Celebrating Yule 2011 - Part 3 (FD)

And then it was Christmas Eve. My presents were an audio CD I'd been dying to get, which Kelly brought for me (review and more information to come soon) and even more glitter stuff from Kero. And we spent the day watching holiday movies while I worked on getting this hat finished: It's one Kelly asked me to make; says he needs one now he's had his hair cut shorter. And, yes, the colours were his choice. Anyway, we watched all my favourite holiday movies: Terry Pratchett's Hogfather Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer Miracle On 34th Street The Littlest Light On The Christmas Tree One Magic Christmas The Polar Express Santa Claus - The Movie (That last one is my all time favourite Christmas movie). I was going to also watch "The Grinch" and "Elf" but I got too tired. When I was taking Kero out before bed that night I heard the bells from the nearby church ringing (for the start of midnight mass, if I'm not mistaken) so I stood and listened while I drank my mug of hot cocoa and gave Kero time to find the perfect spot to do whatever he might need to do before bed. Then I went to bed and read "The Bear Father Christmas Forgot" before I settled to sleep. That's another favourite of mine; Carl gave it to me, and I've read it every year since; it's a cute little story. I was going to also read "A Candle In The Forest" but I was too tired; I fell asleep almost as soon as I laid my head on the pillow and snuggled in under my blankets. Of course, I left the holiday lights on though... ...They always stay on on Christmas Eve! So... Christmas Day arrived. We got up and had our stockings, which "Santa" had very kindly filled with treats for us; chocolate coins, nuts, chocolate Santas, then some of our favourite treats, which in my case meant some fudge, some coconut ice, and a selection of dairy free chocolates. Then we opened the last of the presents under the tree. My present from "Santa" was some craft stuff; some stickers, more glitter, and some wooden shapes I can stick on things. From Kelly I had three more audiobooks (review and information to come in a later post) and the final Harry Potter movie, and from Kero I had a book about candle making, a book with meditation ideas in it, and another book (again, review and information to come in a later post). Most of the family gave me money, but my Mam also gave me some presents, and my brother, Carl, wanted to give me presents rather than money, so I let him. These are what I had from Carl. Soaps in the shapes of animals: (A hippo, a turtle, a fish, a bear and a dolphin). And some moulds for making jelly (jell-o) or chocolate, or whatever: (A normal jelly mould, a rabbit one, and a car one). My Mam gave me some scented pillows (sort of like the lavender ones I made at Litha) and some pot puree (will have to get a pot to put it in). Also, I know I have a couple of other things from her that she forgot to send because they were in a different box (the first box wasn't big enough for them too). Anyway, most of the 25th was spent phoning and texting people to say, "Merry Christmas," and swap details of who had what and from whom. Then I spent most of the evening doing the prepwork for the holiday feast we planned on making the following day to finish off our celebrations.

Celebrating Yule 2011 - Part 2 (FD)

Thursday December 22nd arrived, and it was time for us to start our second full day of holiday celebrations! :)

We exchanged another present; I had an audiobook from Kelly (review and information to come in a later post) and more glitter stuff from Kero.

Then we started having fun with crafts. We wanted to make at least one holiday decoration. In my case this was a couple of glittery baubles:





I used the gold glitter paint I'd had from Kero that morning as the main colour, then decorated one of them with some glitter glue too; only I did it lightly so you only get the hint of the colours. I used amathyst, ruby and aquamarine, but I'm not sure if you can tell from the photos above.

Kelly made some sledding penguins. Well, started to; they're really fiddly, so they weren't done by the time I sent these photos to Iggy to be sorted, and I haven't had a chance to have him sort the photos yet. I'll post photos when I can though.

We finally got to our roast chestnuts after that; turns out Kero likes chestnuts too!

Anyway, that evening I did a meditation I'd planned to do. Well, sort of.

My plan was to take my quartz thumb crystal (which I hold when meditating)...


...Then meditate about the old year, and the new one.

