Christmas is Banned!

Christmas has never been a favourite time of year.  Something always goes wrong.  Illness, bereavement,  couples splitting up, you name it.  No relaxing time for us.  lol

This happened today.

Hobblearound

We had a quiet day. Among my pressies from Junior are a pair of flashing Rudolph earrings:o))

Mother isn't speaking to me. Probably 'cos I haven't visited in the last few days due to these rickety joints, which she thinks no-one else has but her. I'm getting the emotional blackmail, again. I don't care about her, apparently, because I keep the cats. I spend too much time with them and not enough doing stuff for her. Why don't I paint my walls white and get rid of everything and just have one of each?  blah, blah.  Other siblings have given up and stay away, leaving me to it!! Junior wants to stay away, too which is sad.

So, once my tablets had kicked in...around dinner time....I managed to get vertical! lol   The pets have had a ball with their pressies. The catnip disappeared pronto and ping pong balls are being chased around the house:o) Piper is holding her own and play fighting with the older kittens.

And LooLoo!!!!

At 5am Christmas morning Olive decided she wanted to go on walkabout. She can open every door in the house so, when the mood takes her (which is too often) lets all the mogs out and off they run, causing mayhem and partaaaying!! LooLoo , who is much better, hightailed it downstairs and out the catflat. So, there's me, hobbling around the garden, in pitch darkness, cursing for Europe never mind England, holding torch with nearly spent batteries trying to catch this bloody cat. An hour later I was back in bed, with LooLoo safely behind locked doors.

This morning, with it being a nice day, I let the snipped boys out into the garden for a runabout. Tinkerbelle slipped out too, when Junior turned her back. Next thing you know, she's up a 30 foot fir tree!! Once she'd realised how high up it really was.....eeeek....starts miaowing and crying. Tries to get down, but ends up going back up.  Daughter is hysterical and says we must call out the Fire Brigade to rescue her!!  Don't think so.  What goes up must come down and all that.   I suggest the old chestnut of temptation.    So, Junior, armed with tin of cat food and fork, rattles away and calls and calls her. Neighbours come out after a while. "Is that you kitten up there?" Junior confirms this. "Oh, dear" comes the reply. Anyway, 45 minutes later Tinks is back in the house, smelling of pine, with a look of 'I'm not doing THAT again!' lol

Son came up with grandchild of Min:o) They bought me a crafting lamp and a couple bottles of nice wine for Crimble:o)
Son no2 and Junior engrossed in a DS game. Junior had gotten on really well with it prior to our visit.....and then her brother went and accidentally wiped out all her 'saves'. lol    Grandchild of Min engrossed in Granny's iMac.

Merry Christmas from us lot.

Junior and I....and the mogs and Cilla dog wish you all a happy Christmas/festival/holiday and a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful New Year:o)))) xxxxxxx Peace to all:o))

Listen to song no 3.

Junior is busy wrapping pressies up and enjoying herself immensely. Pressies for the pets, me, family, bestest friends and friends and family.....and are all to be lovingly wrapped. The mogs are REALLY interested in all this rattling and rustling and being extremely nice to Junior. Think they have sussed out the cat nip parcels, judging by the big holes in the wrapping paper. lol Bet they get "unwrapped" before dawn.

Cilla just sits and waits patiently. Bless her. LooLoo is lots better:o) Keeps trying to get outside....can't blame her, can you? Now the boys have been snipped they can go out. 'Tis muchly better. No more confined mogs in dog crates on a night and having to get up early to let them out.

We went out and did our 'shopping' today. Had to retreat early due to rickety old me.

About the last of Olive's kittens to be homed..... We have been picky as to where the kittens have gone. All, so far, have wonderul homes. Not Chrissy pressies, which I hate, hate. Someone was supposed to pick up the last one tonight. Their family cat, aged 17+, had died and they wanted another, supposedly. They never turned up and we got a text to say it was too far to drive (10 miles if that). So, it is fate. Last one stays. Bet it's because she isn't stereotypically 'pretty'. Anyway, Junior is WELL happy (she's been badgering me for ages to keep this little one) and so now we have Piper:o) Female Ringo lookalike. Tiny. Little sod!! sigh...

My new friend who helps run the local cat welfare place is going to retire (she's well into her 70"s and deserves a rest). So, shall just have to step in and help:o)) Should keep me busy:o))....as long as the old joints keep up to it!!

Bet you can't watch this all the way through. Enjoy your food.

Turn the Christmassy music off and listen. You'll cry.

It gets a bit better a few minutes in.

Makes my blood boil that this sort of thing happens. Kindness is free.

Celebrate

Happy Yule, everyone:o))

and....

Happy Birthday to Michael, my lovely, kind, funny and handsome nephew:o))  xxxxx  One of those people with a heart of gold. xx  A lovely, lovely bloke who watches out for his Mum and keeps an eye out for his Dad....even though he and his Dad don't see eye to eye, it seems.

He was born 29 years ago.  My sis already had one child and had lost a son, Peter,  who was stillborn.  Sis and hubby were so poor that they couldn't afford a funeral, so the baby was buried with another adult.   A stranger.   They don't know where he is buried.  What if that person had been cruel in life?  Makes my blood run cold.

To me, it's like something from a bad movie.  Oliver Twisty.  Work Housey.   How could people let that happen?  He deserves his own resting place, surely?  He was never blessed by a priest.  It broke my parents' hearts, too.

