Lights, lights, lights!

100_9958, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Here we are eleven days till Christmas and my frustration with lights just keeps growing. The new tree that Sweetpea and I bought came pre-lit with lights, but since we all like the lights so much, we put on two other strands. Now like anyone else, I checked them before we put them on the tree, and they worked! To bad later that night when we plugged the lights in those two strands would not work. Fast forward this week to Tuesday while I was working on the village set ups and once again lights worked before being put up but didn't work after set up was done. I've had it with lights! Tonight though was the very best of all...Sweetpea wanted to plug in the lights for the tree and sure enough those two strands that would not turn on flipping turned on and sparkled like never before! Yep...I've had it with lights!!

A kitty cat letter to Santa

Yuck! Cat Food?, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Dear Santa,
My name is Eclipse a.k.a. Miss Fuzzy Pants, and I have heard talk that you are the man to go to with requests for things during this holiday season. Now I know that I have never written to you in the past 4 years, but I was giving my Mom every opportunity to do right by me. However since she is failing horribly I feel the need to take this to a new level. First I would like to make sure that Mom is on your naughty list that I have heard so much talk about. Because Santa, she is just about as bad as they get! She expects me to eat cat food! I know you are probably shocked by that, but it is very true. That isn't all though Santa, and you should probably be sitting down to read the rest of this. She will not let me climb the Christmas tree, she will not let me roll around in the Christmas village, she will not let me chew on the garland that is hung, she will not let me eat candy, she will not let play on the stove top, she will not let me eat people food of any kind! Santa, I feel these are all things that you should know about, and you should make sure that she doesn't receive any gifts because of her very naughty behavior this year.
I know this may sound like I'm being a tattle tale, but I think it is for her own good. I'm not looking for anything for myself here, but if you would like to leave me some treats I would not turn them down. I personally love cookies, candies, breads of any kind (even though they say I have a grain allergy). I say the reason I get sick is just so I can leave gifts for my humans, Mom just seems to have this horrible reaction to it. I think maybe she doesn't really understand the whole thing about it isn't the gift it is the thought that counts.
Anyway Santa, I just wanted to let you know these things because I'm sure that they will affect your decision on just what to bring to her.

Sincerely yours,
Eclipse the sweet kitty cat

P.S. I feel I just need to mention that I've heard talk about leaving milk and cookies out for you and if that happens I'm going to have to take my fair share of it first. Don't worry though I will leave you a gift in return.
Oh and one more thing Santa...could you please take that stupid spray water bottle of Mom's away during your visit here to the house this year? Angel and I think that it is the kitty abuse and we have been unable to get rid of the thing. So if you could take it back to the North Pole with you that would be great! Thanks in advance Santa!

Now for everyone else reading my public letter to Santa, it is 12 days till Christmas, it is Friday, and that means time to head over to visit my friend Pickle. (I wonder if his human lets him eat all the things that he wants?) Feline and Furball Friday time, so head over and check out all of my fellow animals. If you want to play along all you have to do is get your human to take a picture of you, help them post it, and then make them leave a link in comments. Now if you will excuse me I have to get back to my quest to get human food, and trying to make that stupid spray bottle either disappear or break!

Pickles Place

Christmas music

Well after lots of frustration with light strands, I'm happy to say that decorating for this year is done! I even finally got the Christmas music dug out and loaded some into the cd player. Which brings me to the topic choice for today. Thirteen days till Christmas and what is your favorite song?


I have two favorites...Silent Night and Little Drummer Boy. If you haven't guessed by the player that I added to the side bar, I love songs sung by Bing Crosby. My most favorite way to hear Silent Night though, is it being played with a flute, and just a flute. I started playing the flute when I was in third grade and played straight through high school. Sometime around fifth grade it became a Christmas eve tradition for me to play it for the family get together. The first year I was terrified beyond belief, and that pretty much stayed that way for the next couple of years. As each year passed and I got better at it the terror passed too. It was the same simple version every year and after the first couple of years I no longer even needed the sheet music to be able to play it. For whoever was hosting our yearly get together I would have a copy of the sheet music and make a decorated card with it in the center. I will admit that there were years as a teenager that I thought the whole thing was kind of goofy. However, a funny thing happened because of all those years...Every time I hear Silent Night playing I hear me and that flute. It doesn't matter who is singing it, or how good they are. I hear a flute playing it, and to me it is the most beautiful sound.

Little Drummer Boy...well that one was just my most loved song when I was little. I can remember my Mom having an record album (yes I typed record album!) that I would listen to that song over and over again. For the life of me I can not remember just who it was singing on the album, but I can remember that I just so loved his voice. There are several version by several artists that I love, but his voice singing it is the one that I want to hear.

