Reinholt1

Done. Mom just laughed at the "lovely" part and said "Thanks........blech"

Yay Sunni0913! I am glad it arrived safely. Mom and I are both very happy for you! I am glad you are getting something special for yourself!

Mom could not resist any longer and grabbed a package. She is very happy and says she loves it. Double cat calendars - one for her wall and one for her coffee table. She is looking through them both now and enjoying all the kitten pictures. ("Look at this one! It looks like he is ready to get into the devil!") Surprisingly, mom said I can share a picture of her in her bathrobe. She keeps saying "I have to write her (secret Santa) and say thank you". (I told her the picture will be her thank you.) Addendum....I was just looking at the little calendar..It has the exact same pictures as the 2020 calendar Sunni0913 gave mom for secret Santa last year. Made mom happier because "I can enjoy the same cats all over again!".

Been meaning to post. Christmas cards have been coming in. Mom is very happy. We have Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Texas, and Missouri so far. Mom won't let me hang them on the wall yet because she likes to reread them. She is keeping them in her rollator for right now. And.....Mom finished off the last 5 Duke's coffee cakes this morning....less then 24 hours. ::sigh:: Thank you everyone!

I can't wait to see them! I love Hanukkah. I have some of my Hanukkah CDs in the car for when I am tired of the commercially Christmas music on the radio. BTW - there is no need to hyphenate "Christ" or "Christmas" as it is not the name of Ha Shem. It is simply a title...like adonai. (Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew "messiah/anointed one".) I appreciate the gesture of respect though. But feel free to type or speak it. We won't be offended.

Well, mom opened a gift this afternoon. Her aide saw her feeling packages under the tree. Mom said "I am sure there is something good to eat under here." (I cut back her access to sweets to try and get her to eat some real food.) The aide offered her soup or a sandwich but no. Mom wanted "dessert". The aide reports she selected a box, opened it and found Duke's crumb cakes. Mom immediate ate 3 of them. And this evening she has eaten at least one more. I am sure she will have that box polished off by tomorrow morning. Thank you Secret Santa! Mom is happy tonight. I am sure she will get into the other packages soon.

I have to admit, it was a lot easier than photo bucket. I am very happy with the imbgg site. (Thanks Gator Pam) I might post more pictures now. I love your trees HanShotFirst. I always wanted to do a white and gold chrismon/religious tree. And your snowman tree is awesome. I know the lights never show up well in the pictures, but those blue lights rock with the snowmen. I think I'd try just blue or just blue and white lights for a winter-y look with the snowmen. Bopeep's setup is very nice too. Her little indoor church scene is very different. I am surprised her cat doesn't sleep with the deer! Hey Gator Pam...do you do a Chanukah Bush? Will you post pics?

Aww. Poor baby. Most of my cats love to sleep under the tree too. It' s hard not to let them do those things.

Hey Bopeep, I just noticed the cage around your tree....who are you trying to keep out??

OK, if HanShotFirst can do this, I figure I can too. Took me 7-8 hours yesterday to get mom's tree up. 2 strands of lights went bad. Not bad, we're guessing, for 25 years or so. Took me 2-3 hours to get all the white lights off. Then I went and bought 600 multi colored lights (for the next 25 years) and spent another 2-3 hours putting them on. Then the usual 2 hours to get all the ornaments on. The pretty packages under the tree are from mom's secret Santa! ☺ Thank you again Secret Santa!

Mom loves the birthday greetings! Especially gator Pam's graphic! She is laughing and said "They all must have a lot of time on their hands to come up with silly things like this!" BTW .... All 12 frerro rocher are LONG gone!

For any one interested....mom is having a snack free for all that started yesterday (her birthday). So far today she has eaten a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips, some cheddar Ritz crisps, a packet of mini muffins, a piece of Carmel apple coffee cake, 2 hoho's, a small bowl of lasagna soup (when I insisted she eat something with protein) and she is now on her third (of twelve) Ferro Rocher. (I gave her two 12 packs yesterday. She ate 1 Pack yesterday.) Mom's response to my inquiry if she has room for lunch......"Shut up. It's my birthday and I'll eat what I want!" She ate her fourth and is opening her fifth Ferro Rocher while I typed this...... Anyone have any experience with a 90 year old on a sugar high???

