Christmas Eve

"Waiting for Santa"

Its already Christmas Eve, presents are wrapped,

we've bought the fixings for Christmas dinner,

and we have the day off to take the boys for a long walk.

Vladi may be wondering how Santa is going
to get into out house, this pipe seems a bit small.

That's more like it...

It looks like Vladi is waiting for Santa.

Les picked up three small stockings from a local

craft store to decorate for the boys.

Uschi is lending a paw (and his teeth).

"What are you doing here?"

Tanji is sitting on his stocking.

Even Vladi joins the fun, and he doesn't
usually do crafts.

We don't have a fireplace to hang the stockings on,
but the dresser will do.

"Stocking Kitten"

Vladi likes to curl up on our stockings. Santa
is going to have a hard time filling these tonight.

Too cute to resist.

We put out hot chocolate for Santa Claus.
There may be a Vladi pawprint on the marshmallows.

Its late, and time to go to sleep and dream of Santa.

Tanji curls up with a little Santa doll,

Uschi has a bigger Santa doll,

and Vladi has a chocolate Santa.

Sweet dreams, kitties!

"Meeting Santa"

*We added a few pine cone pictures to yesterday's blog.*

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Planting Trees

"Tanji and Friend"

One our our Christmas traditions is planting a new tree or two.

The boys are always ready to help.

Uschi inspects the potted pendulous blue spruce.

Some day it will have large climbable branches

When this little pine tree is older, it will turn bright yellow
in the winter, and return to green in the spring.

Here is an older cousin, golden-yellow for the holidays.

Trees provide the structure for the boys' outdoor adventures.

They are the borders of their yard, homes for birdies,

and golden opportunities for climbing.

The whole family loves the trees.

The bright-white bark of this birch tree

is beautiful on a frosty December day.

The lichens covering the branches are fungi with algae

inside and they give the trees green color, even in the winter.

Some of our conifers are now old enough to produce cones.

Uschi stares at a pine cone, it should be a fun toy,
but it is really fragrant and a bit sticky.

Vladi inspects a pile of cones, and seems to be
focused on the sugary sitka spruce cone.

"Licking Pine Cones"

Hopefully someday the boys will enjoy

the little trees we planted this year.

Tanji has a little tree of his own. Maybe he's
thinking of future tree-climbing adventures.

After a hard day of planting trees,
the boys snuggle for a rest.

"Home for the Holidays"

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Wrapping Presents

"Presents!"

The boys love to wrap (and unwrap) presents,
something is so tempting about the crinkly paper.

Tanji happily sniffs the wrapping paper.

Sniff, sniff.

T loves to nestle on paper, and he is getting sleepy.

Vladi has found one of his favorite things, a gift bag.

Here's another one!

Someone wants to be taken for a ride.

In a one-room house, it can be hard to hide gifts
from the boys. Les ended up hiding in the bathroom
to wrap their goodies, with T & V howling outside the door.

For Tanji, we have a snuggly cave he can sleep in.

For Vladi, a new scratching box (he loves them).

And for Uschi, a (hopefully) quiet lure toy.

"Can't we open these now?"

The boys will probably like their gifts, but it is a
guarantee that they'll love the ribbons.

"Ribbon Play"

Tanji can't resist ribbon.

Very funny, Mom.

He is such a beautiful boy.

Here is another beauty.

"What about me? Make this ribbon go, please"

"Mine!"

Uschi is so patient, he lets Les dress him in ribbons.

"Gift Cat"

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