In the back of my mind though was something I'd heard a lot of people saying about recently; a word for the coming year. I had heard someone mention it last year, but this year several people had. Enough, it seems, to have it firmly planted as a suggestion for me in my own mind. I tried several times to stop myself thinking about the word for the coming year - since that wasn't what I planned to meditate on - but my mind kept coming back to it. In the end I got the hint and decided to go with it; if my mind was that determined to pick the word (and it was the same word each time) then what else could I do?

So, I have a word for the coming year... Hope!

Anyway... It was a little after eight in the evening, I was done meditating and had just gone back in to the bedroom to listen to my new audiobook when the doorbell went. Who could it be? I was in my PJs (I usually am by that time if I have no reason not to be) so Kelly answered it. He was in PJs too, but that's not as bad for a man. Sorry, but it isn't.

When he opened the door, someone shouted, "come carol with us!" and disappeared in to the night before he could say or do anything. I wish they'd hung about; if they had then I'd have liked to go with them, but though he saw which way they went, by the time we could have thrown some clothes on and been ready to go they'd have been long gone. If he'd stuck around I'd have asked him to wait a minute and we'd join them, but he just didn't give us time. He seemed to think we'd be ready to drop everything and follow him. I wish we could have! I told Kelly I'd like to find out next year if someone will be doing that again, and if so be ready to follow them. He seems to like the idea too, so hopefully we can find out if or when they'll be doing it and join in next year.

OK, moving on...

On the 23rd we planned to be doing some gaming, but instead ended up doing more work on our craft projects, since we had to keep doing a bit then letting it dry and so on. Plus, we'd planned to do a bit of roleplaying, but my laptop decided it wasn't having any of it; I managed to catch up with blogs, but when we were about to try and do the roleplaying session (which I needed my laptop for since my character sheet and GMA Dice are on it)... Well, the laptop just refused to start. By the time I got it working again it was too late to be playing really.

My presents that day were more glitter stuff and a small pair of craft scissors from Kero, and some candle making supplies from Kelly to bulk up the starter kit I got myself for my planned attempts at candle making; I'm thinking I'll try it on Imbolc (February 2nd, for those who don't know) since that's a good time for candle making.

And I spent the evening reading a book called "A Treasury Of Christmas Tales" which has short versions of stories like "The Little Match Girl" and "A Christmas Carol" and "The Nutcracker" in it, as well as a few cute little Christmas stories I hadn't heard of before like "The Christmas Bear" and "The Wishing Star"... I love the book so much I got my brother a copy so he could read it each year too, if he wants to.

Celebrating Yule 2011 - part 1 (FD)

OK, now that Kero's had his turn at posting about the holidays, it's my turn! ;)

On December 20th we kicked things off by making that the first night to have the candles lit for a while. We planned to light the two scented ones we had, but decided we'd also light the plain white one we'd found on the windowsill when we moved in. It didn't look like it had been used, and I did purify it "just in case" because of the fact it was sort of being used for a ritual; the candles, after all, were a symbol of the sun now beginning to strengthen, and warmth and light returning to the Earth. Anyway, here are all three candles lit:


The bits of wax from the edges of the wider ones; which didn't end up melted away as the candles burned, is now in small pieces with the candle making stuff I have, and I plan to melt it down to use to make new candles at some point.

We'd also planned on having roast chestnuts, mince pies and cocoa to kick things off, but we didn't get to the roast chestnuts and mince pies that first evening; we were too full from dinner, and too tired by the time we weren't. LOL!

Anyway, the following morning we had our first present; in my case this was some new cookie cutters and a tub containing some craft supplies (pipecleaners, pom-poms and such) from Kelly, and some glitters and glitter glues from Kero.

Then we made cookies!

First we made some "cinnamon sun cookies"... Cinnamon cookies cut withh a cookie cutter I have that sort of resembles a sun shape.


Then we made some "chocolate walnut trees and bells"... Which are chocolate cookies containing chocolate chips and chopped walnuts, cut in the shapes of bells and trees using a couple of my new cookie cutters; a bell and a tree, as you probably figured out.


