Christmas break in the new house

Well I have to say Christmas went well this year. I really don't like admitting that I actually enjoyed it this time around. I've always been such a Grinch about it lol. It's always so commercialized. I think I'd enjoy it more if there wasn't so many businesses etc putting out their "good cheer" for 6 months of the year. BAH HUMBUG!

This year was great. We didn't do any presents! It was all about family and having fun and chatting. We played my favorite card game Canasta and also watched The Snowman from Raymond Briggs book. The Snowman has been turned into a film and its so beautiful. The film was produced using traditional animation techniques, consisting of pastels, crayons and other colouring tools drawn on pieces of celluloid, which were traced over hand drawn frames. It is definitely one of my favorite artistic movies. My other recommendation is The Velveteen Rabbit that was produced in the same way with the lovely Meryl Steep narrating.

Anyways back to Christmas. I made turkey dinner for our family. Me and my partner were engaged last November and our mothers haven't met yet so I figured now was a good time to meet! Things went good (phewf! lol). I received a neat family token from my future brother in law. It's a nativity set carved from wood. They had it as children. What is really neat about it is that it has candles that you can put in the set and it turns the fan around up top from the heat of it. I absolutely love it! Another really cool gift I received this Christmas was just before the holidays. I was in a rush to get to work early in the morning and I opened up my door. There was a plastic bag with a present inside. I was like? Huh? WTH? I see a card and I open it and it was from neighbor that we have made good friends with recently. It will be so sad to move farther away from them soon. Later on I opened the present and inside was a batch of yummy homemade cookies in a wonderful casserole dish! Also was a seed packet for cat mint for my cats for our garden at our new place. How thoughtful was that? Me and my partner were touched. I was very touched as me being a Grinch about Christmas being so commercialised that someone like minded had understood that its all about the small little things like this that make "Christmas" Christmas to me. Thank you for being such a sweetheart. You know who you are ;o) I will have something special as well for you after we are settled into our new place. It will be a "just because" present.

Another Christmas highlight was my partner (GL) being such a ham. Because we are still setting up the new place I haven't brought my dish gloves with me yet to the new house. To prevent my ring from getting  more scratched I place it on the windowsill above the sink when I'm doing dishes. Well me being the forgetful person that I am I left it there and forgot about it until I was sitting at the kitchen table talking to my mom and GL mom and next thing I know GL shows up beside me on one knee and asks me to marry him again lol... I have myself such a sweetheart of a man. Of course our mom's were all "aweeeeee". Hehehehe.... I was not a mushpot kind of person until I met him.

Anyways that was my Christmas. I hope your Christmas was just as special to you however your view is of it. I know mine was definitely perceived a little less "jaded" this year. All thanks to some special friends and loved ones. Love and hugs to you all!

A new challenge

So a few days ago I decided to start toilet training my 2 cats Neptune and Sputnik. Should be fun and interesting to say the least! lol. I recieved the kit in the mail at work and I was eager to go home and get started! I got home opened the package and put in on the toilet and filled it with litter. My cats were not at all interested in it. Then I put some catnip around it. NOT a good idea even though the kit instructed too. My cats decided to eat the litter and the nip together. For those of you that don't know clumping litter can actually be very harmful for cats and can get stuck in their intestines if they choose to eat it. Thankfully my cats appear to be fine. Then Sputnik thought it be fun to lay in the litter and take a nap in it. Not my idea of a comfy bed! After a few hours it seemed to me that my cats would rather play and sleep in their new litterbox toilet than to use it for "doing their bussiness" in it. Then I came up with the bright idea of taking one of their poopies from their old litterbox and putting into the new one. Sputnik wasn't so keen on sleeping or playing anymore in his new toiletbox. Yay! So far over the last 3 days they have started to use the new toliet tray but are still using the old one. I suspect by this weekend I may be able to remove the old litter box and they may start to use the new toilet tray only. I'm cossing my fingers!

Neptune is a 2 yr old ragdoll tabby and I think he might struggle a bit more with the toilet traning because he is rather big for a cat but that is also his breed I think. Sputnik is just over 9 months now and a grey and white Calico and full of energy and character. I don't think he will have much of a problem with training except that when he is fully trained I really hope he will get over his habit of playing with the water in the toilet. He has this cute obsession with water. I'll be washing my dishes in the kitchen and he'll try to get on the counter which he knows he's not allowed to do. Same thing with the shower. I'll get out and he'll want to come in. Sometimes I'll put a plug in before I'm finished to fill it up with a little water so he can play in it. We actually had to start putting the lid down on the toilet because he'd leave puddles on the seat and floor from playing with the water in it. :o) Cat's are great entertainment!