Suspense Is Building!

Well, for those whose sole celebratory aspect of this season is focused on gifts -giving and receiving of them, that is -just think, by this time on Friday, it will all pretty much be over but the shouting, won't it?

I tried over the years when my kids were growing up to not concentrate that much on the gifts part of the holiday as I wanted them to understand that the real reason for the season is the beautiful gift that was given to us those many years ago in a tiny manger stall in Bethlehem.

To give gifts -well, to my mind anyway -should be somewhat of a way to reflect on the giving as opposed to the receiving end. Not necessarily an easy lesson to teach children what with all kinds of catalogs, ads on tv, announcements about Santa this, that and the other, all around and all the time too, it seems at times.

Of course, my own financial circumstances dictated to that a lot too as I was generally broke year-round so often the kids would get something in September or October that they really needed -shoes, boots, a new coat or some such, and they were told then that this item was actually a part of their Christmas gifts too. I also tried to limit how many toys they got too -never more than four or five items that would be construed as "Toys."

Mandy and I are the ones who generally do the Christmas shopping for Maya and Kurtis here and budget limitations as well as wanting to adhere to what I used to try to teach Mandy and her siblings still apply somewhat to how much we get for the kids.

This year though should be really interesting as Mandy got an aquarium -not a big one, just a smallish, starter variety, and plans after Christmas to set it up and then, look around for little swimming creatures to put in this item. Sounds like a neat idea since she informed me that her friends, Jen-Jen and Nick,have an aquarium at their house and she's noticed how it really draws both Maya and Kurt's attention as they will sit and watch the fish swim around, completely focused on them.

However, I thought too that people who know how many animals we already have - one dog (Sammy), two grown cats (Nina and Chino), the kitten not selected to go live elsewhere and who we call "Flutternutter" plus three bunnies -still living in the cage in the basement may be wondering what the heck is with us with all the animals, adding an aquarium and fish to the mix, that either we are starting our own zoo or perhaps our own private pet franchise here!

Well, I guess the aquarium and fishies for it won't be all that bad an idea for the kids, will it -anything as long as it keeps their attention and away from other activities, huh?

But on the other hand too -maybe the fact that Nina, the Mama cat, seems to be making a lot of those dreadful noises that tend to indicate she's either missing not having any babies to care for or else, she just wants to go running around, find the local cat bar and pick up some big hot Tomcat to go dancing with at some fancy place.

Figures she would get ideas like that now that we are in the process of getting things set up to curb those thoughts in her, ya know.

So, just cross your fingers and hope that we can keep her "under wraps" ya know, until the middle of January when she's supposed to get "fixed" for good!