The Twelve Days of Christmas

The first day of the Christmas Season was a pleasant and quiet day.  Had a phone call from a BFF in Texas.  Opened the Christmas gifts she'd sent while we talked.  My son called, his family's gathering at his daughter's for her first Christmas in her new home this year.  Another BFF from across the country called and we used up a good chunk of time wandering down memory lane.

A friend of mine from church was also going to be alone yesterday so I picked him up and brought him to the house for Christmas lunch and a visit.  It made for a very nice day.  Company for both of us and a purpose for me.  And, I got to prepare a real meal.  I don't do that much anymore.

Weather permitting, my sister is due to come visit this week.  She can go with me to drive me home after my cataract surgery.  Yippee!  We're looking forward to a couple of days to visit and catch up.  She's a southern California beach girl so winter mountains are a real challenge.

It rained like crazy last night but is dry this morning and should stay dry through the day.  The sun is even trying to break through, so the trip down to the valley to pick up my sister shouldn't be bad.  We have to go back down Tuesday morning (for the procedure) and then back down when she goes home Thursday.  The forecast is for rain off and on all week.  Prayers, please, to keep the rain and fog in check through the week, at least as we travel up and down the mountain.  A little sunshine would be a gift.

Enjoy these 12 days of  Christmas as we celebrate the birth of baby Jesus to the visit from the Magi.  They'll take us out of 2010 and into 2011.  A new church year is already under way and when the 12 days are finished, we'll be into a new calendar year.  'Out with the old and in with the new'.  Have a prosperous new year, either/or, or both.

Merry Christmas to All!!

This is it!  Last day to "get ready for Christmas".  Hopefully packages are mailed, cards are sent (looks like I'll be sending Happy New Year Cards since I only got half my cards out,) baking is done, decorations are up and outdoor lights are strung.  My tree is up and thankfully it's pre-lit because that's as far as the tree decorating has gotten.  Everything else actually got accomplished.

The creche has been out since Dec 6th with Mary & Joseph plugged in to light every night.  Today I'll plug in the baby and tonight baby Jesus will shine as well.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!   And a very Merry Christmas to All!!!

A Backward Sneeze?

Today was nothing if not interesting.  Katie's cough has diminished considerably but she still has the ragged breathing and she does this choking thing.  Of course, we save the choking thing for in the wee small hours of the night as a rule.  So back to the vet we go.  Yep, she still has bronchitis.  We knew that, it's going to take a bit to get rid of ... but we also have a relatively rare condition known as backward or reverse sneezing.  Never heard of bronchitis in dogs and never heard of this before, either.  Does this come under the heading of  old dog, new tricks?  The good news is that it's nothing serious, most likely an allergy.  The bad news is, I suppose now I have to clean house.

The vet took me to her computer and brought up YouTube to show me other dogs with this whatever it is.  To see this in action, go to YouTube.com and search 'dog - backward sneeze'.  The clip that is most identical to Katie is titled "dog reverse sneeze,' and right down to the facial moves that makes it look like she's breathing out of the corner of her mouth, this is basically what I see and hear when she wakes me.  Now Kate can get more intense doing this, but then it is 2:am, maybe it just seems more intense at that hour.  You tell me, would this scare the you know what out of you in the middle of the night?

Katie the wonder dog; sometimes I really have to wonder!

A Day WITH Sunshine

Finally, a break in the storms.  We're expecting a dry day today before the next onslaught.  It's about 40 degrees so we can get outside for non-canned air.  Whoopee!

Now I can get to the post office and get the rest of the pkgs to the post office.  I think I'll take miss Katie with me to give her some fresh air.  Her breathing is still ragged though the cough is diminishing and all she wants to do, still, is sleep.  As a matter of fact, that doesn't sound like a bad idea to me either.

Katie & P.I.T.A.s stockings are hung with care and we're just about ready for Santa Claws to make his appearance.  My baking is done and while I'm out today, I'll make some deliveries.  I'm having a guest for Christmas dinner and my sister is coming up the day after for a few days.  I'm looking forward to our visit.  However, I'll need to hit the grocery store and somewhere in there, I have got to do a little cleaning and picking up.  And ... I still have Christmas publications to finish for church services Christmas Eve.

