Merry Christmas!!!

[clothes in the shop]

So yesterday we all went to my mom's house for Christmas.  Our family tradition is to have Christmas Breakfast.  We usually manage to get started some time between 12:30 and 1:00 pm.  Well, first everyone has to do "Santa" (that's us and Christie & Garrett** right now... the ones with kids... okay, mine are teenagers but we all still hang stockings) and everyone else just has to wake up or start cooking for a gazillion people.  Well, it may not be a gazillion... it just feels like it with all of us gathered around the three card tables in the living room pigging out (no, really we do) on (skip down to the next paragraph if you're vegan!) scrambled eggs, hash browns mmmmm, bacon, sausage, country ham, and the only reason for Christmas Breakfast... biscuits.

"Biscuits?", you say, "why biscuits??"  Because, all through the year, anyone who travels must (yes, it is indeed imperative) collect a jam or jelly or other fruit product which may be spread upon biscuits (yes, biscuits!), hot steamy luscious biscuits, fresh from the oven (or microwave where they've been reheated... we eat a LOT of biscuits!) and spread with a heart-healthy margerine... mmmmmmm and then topped with jam or jelly or other fruit product (or just topped... depending on what you want, we're not picky here).

Then it's off to present opening.  My mother and father have been writing Interesting Labels™ back and forth to each other for as long as they've been married now (goodness... 37 years now!).  Things like "To Mrs. Lincoln From: Mr. Booth, with apologies for spoiling the play" (my dad's a historian)  This year my mother was given two of her own books.  Inside each was a typed note and a gift card.  One note was from an environmental group praising her for saving trees and the other was from Al Gore.  My family has a wicked sense of humor.

My mother's cat (actually my brother's cat but she lives at my mother's house) Miss Kitty, did not make an appearance.  She is Very Shy and is, indeed, the cat upon which my Shy Cat was modeled.

Miss Kitty normally hangs out on a pillow behind a comfy chair in the living room in front of a wall heater.  Alas and Alack!!  Yesterday, the comfy chair was back against the heater and the pillow was gone!!  But all was well for Miss Kitty!  She has a good retreat for when there are ::shudder:: Strangers in the house.  In the basement is a gas fireplace where Miss Kitty can hang out on a pillow.

Now Miss Kitty has always been shy.  A mother cat was living in the basement of a school where my mother was teaching.  There have been generations of cats living there.  Miss Kitty was born in June and came to live with my parents & my brother David in August.  She has health issues now so has to endure more vet visits than most cats must.  But at the age of 17 that isn't too bad.  Miss Kitty is a beautiful black and white long-hair.

So children the moral of the story is

Rescue, if you can, in some way; but Always remember to neuter & spay!!

(No, really, not trying to push anything but if you do get a cat or dog, it's the most important thing you can do.  We once had a cat of ours get out of the house, because he didn't like the roommate's new cat I think, and he never came home.  One of the first things I said when I realized he wasn't coming home was, "Gee, I'm glad he's neutered!")

                                                                                     

**This site contains adult language!  Warning! Warning! Danger Will Robinson!!

PS we're running a sale through the end of the year!!  Grab up stuff for next year or things for birthdays!! pass it on...