying his ipod touch and I am loving my Roomba. For those that don’t know what a Roomba is, it is a robotic vacuum. You tell it to clean and it does the rest. It finds its way around and goes back and forth making sure it gets everywhere... under furniture, along walls, everywhere. With the solid floors and cats, it has been wonderful! I can start it and let it do its thing while I do other things and just need to empty its collection section before turning it loose each day to clean. Instead of having to vacuum manually everyday, it does it for me and I just need to wet mop every few days or weekly.

We have begun a bit of our own traditions. Mike’s work has given him a gift certificate for Honeybaked Hams the last couple of years so we go and pick up a turkey breast and ham. We pick up buns, etc at the grocery store to go along with it and that is our feast for the Christmas days. It lasts us from Christmas thru New Year’s. We did the same this year for Thanksgiving as we were on our own instead of joining friends. When we were in NC, our friends had limited family around and didn’t have a baby so we would invite them for Canadian Thanksgiving and they would invite us for US Thanksgiving. This year, we were in Texas for the weekend before Canadian Thanksgiving and then moving on Thanksgiving and they are back near lots of family and have a baby of their own to make family traditions with for US Thanksgiving.

The first year, we were in the US, we went out and cut down a Christmas tree at a tree farm and that was a great experience. However, Piccolo loved that tree a little too much for our liking and we were afraid of her hurting herself so last year, we skipped the Christmas tree. This year, Mike’s mom & aunt came for a visit so we decided to go out and buy a small, fake Christmas tree. We figured that Piccolo is older now and a small tree probably wouldn’t be the same attraction or disaster around her. We decorated it with our decorations from our first year’s tree - ribbons and silk flowers (cat safe tradition for ornaments). Cosmo and Piccolo were curious and did play with it a little but we sprayed it with vinegar and water and that seems to have stopped them from attacking it. They have knocked off the odd decoration and batted it around the floor but after a couple of days, they have pretty much ignored it. We sat it on a wooden decorative storage box behind the couch so it is up and out of the way for the most part.

So we are attempting to remember it is Christmas time but it is still hard not to forget that it is any other time of year. We were reminded that lots of people know it’s Christmas time when we took Mike’s mom & aunt shopping this past weekend when they were here... OMGosh, I still hate crowds! and the usual bad drivers around here are positively HORRIBLE this time of year.

We had a nice visit with his mom & aunt. We took them to the Apple store (Canada has very few still), to the World Farmer’s Market we have which is a fantastic and different experience, to the outlet mall (again, a new experience for most Canadians) and saw a few of the malls in the area. We went to the Mall of Georgia... no idea why it is a big deal here other than what we think of malls is like outlet malls to Canadians... common in the US but specialty in Canada. Malls in the US are often what we would call strip malls not all indoor and connected. After being used to shopping at West Edmonton Mall, malls are malls and nothing special. It’s what we grew up with so are jaded when we go and check out “the mall” of the area. It’s a mall... it was very nice and clean but nothing special to write home about in our eyes.

The World Farmer’s Market on the other hand is an experience and we love it! It’s hard to describe as you have to experience it to really see how it is unlike what you would call a grocery store or call a farmer’s market. The variety is bountiful and like a grocery store in how you buy but like a grocery warehouse also in its layout and also like a farmer’s market for its variety and types of foods stocked. We can buy our organic meats there as well as fruits and vegetables and cheeses from all over the world - from local to exotic.

What am I looking forward to the most for Christmas? Seeing family via webcam!! My brother in Iceland has one, my parents in Canada have one finally and a lot of family is visiting them on Christmas Day. This is the time of year that I miss being around family the most... which is why I probably try to ignore it to a large degree... it is a reminder of how far away I am and how much I miss the people. Love living here and 360 some days of the year I am fine being away from family but miss family on these special days of the year.

So... Christmas is coming... but these days, my favorite song probably explains my feelings about it best...

"The Secret Of Christmas" by SheDAISY

Look at the happy people
Christmas is in the air
Well I know the secret of Christmas
A secret I'm willing to share (oh right yeah yeah)

It's not the glow you feel, when snow appears
It's not the Christmas card, you've sent for years
Not the joyful sound, when sleigh bells ring (ring ring ring)
Or the merry songs, children sing

Yeah the little gift you send, on Christmas day
Will not bring back the friend, you turned away
So may I suggest, the secret of Christmas (the secret of Christmas)
It's not the things you do, at Christmas time
But the Christmas things you all year through

La la, la la la, la la la. La la la la
So may I suggest, the secret of Christmas (the secret of Christmas)
It's not the things you do, at Christmas time
But the Christmas things you all year
Look at the happy people (it's not the things you do)
Christmas is in the air (it's not the glow you feel)
Well I know the secret of Christmas
A secret I'm willing to share

The secret of Christmas