But for today, I'll just concentrate on a dry and sunshiny day!  Hurray!!!

Nothing's Simple

This has been quite a month.  FatCat, my beautiful calico gave up the fight a little over a week ago.  We buried her out front with two of her 'roomies'.

Saturday night Katie started coughing and hacking.  By yesterday she'd added gagging.  She's had all her shots, including her Bordatella.  Last night she'd wake me with her coughing and I'd wake me when she wasn't coughing (I had to get up to make sure she was breathing).  We'd passed on Christmas Caroling at the nursing home last night, thankfully!

Did you know dogs can get bronchitis?  Me either!  She's now resting peacefully and I'm looking forward to doing the same tonight.  After a check up, a pair of x-rays to rule out kennel cough, breathing passage blockage, and/or who knows what else, it was determined that she has bronchitis.  She's now on an antibiotic regimen and cough suppressants.  Looks like her stocking will be slim pickin's this year.  But she'll be fine and that will make my Christmas merry & bright!!!!

Amazing Day!!!

Yesterday was the anniversary of my 28th birthday, I could tell you which one but then I'd have to kill you.  It was an amazing day!!!  2010 has not been one of my best years, to say the least.  But yesterday made up for it in spades.

Thursday evening, after our church vestry meeting, some gals took me to Crab Cakes for dinner and the birthday celebration began.  Last night friends had a dinner party for me and we had a wonderful evening!!!  As is tradition, it rained like crazy all evening.  Ever since I moved up here, we're guaranteed snow or heavy rain for my birthday.

My facebook page was filled with posts from family and friends which made my heart burst.  I'd been feeling kind of worthless the last couple of months but my grandkids and nieces and grandnieces/nephews  reminded me that they love me even from varied distances.  My brother and my kids called.  There were f/b posts, cards, you remember - the kind that come in the mail through the postal service, emails, and phone calls.  I realize I have more friends - real, caring friends, than I'd imagined.  The warm and fuzzies are still with me this morning.

It almost makes turning another year older something to look forward to ... but not too soon.  I'm happy to bask in this warmth, at this age, for now.

How'd It Get to Be Christmas Already?

The lights are strung on the front of the house and porch and on the upper fence railing.  The Nativity Set is out and lit.  The inside decorations are here and there throughout the house and the Christmas tree is up.  The lights are on the tree (only because it's a pre-lit tree) and the angel is on the top, but the ornaments are still in their box and have been for almost two weeks now.  If I drag it out much longer (like a week,) I won't have to do it at all.  This year, the lights will be all the decoration it needs and/or gets.

The shopping is done and the packages are on the living room floor.  That would be a good thing except that they need to be wrapped and then packaged for shipping.  Some only go down the road 50 miles or less and some go to SoCal and some need to go to Texas (from central Calif.).  I really need to get this task together.  Should have been done a week ago, at least the out of state pkgs.

My daughter had a great thought today.  Let's celebrate the true Christmas on Christmas and the gift-giving, and partying, and fun at New Year's.  Her logic is we could concentrate on what Christmas is really about and then the following week we'd be less busy plus we could take advantage of the post Christmas sales.  Yeah, I know, the retailers would catch on and the post Christmas sales would be a week later too, not helping us at all.  But it was a good thought.

I love Christmas, I have always loved Christmas.  I have such good memories of Christmas' past.  We didn't have much when we were kids, but Santa never let us down.  We did have some tough Christmas' when my kids were young.  I remember one year, in particular, we had the actual, for real, Charley Brown Christmas Tree.  The first ornament we put on it, it just bent all the way over and the tip hit the table top; yet it was probably one of our best Christmas'.  We'd make Candy Cane and other Christmas cookies and a pot of Wassail.  My daughter carries on some of the old traditions, no Charley Brown trees, thank goodness!

When Larry and I were married, we would spend Christmas Eve at his folks'.  All the family came together and Santa showed up for the little ones.  It was homemade tamales, arroz, frijoles, y tortillas at midnight.  We'd spend earlier Christmas Eve or Christmas Day with my family at my brother's home.  He did a mean prime rib.  Win / win!!

Maybe one reason I keep putting off decorating the tree this year is that I'm feeling just a little nostalgic.  Before he got sick, after grandpa had strung the lights, it was my granddaughters' job to hang the ornaments and then we all had hot cocoa and sat around admiring their work.