Alright time to come out of the past and back to the present time. I hope that everyone has a good Thursday, and that all things holiday related are going smoothly. See you tomorrow for the Feline and Furball Friday post.

Construction Area

100_9896, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Here we are fourteen days left till Christmas, and my living room is still under construction, or maybe it should be declared a disaster area. It hit me while talking to a friend that it is the perfect topic for today's post. Usually I can't deal with this type of box mess. I mean I'm the woman who with each move we have made with the military in the last 19 years, has become obsessed about getting a whole house unpacked and set up in a few days as possible. Yet this collection of boxes have been sitting in the living room since Sunday. They keep having to be moved from place to place and one would think that would make me want to finish this project, but sadly that just isn't the case here. I'm starting to think that I'll be fine living with the mess and just call it my style for decorating this year. It is after all quicker and easier and hey all the stuff is out!

So my question of the day is what does your mess look like? Do you have plastic containers or are you a card board box kind of person? Does it take you days of having a small construction zone in your house, or have you been able to get it done the same day you started?

I hope that everyone is having a good Wednesday, and I'm really hoping that come tomorrow installment that I will finally have pictures of a completed decoration project.

Is it really 15 days till Christmas?

100_5892, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I really need to finish decorating this house so I at least have something to take pictures of. Until then I'm starting my Christmas countdown with pictures pulled from archives of Christmas 2007. Heck I may even end up writing an entry much like one posted a year ago about this picture. This little angel is one of the oldest angels in the house, and the only one that I'm willing to risk putting on the tree every year. The couple of angels that I have from Army Guys Grandma H, even though I could hang them I'm to afraid of them getting broken. This little angel was made by my mother when she was a child and I think she was the cause of my love for collecting angels. She probably needs a wing make over at this point in time because this little one has traveled miles and spent many a Christmas perched within the branches of several different tress. For most people it is the placing of the tree topper that signals the completion of the tree, but in my house it is when this tiny little angel finds her spot. For me she carries memories of all of my past Christmases, and every year when I take her from her "rest of the year" sitting place and find just the right spot for her on the tree there is a smile comes to my face because of those memories.

Alright the countdown has started and I challenge everyone who reads during the countdown to leave comments sharing about the topic for each of the days. So today would be what is the oldest ornament that comes out in your house during Christmas? If you want you could post an entry on your own blog and stop long enough to leave me a link so I can read it. I hope that everyone is having a good week and staying warm.

Cloudy Cold Monday Morning

100_9892, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I guess it is time for more of our "winter" type weather to start rolling in. I mean we have been pretty spoiled the last several weeks here in Arizona. Beautiful sunshine filled days with temperatures in the low to mid 70's. I'm not going to get into a debate with anyone about what cold is, because cold is based on where you live, and I live in the state of Arizona so cold to me is anything under 60. This morning with the wind blowing it is making the wind chill feel like 45 degrees and my only thought while out with the dogs was "I wish I had pulled my winter coat out of the closet to put on instead!"

I'm loving the colors of the day here though. Pretty blue sky, when it can peak through the cloud cover. Clouds of bright fluffy white and various levels of gray. Plus the specks of remaining green mixed with the mostly brown of grass of yards and field area's. We have rain, we have wind, and we have cold. I guess I should start giving some thought to turning the furnace on here soon. Although I have completely enjoyed turning the AC off in October and not having to run anything. Like I said we have been very spoiled this year.

I hope that the week is off to a good start for everyone. The quest to make it look more like Christmas time in my house continues today, and my annual 15 day count down till Christmas posting should get started tomorrow...if I can figure out what I'm doing with it this year.

Sibling Sunday...Trying to make it look like Christmas

100_5876, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I'm very slow moving when it comes to Christmas decorating. To be honest if it were not for Sweetpea and the never ending questions about when are you going to pull the stuff out, I'm not so sure that I would ever get around to getting it done. Don't get me wrong, I do love Christmas and the meaning behind the holiday. I don't care for the piles upon piles of insane decorations that seem to be the standard anymore. I really don't care for the rudeness that seems to come out of people during lead up to the holiday. The race for that hot item of the year that realistically a child's life will not end if they don't get it. Every year those things seem to be what I notice more and more, and every year it gets more difficult for me to find my holiday excitement.

