Another Mouth To Feed

Meet Grace and Declans new hamster. They have been saving for him for quite a few weeks but Santa helped move the process along a little faster. He came to live with us today. He started off being named Dark Chocolate or Chocolate for short. Then, after deciding he wasn't brown enough, his name became Ginger. Who knows what his name will be tomorrow. The cats are very interested in him although they are pretending they aren't. His tank has a screen for the top so hopefully it will hold Peter and Owen back. So far all he has done is run on his wheel and stuff his cheeks with food. He stuffed so much in them that he was actually getting them caught in his wheel. I think that's a sign he will fit right in with us. Anyone who eats while they are exercising is all right with us.

Some Pictures & A Note To My Husband

I'm a little wiped out after a long day so this is mostly pictures. No energy to be witty tonight.

Cupcakes and cookies for Santa and peppermint bark for the reindeer.
Full stockings with only a little bit of coal in them.
Stockings are so easy to do. It's the big presents I have trouble with.
Santa left behind a big pile of presents.
The BIG present of the day. At least this one makes them exercise while doing it.
Declan in his Obi Wan Kenobi blanket.
Look what my husband surprised me with! I don't know what I did to deserve this. I'll be testing out downloading the Flip soon. He actually went to a real camera shop and specifically asked which cameras were the best for close-ups. It was just a bonus that it was red. Now, I can put one of my plans into action.
Then, to top things off, he had my blog made into a book. I am now a published author although there is only 1 copy of it.
So now, sometime in the future, when the Internet implodes, I'll have a record of what I did. Thank you Tim.
Christmas is ending early around here because this poor tree has to come down before it dries totally out. One thing I learned from his year is that I need to start a Xmas club at the bank next year. Tim got me so much and I only had so-so presents for him in return. He is very hard to buy for and he kept telling me not to get him anything but I think he deserved more than what he got.

It Only Took 4 Years

So, 4 years ago, I was thinking about making silhouettes of the kids. I remember making them in elementary school but they seemed to have fallen out of fashion. Grace was 5 at the time and posed in shadow for me and I made up hers up in no time at all. Declan was 2 years old and he had no interest in cooperating with me at all. I knew that wasn't going to change any time soon so I just bought all the supplies for his and put them away.

Cut to 4 years later and I finally dragged out all the supplies. I had a shadow box, an oval mat, black paper and rubber cement. Declan was much more cooperative this time. I didn't try to sketch his shadow on a wall like I did Grace. I brightened up and just took a sideways picture of him and printed it out.
I cut the picture out and traced it on the black paper and then mounted it to the frame. After 4 years, it took me about 10 minutes to put together not counting glue drying time. Then, just to continue my procrastinating, I took 2 weeks to hang them up.
Now, Grace and Declan at roughly the same ages, are hanging in our living room. I think I will do the cats next.

I Can't Spare A Square

Confession: The Christmas Tree drives me crazy. Obviously, we still put one up despite my OCD about the big needle shedding thing in the room. I can suffer for a few weeks and it is very pretty. Basically, I just need to get over it.

This years tree is extra big. The rooms are very small in this dollhouse we live in and this tree takes up a full 1/4 of the room. We have a new tree stand this year and I bought a bad one. The tree is obviously tilted but seems to have stabilized itself, I hope. I bought it at The Christmas Tree Shop. How can a store named after Christmas sell bad Christmas equipment? I'll be looking for a new one at the day after Christmas sales.

Over the years, we have collected a huge amount of ornaments. Our first ones were from the dollar store but we have improved since then. Most of them the kids made. Grace and Declan made sure every single one of them was put on the tree.
I could take 20 more close ups of the tree and every picture would be just as crowded. Something falls off the tree every night.

Here it's so crowded that they can't even hang straight. I do like to see them all though. All their little preschool ornaments get me so depressed because they aren't that tiny anymore.

There is someone in the house who loves the tree completely and utterly. Peter never gets to go outside and I'm not sure why we never let him. Owen goes in and out all day long while Peter just stares sadly out the windows. Usually when he gets out he hides under the neighbors house so that's probably why we never let him. When the tree shows up, all he sees is the outdoors being brought inside to him and the tree skirt is a blanket just for him.

TVland Christmas

Time for the annual WGME kids Christmas party. Every year the station actually pries open their wallet and funds a party for all the employee kids. This years party had much fewer kids but that's probably because much fewer people work there now. Let's not get into that now. Anyway, the kids look forward to it every year because they get to meet Santa and one of his elves.

We take over the extra studio for it. We use this studio for shooting commercials and things like the Jerry Lewis Telethon. Mostly it's a big empty space that I sometimes hide in. Declan stayed home sick today with a cold but I didn't want him to miss the party so he came anyway. I don't think he infected anyone. The decorations are always low key but we can do cool things using our lighting.
This is Santa's chair but he hadn't arrived yet so everyone took a turn sitting in it. They also all checked out the presents to see how big their box was.
Santa does a great job. It's only in the past few years that Grace hasn't been terrified of him. He's really good with the kids and takes the time to talk to each one of them. He is also the official Santa of the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital so he knows what he is doing. Of course, being the real Santa Claus also helps.
Santa also brings along one of his elves. He was telling the kids they were still very busy at the North Pole making toys but took the time out to come to the party.
This was a first for Declan. Normally he sends us up to collect his present but he finally made it up there himself. He grabbed the present, shook it a little and loudly declared it was Lego's.
Of course he was right. Who could have tipped off Santa that he liked Lego's? Notice the sick face-he didn't actually look this bad while he was there.
Grace got a make your own pillow kit. We immediately made it as soon as we got home and she's sleeping with it now.
The elf and Declan had a long talk about how they make Lego's up at the North Pole and how they come up with all the different designs. I thought he was going to explode with delight. The Capri-Sun helped too.

Is This Normal?

Is it normal for your cat to love the bathtub? I'm not talking about for baths because Owen doesn't like that aspect at all. Since the day he showed up at our door and refused to leave, Owen has always demanded we fill up the bottom of the tub for him so he can drink from it.

It might seem a little unsanitary but I clean it pretty regularly. Plus, kids are sort of unsanitary and we let them use it too, so, same difference to me.
He hates it when we tease him while he's in there. I didn't quite capture his look of pure contempt but trust me, it was there. He'll get back at me by tracking little wet footprints through out the house.
Now, if you think this is just a problem with one of our cats, you are wrong. Peter has the same obsession as Owen. He will yowl at us until someone comes and fills the tub. Peter is very determined about this. He is 15 years old and his back legs don't really cooperate with him anymore. Jumping into the tub is much more of an issue for him than it used to be but he is determined. He also gave me look of contempt I didn't quite capture but I think it was done in a loving way.

And So It Begins

Winter took it's time getting here but we finally had our first real snowstorm today. I had been envisioning a Green Christmas but it looks like the snow will be sticking around. The kids couldn't wait to try out their new snow boots.

Look, it's me making a guest appearance! That's me at the bottom not wanting to be in the picture at all. Grace took off for the woods to go sledding with her friends on Garbage Mountain.
Declan was determined to go sledding even though there were no hills in our yard. He ended up finding a patch of ice on the driveway that helped him move along.
He got a new hat today. I think it is too little on him but he loves it. He didn't want to build a snowman. He worked on building a skyscraper instead.
Then he came inside all pink cheeked and demanded some hot chocolate.