Our last Christmas was about 3 1/2 weeks early.  Grandpa was terminally ill, all the kids came for his birthday and while they were here, we got out the decorations and the dads strung the lights on the outside and the moms and grandkids put the garland on the stairwell and helped decorate the inside and we put up the tree and all the boys strung its lights and everyone got in on the act decorating it.  It was the first week in December but it was our very best Christmas.

Well, so much for nostalgia, I guess I'd better put this away and go finish the Christmas presents so I can get them to the post office tomorrow.

And Susan, Happy Birthday!!!  Your birthday gift is with your & Tim's Christmas gift ... I'm trying to get them to you before the New Year.

From Katie, P.I.T.A., and me,
Merry Christmas, Everyone!!!

You Can Stay, But It's Only Temporary

Back in the Spring of 1993 or '94, our neighborhood was inundated with stray kittens.  Every cat in the free world had given birth and dropped off all their litters in a 6 house radius, I'm sure.

One kitten was a little female calico.  She was a sweetheart but we already had 3 other cats and weren't looking to increase the family.  We (including the neighbors) had relocated most of the kittens and she was on the short list when we discovered that this baby was expecting babies.  We discussed it and decided to let her stay with us until the babies were born and weaned.  This way she could get good nutrition and care while she carried and nursed.  No way was she going to a 'shelter'.  That was about 17 years ago.

She was very confused about what was going on inside her and terrified the night she gave birth. We brought 5 new little kittens into the world and I showed her how to clean them and nurse them and gave her comfort while she pushed out another after another.  It was quite the night.  She was a good mama and I tried desperately not to get attached, but I'd just midwifed her and now was teaching her to be a mommy ... she was still just a kitten herself.

As soon as the kittens were weaned, we set her up to be spayed.  Just prior to her appointment, she went into heat again and tried every womanly wile she could conjure up to entice our older male.  He was willing until he remembered he didn't have the proper equipment anymore.  He gave her a slap and skulked away, embarrassed, I'm sure.  My husband and I laughed 'til the tears flowed.

She grew to be a large cat.  We'd (since we planned to not keep her) taken to calling her simply Miss Calico. Her new and official name became FatCat.  I had to buy a dog carrier with a luggage dolly to take her to the vet and the groomer's.  She was so round, she couldn't properly clean herself and that meant a monthly trip to the groomer for bathing and shaving.  Talk about indignities.

When she was maybe 3 years old, she was mauled by 3 very large dogs.  They'd gotten  between our garage door and our front porch.  She ran into the neighbor's yard, but because of her size, she couldn't get under or over their fence.  On the plus side, because of her size, they couldn't gain purchase either.  About that time my husband came home and ran them off.  He called me and I came and took her to the vet.  She needed drains,  sutures, and various meds.  She'd lost a couple of claws and even a tooth.  By the time we had her healthy again, she was worth her weight in precious gems.  But she was forever terrified of anything and everything.  People who came to the house regularly never saw her.  They thought she was a figment of our imagination.

She was a good kitty; loving, easy, she squeaked, she didn't meow.  She got on well with the other cats.  She wasn't a lap cat; her preference was to lie next to you with her forepaws and head in your lap and the rest of her on the couch.  She was obviously appreciative because she brought me gifts --- half a lizard, half a mouse, either half at different times.  Eeewe!  She wasn't a lap cat.  She lay with just her front paws & head on your lap.  She used your legs for kneading tortillas.

When Katie moved in and adopted us, she accepted her easily which was surprising because of her fear of other dogs.  She seemed to sense that Kate was family, and no bigger than any of the other cats, so it was okay.

We relocated to the mountains in 2005 (4 cats, a dog, a bird, and me) and she went outside once and decided she wasn't missing a thing and being a housecat would be perfectly fine.  Just this past Spring she started going outside when Katie was out.  Then she found herself a place on the front porch and a chair on the back deck.  Life was good.

A few months ago, I took my little siamese mix to the vet and we discovered she has kidney failure and he expected she'd be gone by Christmas or year end.  She's not only holding her own, she appears to have put on some weight.  She does, however, have kitty alzheimers and that's a challenge.  Meanwhile, FatCat took on the symptoms of kidney failure and was dropping to a mere shadow of herself.

