And It's Over...

And as fast as it got here, it got over with even faster.

Christmas aftermath:

Cricket standing tall and proud in her mess:

Libby had been into the catnip, but she thinks Christmas is greeeeeat:

And here's my Christmas Ficus:


Family:

My dad and his fish:

Mom and brother:

Son and daughter:

My niece, a Christmas kitten, and a pink tent in the living room:


Loot: Garbage Disposal, Super cool Microwave, ceramic heater for my feetsies, warm slippers, also for my feetsies, a really cool mirror that will need a very special place, humongous coffee mugs, getting to hug my brother after not seeing him in over a year and seeing one of my nephews and my sister-in-law, sitting next to my grandmother who asked me if I realized how old she was going to be in less than a month and I told her, "yes, 104". And she said, "When I was a hundred and three, I said whoopie, when I'm a hundred and four, I'm saying no more." And someone promptly responded with, "and when you are a hundred and five you can say, I'm still alive!" Coming home and seeing a new bunny friend hopping around my yard, time and lots of laughter with my kids, lots of hugs from lots of friends, good food... and some kind of icky sick that's going around my work that at least 5 of us are currently experiencing.

In other news...

I got my kitten to "fetch" 4 times in a row on xmas day while not sleeping and feeling ill. I use the term, fetch, loosely here, only because cats do what they WANT to do, and almost always NEVER what YOU want them to. I've never been one to train my cats to do anything aside from poo and pee in a litter box. And with cats, it's almost always a one time showing even at a very early age and they are cool with it. I've often thought of actually doing the whole "toilet" training thing, but as I'm sure you have heard me say before, I'm lazy and that just would take a lot of work. I spend more time trying to train my cats on things NOT to do. Like scratching on furniture (which they are actually really good at on everything except my mattress. But that's okay and for the most part I let them get away with it because my ex-boyfriend bought me that bed after he left me and I get some type of sick satisfaction as my kitties take out my projected anger on the bed) I spend a lot of time saying "Get out of there!" because they are all oh so good at getting into there... boxes, baskets, closets, top of closets, kitchen cabinets, tops of doors, IN the furniture, in the Ficus, drinking from the toilet... and other various odd places.

Each of my kitties has had a favorite toy when they were a kitten. Spazz loves strings, but he's one of these that likes to hide behind something and will only attack when the string is going back and forth almost in a whipping motion. My dad started him on that. He made this toy with a wooden stick and a thick string on the end and would get Spazz so wound up we would have to make my dad stop because Spazz would be laying on the floor panting. He liked the little mice covered in rabbit fur, too, but he was always chewing the tails off. Jynxy's favorite toy was a rabbit's foot. He carried and played with that thing until not much was left of it aside from bones and a bit of fur. I think he has some deep seated anger because he really likes to tear stuff up. And he sits and sharpens his claws like he can't wait to go find something to shred. Seriously, though... he DOES sit and sharpen his claws. I've never seen a cat sit and do that before. And he HAS some awesomely sharp claws. Anyway, he grew up and quit playing with the foot and I finally threw it away. Libby's favorite toy was a piece off of another toy. It is this gray fuzzy thing and it had a string that once attached it to something else and it had a little jingle bell that got stepped on so it didn't jingle any more and a small patch of fringed ribbon on the other end. She actually played with this toy until Cricket came along and made it her favorite toy and proceeded to rip off the string with the squished bell and all of the fringe where it was just an oval fuzzy gray thingy. Now it's an okay toy for when we can't find anything else to do. Cricket's new favorite toy is this little white mouse that has seen much better days.

I have several variations of mice made of different materials and colors, but this one is the best for some reason. One day I threw that mouse across the room while playing with Cricket and she kept coming back to me for me to throw it again but I would always have to get up and keep getting it myself. Remember... I'm lazy. So the game would not last very long. So one day she brought it back after catching it mid-flight. And so on Xmas, I think the idea has finally caught on that the game will last a lot longer if The Mommy doesn't have to get her fat rump off her computer chair. Right now our play room, as I'm sure you gathered from the pictures, is a disaster area and until I get some sleep, it's going to stay that way. But we will be practicing and I will let you know how it goes.

Two days off to look forward to. I'll be in bed covered in warm blankets and cats if you're looking for me.

4 days...