Here is the area where the silver balls ended up.

Over here, not too far to the right, is where the silver bells pile onto one branch.  Don’t want them to be alone.  (The second bell is hard to see.)

Then all the gold ornaments apparently needed to be grouped together, away from the silver items (you know how they are.)

Last, but not least, the red balls had there own place of honor on the tree.

Overall, the tree looks lovely.  It was decorated with love and excitement- so fun to see.

Merry Christmas!

Autumn Tree

Remember today the people who are the defenders of  our country.

They came in a bit later and Col. Panic looked at me with a funny look.  In code, so as to not alert the girls, we discussed what they had found.  A little kitten.  The kitten appeared friendly and came out to them.

Now a word of explanation.  Col. Panic has my mother and others convinced he hates cats.  Although not totally true, they are not on the top of his favorite animal list.  In fact, I don’t think they even make the favorite animal list.  They would more likely make the top of the Least Favorite Animal List.   The last cat we had we took in as a favor for a neighbor.  He was old when we got him, who was to know he would live so long to torture us?  Actually, he and I got along fairly well but he drove The Col. nuts because he was loud and jumpy.  He finally died and that was the end of the cat era in our household.  I figured it would last until one of the girls looked at him with big eyes and said “Please, Papa!”  He would grumble at that suggestion saying that they had better be old enough to take care of it themselves.

So here we were talking in code about an apparently abandoned little kitten.  The kitten had already made points by being friendly.  We knew if we left him out there he would end up as coyote bait.  After dinner we all went trumping out to the weeds- it was easy to find him as he was still yelling, maybe calling for his Mom?  The girls, predictably, loved him.

So now I would like to introduce to you our new family member- Tuxedo.

We decided that Tuxedo was a better name than Coyote Bait.  Although that is his middle name.  His little eyes were blue when we first found him but have changed to yellow now.

Tux lets himself be wrapped up in a blanket and carted around- he is actually asleep in that picture with Pixie.  He will just lay down where ever he is and go to sleep- even on the floor with tons of kids playing around him.  The girls think they need to carry him over to his food and water even though I tell them he is perfectly capable of getting there himself.   He will let them know when he has had enough with a meow or sometimes more if they aren’t listening.  He loves to play- the rat he is wrestling was slightly larger than he was when we first brought it home for him.  He loves to wrestle with it.  He will play with anything- potatoes, corn husks, plastic eggs, crayons- just about anything lying around on the floor.

Tuxedo figured out what the litter box was for right away and has not had an accident.  However, he doesn’t seem to realize that the great outdoors is perfectly good for that also.  He’s been known to run into the house straight to his box.  I’m wondering how we are going to teach that one.

So The Col. has allowed another cat into the family.  Shhh!  Don’t tell, but he’s really a softy.

We drove to my parent’s place, spent a night and then headed to the coast.  We took The Long Way because that is just how we do things, much to the disgruntlement of the children.  They see no sense in it but who said parents had to make sense?

We were all glad to arrive, check out the ocean and find ice cream.

 After walking around awhile The Boy decided he would much rather go back to the hotel room, get into comfy clothes and relax.  It didn’t hurt that there was T.V. there with a kazillion channels.  But no, his parents were still in Torture the Children Mode and insisted on going out in paddle boats.

All safe in lifejackets.

The hotel key fell out of my pocket somewhere out there.  The river then became known as “The Lost Key River”.  And about every river we went over from that point on was called that- so hard to keep rivers hundreds of miles apart straight.  The hotel was very understanding and didn’t charge us anything. 

We made those poor children go out to eat and then FINALLY let them go back to the hotel room….and watch T.V.

We did spend time on the beach- stay tuned!

Going down the trail.

Peeking to see if we’re coming.

Having a good time.

Yes, Miss Pixie is wearing sandals (jellies) with socks, her nightgown, heavy jacket and mittens.

It’s June.

I will say that our mornings can be rather chilly sometimes but I do think this is a little extreme.

Then she gives me that Otter smile….

(Click to enlarge and see her shoes.)

She has her googles on to be safe!

But maybe these two were better helpers.

What do you think?

There are ten Black Australorps.  They are a breed that originally came from Austrailia.  They cheep with an Aussie accent.   They were a day old when they entered my kitchen.

The little guy in the corner, upside down is just sleeping.  They were so little they could get inside the feeder and would sometimes just fall asleep in there.  The white one is a Polish something that apparently doesn’t come from Poland but from Norway. I am very confused about his decent.   HIs accent is very confused.  It’s a fun one in that it’s feathers on it’s head will grow really long and floppy.

I no longer have a fowl-less kitchen.  A crisis was averted.