And A Good Time Was Had By All

How and why is tomorrow the twelfth day of Christmas? Why does it have to go so quickly? Yes, I ask myself this every year, but I never have a good answer, because the answer that time goes on is just unsatisfactory in this case. 

But we've had a good time this Christmastime.

As expected, Santa came and brought the kitties a lot of good stuff!

Milo in particular was *very* excited.

It was hard to convince him to wait for the others.

One of the packages had catnip toys with silverine in them, which apparently made them even more irresistable than if they had only had catnip. Milo got things started, but Alfie helped out, and so soon the package was nearly unwrapped.

Once everything was opened, it was time to chill for a while. 

Alfie was particularly interested in one of the packages I opened that had a LOT of ribbon on it!

Esme split her time between watching us open things and looking at the squirrel on the chair right outside the window into the garden (if you look over her right shoulder, you can see the squirrel's butt).

Christmas Day was lovely, and all of us had a good time. We just enjoyed being together, and had treats, listened to music, and then later in the day headed upstairs to watch a couple of holiday shows we had recorded.

We have been enjoying the season so much, just being able to be together, but also having nothing really demanding to fill our time. We had a very quiet New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and if you ignore certain activities of certain people who think they are going to rule the world, you could say it was all perfect.

Two more wonderful things: on both Tuesdays before Christmas and before New Year's, there was only one kitty left to be adopted where I volunteer. They were each especially sweet, and I was sincerely hoping that they wouldnt have to spend Christmas Day and New Year's Day alone. Well, they each got adopted - one on Christmas Eve by a woman who stopped by when I was there on Tuesday and was in love with the one kitty left - and one on New Year's Eve - adopted by another volunteer, who had a cat who had died over the summer, and didn't want her other cat to keep being lonely. I have to tell you, those two adoptions just made my holiday season! And it also seemed like a wonderful way to end the year. 

I sincerely hope that your holiday season contained even just a few moments of joy and happiness. The world is on fire, so it's more important than ever to find good things wherever and whenever we can.

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

Here we are at the last/twelfth day of Christmas, which is also the birthday of our sweet Dug (well, it's the day we officially adopted him, so we assigned it as his birthday). So before anything else, Happy Birthday, Duggie! We miss you and still love you more every day. Tonight we'll drink a toast to you.

Our Christmas Day was a nice, lovely, relaxing day. The kitties enjoyed having us home all day and hanging with them.

Pip

Esme

Milo 

Alfie

Lots of presents for everyone to be opened!

Our tree, after Santa left kitty stockings and gifts under it!

Just hanging out and exploring

Alfie was the first one brave enough to check out the Christmas tent. It took him about 10 minutes to figure out how to get in (yeah, I know) and then he took even longer figuring how to get back out. (We're not hoping for him to become a Rhodes Scholar, so it's all good.)

Everyone seemed very happy with their gifts, including those sent in the mail. We talked to some family and heard about their celebrations. We ate and drank a lot of good things, and listened to Christmas music and it was a nice, long, enjoyable day.

*****

Then, there is another thing I wanted to show you, related to the holidays. About two blocks from our house is a small park called Fitler Square. It's a lovely place with benches, trees, flowers, and though smaller than some of the other squares in the city, it's beloved by the neighborhood. 

Well, a local group, the Philadephia Drunken Knitwits, received permission this year to "dress" the sculptures in the square in festive attire! 

The Ram

The Bear

The Pup

I have the feeling a lot of people missed this little guy - he's behind a fence. But if you look at the bear sculpture above this image, there's a small white spot behind the fence - that's this pup!

The Turtles

Isn't this great? It really made people smile, and as you can probably imagine, a lot of the kiddos who come to the square with their parents or daycare groups were excited to see the animals dressed up for the holidays! It got a lot of local and national media coverage, which was nice, especially since Fitler Square is not that well-known, even by people in the Philadelphia area. 

The group "undressed" everything yesterday, but I'm wondering if they will do it again next year, since it was so well-received. 

I can say for myself that every single time I walked through the square, seeing this made me happy.

*****

So far, 2025 has been good - all six days of it! But you have to take it when it's there, right? And since January 6 has become such a sad date in our history, it's nice to think there are still good things to celebrate about it. So I hope your day treats you well, and let's all keep our fingers crossed for the coming year. 

Because ... well, you know.

The Second Day of Christmas 2021

Hello - I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day if you celebrate, and a wonderful long weekend in any case.  Ours was really enjoyable, and I'll have some pictures for you this week, I promise.  

This morning I had an appointment at 7:30 a.m. for my annual mammogram.  Now, every year I tell The Tim that I should get 50% off the cost, but he always points out that since insurance is paying for it, I should just not worry.  Which is a good point, but ANYWAY, on my walk over I stopped and took this photo:

This is the 1700-1900 block of a street in our neighborhood (the photo is taken from the end of the 1900 block).  Spoiler alert - these lights are up all year.  But nonetheless, they make me even happier when I see them during Christmastime.  It really is lovely to walk down these blocks, and be within the lights, and see the houses decorated.  For the rest of the year, they provide happiness whenever you walk past these blocks, but it just seems extra special right now.  And when it has just snowed, it really looks magical!

Earlier this year at some point, I had just received a refund check for something from my health insurance when Joanna of Stitching the High Notes started offering her Holiday Boxes.  She provided an overall idea of what would be included, and mentioned that it would be twelve days' worth of goodies. 

Now, as you know if you have read this blog for a while, that we celebrate Christmastime starting December 1 and ending on January 6.  I have always wished that the indie dyers who make Advent calendars would mix it up and also offer something for the 12 Days of Christmas, because it would be fun to still have some surprises to open.  

OK, so when I saw Joanna's description of her boxes, there I was with a refund check that would cover it.  When I asked The Tim if he thought I should use the money for that, he said something to the effect of "Do what you like with it - it's money you didn't think you had anyway."  So I ordered one, and it arrived in late November.  

Yesterday, I realized that it was the first of the 12 Days of Christmas, so I could open the first package!  It was a really lovely winter-themed project bag with a contrasting base in sparkly fabric, which is both a nice size, and really well-made.  Today, there was a very nice thermal mug.  Here they are:

Nice, right?  I'm so thrilled to have some surprises left!  The rest of the packages look smaller than either of these, so I'm intrigued as to what my be inside of them.  

Today is colder than it has been lately (which I welcome) but kind of dreary, so it's a good day to cozy up inside and read, knit, or whatever I decide to do.  The Tim had to work today, so it's just me and the critters, and it's not like they are complaining that nothing is going on.

I hope you can also enjoy your Second Day of Christmas, no matter what you may or may not be doing.  Take care.