My Mother lights a candle for him every time she goes to church.  For Peter, my Dad and Gran (Baba). xxx  

Sis was desolate when she lost the baby and so was not herself.   Desolate.    She never got to hold him and say what she wanted to say to him.   To kiss and cuddle and just....hold.   It's the not being able to hold him that just cuts.  If I couldn't hold Junior then I'm sure I would die!  Just to be able to hold and hug the ones you love, especially your children,  is so important.   They knew that he had died inside her but made her wait until natural labour took place.  She knew she wasn't giving 'birth' .  What hell could that have been?    He was taken away, never to be seen again.  Put in a refrigerator.  Cruel or what?   Why wasn't she allowed to hold her own baby?   It's heartbreaking and I wish I had been older and thus wiser and able to help her.  I was just a child then, though.

She has searched the cemetery and just cannot find him, so it's just messed her head up.  She's never recovered from her loss and him not making it has just cut her to pieces...and our family, to be honest, as she has changed from the vibrant girl to someone who just plods on, day to day.  She is not the same person and has withdrawn from everything...absolutely everything and everyone.  She talks to me, no-one else, about things of the 'head and heart' sometimes...not often though.  I 'get' her, if you know what I mean?  Others in the family don't and just think she should get on with it.    Hubby just wants to get on with life too, even after all these years, but sis can't so they are not happy.  She has been grieving for 33 years and can't find peace.... and he just doesn't know how to make it better.

So, Peter, up there with Dido and Babushka , Auntie M loves you lots.   And I wish I could have held you, too.  xxxxxxx

Weekend

Have had a weekend full of family visitors.

Bro has been to help sort out practical things....like back gate, sorting security,  lights, washing line (yippeee!!)....and has been good company:o))

I don't know why we ended up living so far apart.   Will soon be remedied, hopefully.

His dog, Max,  is HUGE!!  Blummin Scoobydoo gone wrong.....but soooooo soft.  He even ended up sleeping on my posh sofa..mainly 'cos I couldn't get him off 'cos he weighs too much!!!  He is such a lovely dope.  He's so big that he has his own armchair at home:o)

He's so nice with the mogs, although Cilla isn't too keen on him!!!  Maybe she demands a bit more intelligence!!

Olive's last litter has gone... new homes.

Junior.  Upset, as per the norm.  Anyway, they have gone to lovely homes and will be spoiled rotten.

Ollie is due in to the vet's after Crimble.  I am worried...given LooLoo's reaction to being spayed.   Ollie and LooLoo are really similar physically; long-haired, light as a feather while the others are heavier.   LooLoo is at last walking.  Just a bit at a time.  She's been wiped out by the op, so is being lavished with tlc and upmarket cat food.  Tinkerbelle, who was 'done' two days after Loo, is like the proverbial Tigger:o) 

Camera has been playing up of late...sigh!!!  We did/do have great photos!!!

Arthritis playing up too...means I am REALLY slow at everything (what's new? did I hear you say.  lol) with typos galore.  Bugger!!!!  Shall keep taking the oil!!! lol

We're trying to put up Christmas decorations.  Junior has two little trees, both lovingly adorned....and being eyed up by the mogs. lol    Found some posh, singing and dancing twinkly lights in the garage.  They're going up in my bedroom; 'tis where I can sort of guarantee that they won't be used as an assault course and so felines won't be barbecued!!   "Weeeeeee.  look at me.  I'm swinging"..........Bang...sizzle!"   

Foot Bliss

Been trying out a bit of the old reflexology.  Ok, foot massage:o)

Seeing as I'm still struggling with iffy joints, thought I'd give it a go.  Junior, of course, had the job of Chief Massager.  lol    We struck a deal.  A sort of "I'll do yours if you do mine" type of arrangement.   I explained to Junior about reflexology and she seems quite interested, so my old books are coming out:o) 

Anyway, 20 mins each using the Barefoot Doctor lotion that we had kicking about.  Was bliss.  No smelly feet and, I can walk alot better.  Junior is happy, too.  It's relaxed her and she went straight to the land of BoBos once her head hit the pillow:o)

We're doing this twice weekly now, purely for relaxation and footcare.  

I did think of this as a possible new career in a former life.  That or herbal medicine, which I have great respect for.  It cured me of gallstones and I was eyeing up university courses at one point but the unis were too far away for someone with kids and I would never have been able to manage everything.   Sigh.....so, for now, I potter about.

Daughter is into herbs.  She has her pots of basic stuff, which she's always snipping and adding to her food.  We sometimes buy pots of basil and coriander and she munches the leaves as we walk around the supermarket!!  eeeek!!   She is, of course, into cookery and especially likes this person, so Santa is bringing her  this.       Junior isn't vegetarian;  she'll be trying out all these recipes asap, me thinks.  When she has her cooking head on, the kitchen looks like it's been hit by a hurricane.   lol !  Clearing up is always the worst job and is when I wish I had a dishwasher.    I think she likes this particular chef/cook because she's very even tempered and informative, with none of that effing and blinding that some of the other chefs seem to deem necessary.

Tomorrow is 'attempt to waddle around town' day and purchase stuff.  I have not a lot of dosh and I'm not really into overindulgence nowadays.  I've seen the light!!  lol    The green/eco/frugal way for moi:o))    Trouble is, most people I know seem to think the more you spend on someone, the better it is.  The boys, especially, feel the need to spend fifty quid on each present.  'Tis madness.  Told them no more than a fiver for me, tenner at the most as it's the thought that counts.   The less you spend, the more thought you give to the gift.      Here endeth my sermon.  lol  

Anyway, need to get arse into gear.  Humbug!!