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 Fun of Christmas Day

Christmas Day was a good one at our house. It was clear when we came downstairs that Santa had decided the kitties were good in the past year - look at this haul!

Christmas morning, I lit the candle I had purchased from a local rescue group - look at the name of the scent, Christmas Tails! 😊

 

Alfie and Pip were up first, and giving us the stink-eye to come and help them open their packages.

Pip inspected everything, and then went and sat next to his stocking!

Everything was a big hit, but the most exciting kitty gift was this cardboard Christmas barn, where the floors were scratching pads. (It was very poorly put together by me. Fortunately, cats don't care.)

Pip checked it out first.

Then Milo took a turn.

Then both of them were in there!

At various points in the day, there were different combinations of cats in the Christmas barn. A few skirmishes, when someone would decide they wanted it all to themselves, but nothing major. And there were plenty of other distractions to keep everyone occupied.

Esme: Well, crap he's in there, I can't go in. (If you look closely, you can see Milo's face in the upper window.)'

Disapproving girl.

Everyone had a wonderful day, and the nicest thing is that we all had the chance to be together the whole time. The Tim and I also did well, gift-wise, and we agreed it was a nice, long, relaxing day and an overall success. 

Today it's rainy here, so very conducive to just staying inside and enjoying Christmastime. I'll probably do a few smallish things that I want to accomplish, but otherwise, I'm just going to enjoy a quiet, cozy, rainy day. 

Interrupted occasionally by disagreements over who gets to be inside the Christmas barn when ... 😉

A Lovely Christmas Day

Hello to all of you! I hope everyone who celebrated Christmas Day had a good one. Ours was lovely, and since we had no reason to go outside into the bitter cold, we just hunkered down and stayed cozy in the house.

I wanted to show you this decoration of ours. About ten years ago, my niece Liz and her husband Greg sent this to us for a Christmas gift. In theory, it's supposed to have a light inside and light up when the tree is turned on, but we've never gotten around to that. But we really love it, and every year, it is lovingly placed under the tree for all of our celebrations.

The kitties had a wonderful day, with their gifts and the boxes, wrapping, and ribbons from everyone's gifts. They got treats as well, and by late afternoon they were all passed out asleep. I'll share some of those pictures later, but suffice it to say that Santa treated them well, and clearly had them on the list of those who had been good all year.

The Tim and I are both back at work this week, which on the plus side is good because it means we have income, but on the minus side, I just think everyone should be able to have the week between Christmas and New Year's to enjoy. Sadly, I do not run the world. I mean, could we at least have been given Monday? Nope, not in this universe. We obviously both survived, but both reported a long boring day. 

Tomorrow morning I have an appt for a bone scan, bright and early. I'm hoping it goes as usual, so I can have plenty of time after to get to work. Usually it's not something that takes long, either wait time or for the actual appt, but you never know when will be the exception. At least tomorrow is my last day of work for the week, so my time is all my own after that. I'm looking forward to it.

I actually did a Christmas Eve cast-on this year. Late in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, The Tim took a nap, so I decided to cast on a sock. I pulled out the Advent skein I bought from the Freckled Whimsy, and got started. I never have time to do a stripe-a-day during December leading to Christmas, because I'm busy with other stuff. But at least I have gotten these started while it's still Christmastime. 😊 Right now, I have the cuff and two stripes, but when I make a little bit more progress, I'll share a picture with all of you.

And that's the news from here. I hope you are enjoying a good week, regardless of any celebrations you may or may not observe. Take care, and I'll check in again soon.

Scenes and Gifts of Christmas Day

Well, I meant to post yesterday, but I had an awful headache in the morning, and by the time I felt better, it was late in the afternoon, so I decided to just wait until today.  

As previously mentioned, we had a wonderful Christmas Day.  I thought you might enjoy some of the scenes and gifts of the day.

First of all, Hamlet and His Big Weird Package.  This was from Santa, and required a lot of sniffing.  

But he was *very* happy with what was inside - a new bed!

Pip was annoyed that we took SO LONG to open presents - The Tim and I made our breakfast and ate it before we got started, and he let us know of his displeasure.

