Christmas 2009/The Christmas Cat

Sky LOVES cats. She has a gazillion stuffed animal cats, all of which have names, and she is frequently seen meowing around the yard. She has asked us for a cat but we have always said no for a few reasons:1. We've had a few cats over the years and it hasn't been a good experience and 2. We have really full plates just taking care of the 3 kids, never mind pets.
Anyway, one day while Sky was outside having a kitty picnic in the yard, this cat showed up. We have no idea whose it is and it has no collar. At first we assumed that it was someone's in the neighborhood but as time goes by, it is evident that this cat has no home. The family across the street from us lost their home to foreclosure last month so maybe it was theirs. We really don't know.
Well, Sky won it over and is very attached to the stupid thing now. She even named it Peanut.

This is what we see every morning when we open our back door. It even tried to get into our house once. Ugh. But, yes, we are now feeding it and Sky is totally attached to it. I actually bought cat food at Target the other day. What does this mean???

Recently I tried my hand at cutting Ken's hair and here's how it turned out. A little too short but I'll know better for next time. Ken is a brave soul! We figured that during break, while he's not teaching a class, would be a good time to try.

Christmas Eve

Now that's cute!

We had such a nice Christmas this year! No one was sick (last year vomitting began on Christmas night) and the kids are at such a great age to enjoy the presents and the magic of the season while also understanding the true meaning of Jesus' birth. Thanks to many of you wonderful family for sending wonderful presents or money for us to buy great presents. There was sooooo much!

We've been trying to start some Christmas family traditions and we did something really fun this year that I think will be an annual tradition. I created a scavenger hunt (with clues) for each kid to find 1 present on Christmas Eve (we all helped Lila find her present!). The kids had so much fun figuring out the clues and finally finding their gift. Brad got that motorized quad (in the above picture) and he loves it.

We are really enjoying having Ken around more too as he gets to have 2 weeks off from work. We were able to enjoy a nice date lunch a few days before Christmas as some friends of ours watched the kids for free (except for Lila) and we used a gift card for the Cheesecake Factory and spent some time walking around the mall (I can't remember the last time I did that!). It's always such a treat to have alone time and the opportunity to finish conversations without interruptions!