This year even though I'm slowly getting there, I'm so happy to have my Sweetpea pushing me along through it. To listen to her talk about why it is her favorite holiday, and not hear that it is because of this gift or that gift, but because of special memories made me feel better and seemed to spark the urge to get this house looking like Christmas is near. Sweetpea and I had to start this decorating with making a trip out for a new tree. After a comment about needing duct tape and hammer from Sweetpea while putting the old tree up last year, it went out to the trash when it came done. Sweetpea was very excited about being the one that was going to be picking out the new tree, and had tons of fun making me wander the whole store picking up different odds and ends for decorating this year. Sweetpea's biggest excitement though is because she has been put in charge of the layout for decorating this year. Binky Sue, Little Bug and myself will be her crew, and is there anything better than getting to be the boss of everyone?

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend, and that with 17 days left till Christmas, we all find that much needed holiday spirit to get through everything that needs to be done.

Closing a chapter

Little Bug, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I've delayed on this post...well for several reasons and I'll leave it at that pretty much. As of last Wednesday and the long trip up to Tucson to see doctors, we are officially closing the chapter in Little Bugs life called "Living with Epilepsy". The first 250 mg of Depakote as dropped and all things are fine. Her second 250mg drop comes this Wednesday, and come December 24th on Christmas Eve, she will drop her final 250 mg dosage. Christmas morning will be the first time in 4 years 10 months that she is not going to have to hear me say the words "Did you take your medicine?" We will see the doctors one more time come June to see how she is doing with migraine issues, but after that we are done. Little Bug has the mutated migraines that may end up triggering seizure like activity, but that is just because migraines seem to enjoy messing with the women in my family by throwing in odd things. The other side effect of the last 4 plus years is having a Little Bug that seems to think that no matter what she is sick or needs to be sick to get the super amount of attention. However, since we are aware of just what is going on with that, and our full attention has turned to moving past that. There is a search for a good counselor going on via doctors in Tucson and a wonderful school nurse here to help us out. It has put me in a role of playing the mean Mommy that I don't think any of us really care to play, and I can say that doing the tough love thing is one that will make you want to stand up and accept the award for worst mother on the planet. I don't think that I am though...I think I'm doing what in the long run will be best for her. Now if I could just get her to stop throwing me such evil dirty looks. I do know that this chapter will come to close too, and hopefully before one of us has no hair left because of pulling it out from trying to deal with each other.

Fur family portrait

Fur family, originally uploaded by torri_g.

I know I haven't posted anything this week, and probably could come up with about a hundred reasons as to why, but the truth is...I'm being very lazy this week! However, since I had already captured a picture of all four of my four legged fur babies, there is no way I'm going to miss posting it for the Feline and Furball Friday meme.

Last Friday night I picked up the camera to take pictures of the only animal that was just laying around and looking cute. Something amazing happened though as I started shooting pictures, the other animals starting coming out and congregating near Trinity who was the one I was taking pictures of. First came out the camera ham known as Eclipse and she jumped right up near Trinity's head and started posing. Next was Miss Mia the attention monster who laid down on the floor right in front of Trinity. Last was stand offish Angel, who as we all know is not fond of having her picture taken, but for some reason climbed right into the area to sit. Now yes Angel is the more difficult one to locate in the picture, but she lined up right below her sister cat just like Mia did below her sister dog. I'm happy because let's face it I now have probably one of the only family portraits of this group that I will ever be allowed to have! They may not be looking the same direction, or sitting really close to each other, but they are all in the same picture!

It is time again to head over and visit Steve and Pickle for Feline and Furball Friday, and if you want to play along all you have to do is post your own and leave a link in comments. I hope that everyone has had a good week, and that there is a relaxing weekend ahead for all of us.

Sibling Sunday with the wild bunch

100_9829, originally uploaded by torri_g.

With the very long weekend drawing to a close here it is time for the sibling post of the week. What can I really say other than good grief their a wild bunch! Thanksgiving morning turned into a dog pile with the dogs included in the melee. I'm not so sure how much any of them want to head back to school come tomorrow, since it marks the start of the fast paced run to the end of the second quarter of school for them. Which means finals time is in the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas. There will be at least one Christmas choir concert to head to for Little Bug, and knowing Binky Sue at this point in time I'm sure there will be a million other little things to keep me busy driving. Sweetpea has what seems to be a fairly large art project that she has started work on over this holiday weekend, which the biggest part of it was hounding her Mom to print what seemed like a million different pictures. I'm sure by later this afternoon I will be hearing the whines about not wanting to go back to school tomorrow from all of them. Then I will get to start the non stop reminding them of they only have a couple of weeks till the Christmas break.
It has been a wonderful long weekend with the wild bunch though. They have all done their part to add tons of laughter to this house which I think is my favorite part of the holidays. I hope that everyone has one more restful day filled with laughter before the new week starts.