December 23, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

You can see Allie's in her favorite spot to observe the Critter Cafe.

It's been very cold and the critters have been very hungry.

I had ordered a garland to have a little decoration (that could possibly stay up all winter-lol!).  It was cold to the touch when it arrived.  Had trouble getting it unraveled and laid it down on the carpet to let it warm up a bit more before I messed with it.  Much to my surprise Miss "I-will-only-lie-on-a-couple-specific-folded-up-blankets...refused-to-even-stand-in-two-new-cat-beds...will-not-be-caught-dead-in-the-confines-of-a-box...took-over-a-year-before-I-decided-the-carrier-hidden-in-the-corner-of-the-studio-made-a-good-warm-hidey-hole" Allie immediately laid on the plastic, prickly garland!!??  

She was totally enthralled with it.  

Eventually left to eat and drink, but returned. 

I had even thought I'd leave it down there for her for a few days.  But the next morning I discovered she had been trying to eat the leaves!  Stinker!

Well, it was a week of making food, doing laundry, and making appointments.  I already had the dentist lined up on January 2nd and my annual wellness check on January 8th.  But I realized there was nothing set up for my cancer check-ups??  Should have been in December (but I sure don't mind waiting till after the holidays--lol!).  Can't remember exactly why I had no appointments because they are usually set up before I even leave the clinic.  Computers down or something?  Anyways, now I need to get labwork done on January 17th, have my CT Scans on the 24th, and see my oncologist on January 31st.

Going to be a busy month.  It's been so very nice to have a few months with not having appointments every time I turned around.  Even got the new eye doctor and new glasses taken care of.  So, after January I should be set for a while.  :)

Anyways, naughty leaf-chewing Allie had her garland taken away from her.  It is now under the TV.  Happened to catch the photo of the first time I held Liam when he came home from the hospital over seven years ago.  Ian wanted to sit with Gramma, too.  How time flies!

Oh, and I moved the small folding table away from next to the TV cabinet.  One advantage to having a "fluffy" cat is she can't jump very high, so the garland is safe--ROFL! ;)

Friday--Janie sent me a Christmas cactus!  Wow!  Thanks so much!  I have had a couple of them over my lifetime but never once had any blooms. If this one survives the freezing transport, I am hopeful. :)

More cards have arrived.  I had automatically removed any that had family photos on them last time because...well, without permission and all that.  But you can't see them that well so I left them on this time.  Sorry if you thought I hadn't gotten your cards.

 Finally...photos from Leah.  

They went to a Christmas concert.  (Leah's sister, Michal, is a music teacher.)  

Blogger is messing with my photos, BTW.  Won't let me put them where I want them.  And I've been trying to upload a video for half an hour.  Grrr!  Oh well.

Here's Liam and the snowman.  I know this snowman is from some movie but I don't know which one or what its name is--lol!  I'm sure one of you will be able to tell me.

They've driven by this tree in town the past few years.  This year it also had Santa's sleigh in front of it, so they stopped to get a closer look.

Very cold smiles--lol!

Imagination and an empty sleigh.  Liam was getting pretty cold at the end, but this is what the boys are like.  Quite inventive.  Keep you on your toes--lol!

Across from the giant tree another set of businesses have a giant ornament all lit up.

We had snowstorming with high winds for a couple of days.  Enough to cover the ground all bright and clean again.  For those of you who have not lived around snow...

I am not sure this will work at all.  Blogger is in quite the mood today.  You can try this link...driving, snow plows, and a round about.  If that doesn't work, I am out of ideas.  Blogger wins.

Now this is how you keep warm when you are going out to help shovel the driveway!  That's Liam--lol!

Friday--was a busy day.  I was getting texts and pictures from Leah in the morning.  She and Dagan were at Rigels buying the appliances for the apartment!  I got to make some final picks.  This may not be all that exciting to most of you but this was thrilling for me--ROFL!  

Microwave.

Skinny one that will go over my kitchen sink instead of over a stove.

Side-by-side frig/freezer that even has water and ice in the door!

So fancy!  

The washer and dryer that will go underneath the stairs in the maintenance room.  Of course they will go side by side and not be stacked. :)

Dryer.

Washer.

Blogger wants the dishwasher over here, I guess.  

Will have three levels!  

I can put utensils or anything flat up on that top skinny tray!  Awesome!

And when are they coming, you may ask?  January 2nd!!  The day I go to the dentist.  Dagan will be at home and Leah will bring me to the dentist.  Maybe if my back is feeling decent enough, I might go over and see them all for myself after the dentist chair is done with me.  :)

When they were out shopping they found a little shop that actually had a section of delicious treats that were sugar free!!  Leah bought some that we can have for Christmas!

And--YES--I am going over to spend time with them on Christmas Day!!  First time ever to be there on the actual holiday!  There are even stockings for Allie and Blink below.

Oh, I almost forgot.  A question.  As of Saturday, I've had a green blinking smoke alarm (only one out of the three) but no beeping.  I googled it and it said it could be "normal" depending on the model or mean the battery is going dead or that something is wrong with it.  Well, it is not normal.  Haven't ever seen it in the ten years I've lived here.  I've had the alarm beeping a couple of times because I waited too long to change the batteries, but never saw a green flashing light in the hallway or on either of the other two smoke alarms.  

Since there's no beeping...so far...there's been no rush to change the batteries, but Dagan or Leah will come over and do that for me sometime soon.  (Me up on a high ladder isn't the best idea--lol!)  Hopefully that will solve the issue.  Always something, eh?  Just wanted to ask--have any of you had flashing lights on your still silent smoke alarms?  I'd never heard of it before.

 Well, that's about it from here.  To all of you who celebrate over this holiday season...have a marvelously good time!  We should have a white Christmas here after our snowstorm days.  Supposed to stay cold enough, so I will be quite happy about that.  A white Christmas!!  

I am grateful for each and every one of you.  Lurkers included.  :)  Bless you!  Be well.  Be happy.  May 2025 be a surprisingly wonderful year on many levels.  Let optimism prevail!  Till next week...