This was the view from the breakfast table.  Everyone was hinting!

The cats also got a bed from Santa, which has been a BIG hit!

Between resting in the new beds, and playing with some toys from Santa, Hamlet and the kitties had a lot of fun all day.  They were so busy!

Here is a gift Santa brought to me - The Gallery of Dug the Doodle Dog!

I love this so much!  The Tim and I both cried when I opened it.

And look at the one photo - The Doodle with his Koodle!  Look how *tiny* the Koodle is here, I forgot he was ever that small.

I got a tiny Baby Yoda in my stocking:

And I'm sure you can imagine that this gift from The Tim was a huge hit with me:

I asked him where he found these, and he laughed and said, "CVS."  Clearly not the one near us, though, since you're lucky to find things you actually *need* at that one!

He also got me this Gritty ornament, but I'm going to put him on my desk at work to make me smile instead.  Gritty is the mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team, and he is basically a very funny a**hole, and it amuses me to no end.

And finally, this little kitty ornament was in my stocking - I love his knitted hat and scarf!

I'll have to try and get photos of the mugs I got The Tim for Christnas - they cracked me up when I got them, and he LOVES them!  So stay tuned for those.

Today I have no specific plans but will likely write some thank-you notes for gifts we received, and then do some knitting.  Not a bad way to spend time, you know??

Scenes from Christmas Day 2020

Hello there - I hope you are still enjoying your Christmastime.  We are definitely still taking advantage of the season.

Hamlet and Pip were worn out on Christmas Eve night, with all of the preparations finished and it was just time to wait for Santa.

(The Koodle was still eating dinner at this point, but trust me, shortly after joined Hamlet on the couch!)

Our Christmas Day was really nice, and lots of fun.  Everyone seemed very pleased with their gifts, and we had a lot of laughs watching Hamlet and the kitties deal with all of the excitement, wrapping paper, and treats.

The Tim's various "projects" were all finally finished, and we were able to decorate the tree.

Hamlet felt certain he could smell something that seemed an awful lot like treats in his package!

I ended up with two stockings - one from Santa, and one from The Tim with Rudolph on it, and a teddy bear like Mr. Bean's stuffed inside.  

Cream Puff celebrated his 60th birthday with a big red bow, and enjoyed hanging out with us and checking out the tree.

I received Cream Puff for Christmas when I was 4 years old, and we lived at 162 Park Avenue, Teaneck, New Jersey.  He has been my best, most steadfast friend since then, and though both of us are a little bit worse for the wear, I'm glad we got to celebrate this mileston together.  (Fun fact: he was the only one of my toys who ever called my parents by their first names.  I don't know why, and he's never really explained it. 😊)

We ate, and drank, and opened gifts and stockings, listened to Christmas music,  took a few walks with Hamlet, and had a wonderful yummy dinner fixed by The Tim.  Later in the evening, we celebrated with some tea and Christmas cookies.  Not a bad way to end a special day.

I hope all of you had a lovely day as well, whether or not you were celebrating the holiday.  

Hamlet's Most Excellent Christmas Day!

I am guessing if you are reading this, you made it through Christmas Day, and are [hopefully] still enjoying Christmastime.  Our Christmas Day was especially nice, and it seemed like a nice long day, instead of just speeding past before we even realized what was happening. 

Everyone was very pleased with their gifts - most of the treats for Hamlet and the kitties have been consumed, other than those in large bags or containers.  And with the addition of toys, boxes, and ribbon, it was just what you could want.  The Tim really liked his gifts, and was thrilled with the socks that I had knit for him.  Of course, even though I had been working on them in front of him a few times, he clearly had not been paying attention since they were a complete surprise.  :-)

I received some really great things, though nothing knitting-related.  Though to be honest, I'm not sure what I could have received, since I have plenty of just about everything I would ever use or need.  Only one item has to be exchanged for a different size, so I call that a success!

Hamlet in particular seemed to enjoy himself all day long.  Of course, whenever everyone is home, he thinks that's the best, so it started with that.  But he definitely thought his gifts were good ones.