Then we made "ginger choc stars and snowflakes"... Ginger cookies with white chocolate chips in them, cut in the shapes of stars and snowflakes (again with a couple of my new cutters... Though I did already have at least one star shape).


We decided to decorate the ginger choc stars and snowflakes; we spread butter icing on them, then sprinkled sugar sprinkles in various shapes all over them. I put a few of them on my penguin plate so you can see them decorated.


We also made some sweet mince pies.


I used my Mam's mince pie recipe, but I made the pastry myself.

I still had a couple left from the last batch, but while I was baking... *Shrugs*... Well, you know; I figured I might as well! ;)

We ate some cookies and mince pies that day, but we still didn't get to the roast chestnuts.

Just after sunset it was time for me to do my planned ritual.

So, I took up my bell and the special candle I'd brought for doing it...


...And went around the house with the candle in one hand and the bell in the other, holding the candle up and ringing my bell while repeating a single phrase:

"Be gone all those who wish us harm; welcome those who don't!"

And when I was done I placed the candle in the kitchen window (which is near the door) and made sure its twin was lit in the living room window (which, because of the positioning, is "sort of" the other side of the door). I left both candles on all night to see off any unwelcome houseguests, and to serve as a welcoming light for those who we would welcome. Plus, as it was the night of the 21st, that's a good night to leave the candles lit all night anyway (and the fact they're battery candles - which I thought was safer since I would be walking around with one of them - meant that there was no fire danger while I went to bed and left them alight).

And that's it for the start of our celebrations; I'll tell you more tomorrow.

Alexis' Story, Part 2: Blessed To Death

I'd planned to start doing my own posts about the holidays today, but I'm interrupting myself in order to post this, because I want to post this today.

Do you remember that I posted Alexis' story as my virtual Yule gift as part of a blog party on December 21st? Well, Magaly has written a sequel - with my permission, of course - and I wanted to share the link with anyone who is interested and hasn't yet seen the post for it, which was published on her blog a couple of days ago.

So, I present to you...

Part 2 of Alexis' Story: Blessed To Death!

Enjoy! :)

Furkid thoughts: Kero's holidays 2011 continued (FD)

Hi humans, it's Kero again!

OK, so I told you about the first few days, now I want to tell you about the final couple of days of my holidays; the part where Santa Paws came!

As I said at the end of December, despite my best efforts, I didn't catch him. He left me a stocking full of treats though; here I am seeing what he left me with Mami:


There were some yummy treats in that stocking; here I am with one of them:


In my stocking were all my favourite treats... Jumbones, schmacos, rawhide treats, and several other treats. That Santa Paws seems to know exactly what my favourite treats are; he knows me as well as Mami does!

After stockings it was time for the last of the presents from under the tree.

Santa Paws had left me a present under there; the turkey teddy in these photos:



It's a squeaky turkey teddy; I look confused because I was trying to figure out how he snuck the present among the ones under there without me noticing they'd been moved; he must be really sneaky, or very magical!

I also had a big package - which I'd been sniffing at longingly since it appeared - waiting under the tree for me from my humans; there were three things in it.


A polar bear teddy that squeaks...


A selection box (alright; more treats!)...


And a new bed...


Here I am trying out my new bed:




My new bed is now in the living room, and my old beds (which are actually small beds; they're meant to be decent sized cat beds) are in the bedroom; Mami put them side by side with my blankets spread over them so I can stretch out better. They're looking a bit tatty, so Mami planned to throw one away, but I got upset, so she used them to make a big bedroom bed instead. I'm not quite ready to part with them yet!

When my humans had their holiday feast I had some ham; I love ham!

And that's it for my holiday post. I know the holidays are all over with now, because on Monday Mami put away the decorations. She says she'll pull them out again when it's almost time for Santa Paws to come back. I'm already excited about him coming back; especially if we'll be having lots of present days again... I love presents!

Licks and snifss,
Kero

Furkid thoughts: Kero's holidays 2011 (LBE and FD)

Hi humans, this is Kero here.

I persuaded Mami to let me do my post first; I have lots of photos to show you and wanted to get to it. I've split my post in two though, so you'll see the second half tomorrow. But, for now, on to the first half!

