Christmas

'Twas a beautiful, peaceful and relaxing Christmas. This was the scene shortly after we arrived for our Christmas Eve visit with Jason, Alison, and Teddy. Teddy kept staring at LM, trying to size him up, we guess. It wasn't long before he really warmed up and began to show us how wonderfully adept he is at walking and running all over the place. We all shared a nice dinner (Teddy did not approve of the oven-fried sweet potatoes but we loved them!!)
Nana had lots of fun holding Teddy while his Mom worked on our meal.
Daddy, and a wonderful Daddy, indeed, likes to hold him up high....After dinner, we adjourned to the family room and Teddy showed off his best cat chasing skills and Sting was quite obliging.
Teddy is still enjoying a lot of his birthday gifts and one of his very favorites is the blue steering wheel given to him by Kristi. Notice the decorations on the lower part of the tree. The stacking rings make perfect kid-proof ornaments. Good thinking on Alison's part!
I have made it a tradition to give each of my grandchildren a mirror on their first Christmas. This year was Teddy's turn. He was thrilled and had a lot of fun laughing at his new-found "friend."
Reaching for Sting as the smart cat made a leap up to the back of the couch.
We had brought Teddy a hooded shark towel from Discovery Cove in FL and saved it for Christmas. That, too, was a huge hit, as he draped himself in it and rolled around. It has a fin and tail on it.
Almost bedtime.....
Sting enjoying the peace and quiet after Teddy retired for the evening! That is quite the cat tummy, isn't it?
Christmas morning found us having leisurely time to open some gifts. LM did some very nice shopping for me, and Ms G, too!
Ms G with her very special log of catnip. She had such a fun time....and loved all the ribbons and plastic she had to play with. I made an hilarious video (well, hilarious is relative to the sanity of the cats former owner) of Ms G helping LM to wrap her gifts, and I hope to try posting it later. It is in Vimeo now - anyone out there have any idea of how to embed it into a blog posting? All help is appreciated.
Next stop was to visit daughter, Sara, and her family, and help Samantha open some of her gifts. Her favorite thing seemed to be a toy mouse for the cat, Gizmo.
LM helps Samantha learn to ride her first bike. She still hasn't quite mastered the art of pedaling but I am sure she will get it soon.
Next it was time to play Princess dress-up. She had received a trunk full of princess stuff so we had a great time with the earrings, tiaras, etc.
In the evening on Christmas Day we visited with Kristi and her mother and shared gifts, before going to visit John at the prison, where, we are certain, he is spending his last Christmas!! He is doing so well.
All in all, it was a perfect Christmas. Now we are on to the New Year and looking forward to some interesting plans and maybe a trip here and there.
To update you on Trish's progress. She is still very much under siege with her health situation. Tomorrow she will have a Cisternogram for definitive diagnosis and then we hope to have more news. Meanwhile, she is quite uncomfortable and in a lot of pain, while still having to lay down at all times.
Happy New Year to all my faithful friends and family here, and I wish you the very best in 2010. With much gratitude and love, I thank you for helping me to get through 2009!!