I made him lie down for this photo before we started opening things.  The Tim said he is giving me a look that says, "PLEASE hurry up and get this done!"

His true favorite gifts (besides two pup cookies from Santa, one in the shape of a snowflake, and the other in the shape of a Christmas tree) were his chew toy and his unstuffed chicken.

The unstuffed chicken is apparently an excellent sleeping companion. 

Of course, just like kids, as soon as he was enjoying a gift, one of the cats had to try and horn in - but he gave as good as he got, so it all worked out in the end.

Later in the afternoon, we went for a walk and he wore his reindeer antlers - which he didn't used to like, but now that he realizes that they can get you some extra attention, he thinks they are great!

Needless to say, after all of the excitement, The Tim had a hard time getting him to go for an evening walk!

The Tim had to work on Thursday and Friday, and originally I had hoped to get together with some people during those days, since I was still off and had the time to meet for lunch or whatever.  And so of course for both of those days I was overcome with panic and anxiety about the fact that next week I would have to go back to work where things are particularly tense and miserable, and that was that.  The thought of having to even talk to someone - about anything, even the good and fun stuff - was overwhelming to me, so in the interest of my sanity, I just kept to myself and did things around here.  The kitties and Hamlet and I had some lovely days together, and I am feeling somewhat better, so that is good.  But I don't have many chances to get together with the people I'd hoped to see, so that was disappointing to say the least.  Hopefully I can figure out a way to make plans with them very soon.

And before we know it, 2020 will arrive, so there are all kinds of possibilities ahead, right? 

Enjoy your weekend!

Scenes from Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day was lovely, as I hope was yours.  In Philadelphia, the day was really nice - sunny, not too cold, not windy, and enjoyable for a nice walk or two with the pup.  Everyone was very pleased with their gifts, and I was glad I had knit a pair of socks for The Tim a while back, since I like to give him something hand knit every year, and if I had waited, that couldn't have happened.

Here are some photos I thought you might enjoy seeing.  (And yes, I do have Rudolph pajama bottoms, why are you surprised?)

Here we are opening kitty presents from Santa - Hamlet didn't want to miss anything!  In this photo, Milo and Pip are checking out Milo's catnip penguin.

Hamlet is blocking the view of Jack who a second after this lept to get the toy in my hand.

As for Hamlet, he had a good day, with a new bed from Santa that was all his own (not a hand-me-down), and a bone that was honey-roasted flavor and disappeared quite quickly!

There was a brief kerfuffle when the Koodle attempted to collect all of the kitty toys for himself, and when he failed, he left and went upstairs to sleep some more (kids, you know?); but that did not keep Pip and Jack from enjoying their new catnip toys.

Once they were all set, we looked to see what Santa had left in our stockings, and opened our gifts.  Both The Tim and myself did well.  The Tim had chosen a couple of his gifts himself, but was pleasantly surprised when he opened them, as he had forgotten completely!  I realized later in the day that it was the first time in years when I had not received a book or anything related to knitting.  Which is fine, my gifts were fabulous, but it was just a surprising realization.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, listening to Christmas music, and had a wonderful dinner.  After dinner, the two of us and Hamlet walked over to the light show at City Hall.  It was so cool!  They projected different images on the building as music played, and at one point, there was even a fairisle pattern wrapping it!  I was really annoyed when I realized I'd forgotten my camera, but I consoled myself with the knowledge that night time photos with my camera would likely not work that well anyhow.

The day felt so nice and long, which is always good on Christmas Day.  Yesterday we stayed put, as everyone was tired out from our festivities, so it was a good day to read, watch movies, and nap.  Today we had a few things we wanted to do, but now the rest of the day is our own.  The Tim works tomorrow, and I have a eye exam in the morning and am then meeting a friend for lunch who I don't get to see very often, so I can't wait.  Saturday afternoon, we are headed to NJ for the afternoon, to see Hamlet's previous family, and meet their new dogs.  He will probably be over the moon excited!  His former working partner dog will also be there, so 4 dogs going crazy will be the order of the day.  I'll try to remember to take my camera along.

That's it for today.  I hope you are enjoying your Christmastime, and/or your break from work if you have one.