I don't know about anybody else, but I had only one store I was interested in going to this morning....PetSmart for cat litter. (Got all the other items online.). It kinda made me feel like the good old days when you feel like you actually did something good when you scored that coveted doorbuster! I was shocked! After years of PetSmart having pallets full of tidycat for shoppers they had limited supplies of just about everything that was on sale. I tried to order my cat litter for curbside pick up, but the website wouldn't let me get 8. I thought it was because it was Black Friday and I thought "Oh well. I will face the crowds and go in and get them." Well phoney! I got there and the reason I could not order 8 was because they did not even have 8! I ended up with 6 with 3 different strength options. There were 2 others there getting cat litter too so I felt good about 6! There was only 1 holiday cat scratcher and I snagged that. Got the buy 2 get one free cat treats but did not get my first choice of flavors. Who'd of ever thought that at 7 am on a Black Friday that I would have to move quick just to score cat litter! I am glad I was out early today. Shesh! I hope you all did better.

Thank you. And yes she does! Coffee cakes, doughnuts, canolli, Twinkies.....If it is a baked good, then look out! It's hers! Mom has an aide now, because of two broken bones this year. Her aide still can't get over how many snack items mom eats everyday...and never gains a pound! Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! Eat up! For tomorrow we shop! Cat litter -- here I come!

Mom's box came last evening I think. We found it at 6:30 am when I was getting mom up and ready to go to physical therapy. Mom very surprised and happy. No return address but there is a tracking number ... You there in Connecticut.

Oh well, back to eating last year's Christmas cookies that Bopeep was storing in her freezer. yip -- ee.

And if you did win some huge amount...... HEY EVERYONE! SUNNI0913 JUST VOLUNTEERED TO FOOT THE BILL FOR THIS YEAR'S CHRISTMAS PARTY! Heh heh heh

Hey! Good for you! Assuming that you did not win some huge amount (I don't need the tax liability), if you mail it back to me, I'll cash it and send it back to you.

Awww. Sorry about that. Maybe next time. It's always fun to try!

Hmm. Assuming she is a girlie girl, Barbie (and accessories), princess anything, pink and purple anything, 6 is a good age for Uno card game. Connect Four is also good about this age as is Aggrivation, Perfection, Twister or Ker-plunk. Alot of girls are enjoying Legos. And there are girl oriented add on sets that are reasonable. Amazon fire tablets for kids are on sale this week if you want to do one bigger gift. I believe they come preloaded with games so you don't have to worry if the little girl had internet access. Popular toys such as Baby Yoda and Blume dolls (This years version of hatchamals) would probably be welcomed. Crayola has some nice craft kit toys - a light board or a glitter spray set that most little girls would enjoy. I am always leary of getting little girls toy makeup kits. But some kid bath bombs or flavored Chapstick would work. I gave my god daughter a pop up puptent at that age. She had a ball playing in it in her room. Hope that gets you started. Good luck. Thank you for adopting a child for Christmas! Later edit: Just looking through the black Friday sales. Amazon has a boogie board writing tablet for $9.99. A kid could have fun with that.

LOL. We had bad weather here last weekend. Could not go anywhere. I had mom writing Thanksgiving cards to her sisters and I did the gottadeal Christmas cards. If the weather was nicer, ya'll would still be waiting....

What a shame. Are stillbirths common in this breed?

Awww! Chow chow's. How sweet! Are you going to post any more pictures? How many boys/girls did mama have? Have you nicknamed them yet?

Illinoismom... Congratulations! How very cute! What breed are they?? Ahhh......are you going to stick one of those in your Secret Santa box?!?

::sneaking back and grabbing a second package and shaking it.:: Darn! This one isn't rattling either! A 35 pound tub of cat litter should rattle ......