Her temporary stay came to an end this past weekend.  She was just a handful of fur and bones and Friday started to quit eating and even lost interest in drinking water.  Saturday morning she gave it up and took her last breath.  Her little body is out in the yard by the pond with George & Cocoa and St. Francis is watching over them all.  I catch myself heading for the front door to let her out first thing in the mornings and being careful where I put my feet at night so I don't knock her off the bed.  And it seems strange not to have to watch my every step so I don't trip over her.  She was a good old kitty but she'd used up all nine of her lives and it was time.

My little family is diminished yet again.  And each one is terribly missed in his/her own way.  But they're together and they'll all keep dad company now.  17 years, not bad for a 'temporary' stay!

A Very Special Day

Back in the day, and I'm talking w-a-y back, when I attended the Roman Catholic Church, I made my First Communion at age 7 and my Confirmation at age 13.  It was a major occasion!  We had studied for months memorizing responses that would be forgotten by the next day.  There was a large class of confirmees with all their immediate and extended families in attendance.  It was filled with pomp & circumstance as any grand occasion/sacrament.  We all lined up and went forward toward the altar to be confirmed by the Monsignor as "Soldiers of Christ," we vowed never to smoke or drink or indulge in inappropriate behavior before marriage (the word 'sex' hadn't been invented yet.)  You can imagine how long that lasted - the smoking & drinking part that is; in the 50's 'petting' was a mortal sin.  We were all presented with a certificate and a scapula to show we had accomplished this great step in our growth in our faith.

Since then, I have left the Romans and have joined the Anglican church.  My husband, who was also a former Roman Catholic was confirmed in the Episcopal/Anglican church a few years before his death.  Yesterday, I attended another Anglican Confirmation Service.

The son of friends of mine was confirmed with a handful of others as part of a special Sunday service.  The procedure was a little different, a little less pomp & circumstance with the attention being placed on the confirmees rather than the ritual.  They are no longer referred to as "soldiers" of God, rather they are children and representatives.  They've committed themselves to serving God in their daily life.  It's not unlike the Jewish tradition of Bar Mitzvah ... yesterday, he achieved manhood.

It was a beautiful service.  I'm so glad the weather held and I was able to drive down to the city to attend.  We had a nice reception for all the confirmees and those attending the service and then a small group of us went to lunch together.  This is always special because I get to visit with people I haven't seen in, usually, a long while.  I did leave early as I wanted to beat the incoming storm coming home; made it by minutes.

Thank you Wes, and your family, for inviting me to share in this special event.  I'm proud of you and I was very pleased to have been a part of your special day!

Hwy 41, aka: Memory Lane

Yesterday I drove one of our church members down to the city for a doctor appt.  He always has interesting stories to tell and we talked about Thanksgiving and Christmas, but somehow we got onto vacations when we were kids.

His family was big on camping and when his dad had to haul whatever he hauled from southern to central California, he took the kids and made a vacation of the trip.  My parents didn't do vacations.  My dad was a merchant seaman and my mom didn't drive until later.  A vacation for me was a weekend trip with the girl scouts or a visit to my aunt & uncle's.

My husband's family vacationed all their lives and when I joined the family, we (my kids & I) were introduced to this concept.  Vacationing meant camping and I fell in love with it.  Maybe that's why I love living where I do.  My daughter says my home reminds her of camping except you can go in the house, take a shower, and sleep in a bed.  Many times we camped with my in-laws.  We camped locally and we camped out of state.  Our favorite spot were the lakes above Beaver, UT. We camped at Anderson Meadows at about 8,000 ft.  Fishing was excellent, we ate a lot of trout.  The kids hiked and we took horseshoes and a tetherball set and board games for them; the girls would lie in the sun at the campsite and then go around the lake and play in the snow.  Swimming was out of the question.  The people in the town were so friendly and always helpful.  And, it was one of the most beautiful spots I've ever seen.  When we took the kids, we'd break camp a day early and go into town to spend the last day and night at a KOA campground so they could all swim and the girls, especially, could enjoy the "modern conveniences".  Each trip was a story in itself and I'll break them out on occasion.

Yesterday, Hwy 41 became Memory Lane.  Thanks, Earl!