Note: I might have the photos of me opening presents with Mami in the wrong order, but I've tried to get the presents I had each day around the right way. Just don't worry about it if I say I had one thing in the package, but it looks more like another thing, if you know what I'm trying to say. Anyway...

Mami told me that before Santa Paws comes we'll have a few days where we get a present each; which was just fine with me!

So, the Wednesday before Santa Paws came, we got up and had our first present:


"Treats? YAY!"


"Give me a treat, Mami!"


This is just Mami checking she has all her fingers after I got a bit excited when taking one of my treats... Oops!


"Wait a minute... There's more in this package!"


"Mami, will you play with my new squeaky cracker with me?"


YAY! She played...

Here's a couple of photos of me and Mami playing tuggy with my new squeaky cracker toy:



That first day, I got a squeaky cracker, and a cracker shaped box containing some chewy dog treats in various shapes (snowmen, trees, etc).

The next day, we got another present:


This one had some dog biscuits shaped like snowmen in it; I liked them!



Along with the snowmen biscuits, I also had a squeaky bone; it didn't make it in to the photos. And it no longer squeaks; I'm still enjoying playing with it though!

The day after that we had yet another present... What can it be this time?


A squeaky Christmas pudding!


Mami and I then had a great game of "fetch the pudding"... See:



And what was in the package with the squeaky pudding?

Smells like mince pies...


It was; doggy mince pies!

So my third present was a pack of doggy mince pies and a squeaky Christmas pudding. The mince pies were very tasty, and the Christmas pudding - which no longer squeaks, but is still being played with - was great fun!

Day four, and another present:


WOW! My very own doggy chocolate Santa!


And a rope tuggy toy:


I had fun playing tuggy with the rope with Mami, and the chocolate Santa... Well, it wasn't bad, but was definately not one of my favourite treats. It took me a few days to get around to eating more than a few nibbles, where as the snowman biscuits and mince pies were gobbled up quickly, and they only lasted a few days because there were more than one of them. And - more to the point - Mami wouldn't give me both.

Not a bad pile of stuff though; three squeaky toys, a rope toy, a chocolate Santa, some mince pies, some biscuits and a pack of soft shape treats. And tomorrow you can find out what Santa brought for me, and what was in my final package from my humans.

That's it for today though.

Oh, apart from one more thing...

Thank you to my pal, Iggy, for sorting out all of mine and Mami's photos for us!

Licks and sniffs,
Kero

Of cats, dogs, and cups (kinda FD)

Kelly heard me talking to my Mam about how I didn't have any Hello Kitty items. So, when he went shopping the Monday before the holidays, he decided to buy me this mug:


It came with a small chocolate bar, and these three tree ornaments:




Mam has loads of Hello Kitty things, but even she doesn't have any Hello Kitty tree ornaments!

:)

Also, when Kelly went to the dog shop in town (the one where we get those calming treats for Kero) to get his bandanna that you got to see photos of on Christmas Eve, they were doing a sort of prize draw thing where you take a piece of paper from a tub, and what it says on it is what you win. And this is what Kelly won:


So I have a new dog mug too, since he gave it to me.

We also ended up winning a free packet of treats for Kero when Kelly went back to get his "Fab Fang" treats a few days later, so he grabbed Kero an extra pack of Fab Fangs.

This will do for today; I'm off to sort out the posts about our holidays and set them up to publish over the next few days, since Iggy very kindly sorted the photos for me on Friday... Thanks Iggy! :)

Welcome to 2012

Happy new year, and welcome to 2012! I was going to start posting about how the holidays went here today, but my laptop is being a pain again, so I'm just going to stay on here long enough to say what I already have, and now I'm going to go back to my Harry Potter audiobook marathon (I'm half way through book 3 right now) and working on some of the things on my "to do" list (I already managed to get one of the small projects done today). I'm working on some of the small projects while I wait for a delivery of a spacific colour of wool, which I've ordered to make the knitted items of clothing I want for myself.