Merry Christmas Eve to you too Laurie.

It's only 67 degrees here in Houston and the leaves are finally falling---well--- blowing off the trees.

My DH 'Pup and I are spending the first Christmas without a wakeup at dawn by little ones (not belonging to US!).

I'm switching between guilty relief and some (WTF!) nostalgia.

Enjoy your champagne, I wish I could join you in a glass. Instead, I'm going to do something a diabetic shouldn't and have some chocolate.

Merry Christmas Dear!

Cava is almost as delicious as Champagne and doesn't leave a headache behind - fizzy Spanish white wine made by the méthode champenoise. It doesn't give you that terrible thirst the next day either. In fact, I think I'll go and open a bottle now and share some with you. Can you hear the bubbles? Happy Christmas and enjoy your day with Roy tomorrow: this time next year your lfe will be so different you won't believe it :)

Hey you may be pretending it is summer but at least you have some yarn ball Christmas ornament that some misguided soul sent to you while under the mistaken impression that you would be celebrating Christmas. (Sorry. I still feel bad for assuming...as if I of all people don't know about what that does to u and me.)

I'm glad you braved the grocery store. People there need to be reminded to just chill out. I was at Safeway this morning (I forgot that I am supposed to take salad to my sister's tonight!) and these two ladies were arguing over a bag of frozen hash browns. The stock boy watched them for about two minutes and then broke it up and told them he had some more in the back. It was funny.

I'm glad to hear that Roy is feeling a bit more chipper. And bless that cashier for watching out for your un-baby. So sweet. :)

Merry Christmas to you and Roy and Soba and Frankie and Bob!!!

I'm feeling ya! It's sitting on the back porch in shorts and a tee... drinking mimosa's with 3.99 spumante (really, not that bad), picking through the tasty kakes (tastykake.com really, go there...300 gazillion times better than Hostess) my dad sent for xmas, and torturing 3 week old kittens by blinding them with a camera flash.

But I'm in shorts, on Christmas Eve... and I have me some mimosa love!

The woman before us in line at the grocery store last night had a gallon of milk, a bunch of cans of concentrated baby forumula, and a liter of vodka. I finally decided she must have family with babies visiting and, well, who doesn't need a good stiff drink when you've got family with babies visiting?

Hope your weekend is excellent, and I'm glad you're getting a tank top and flip flops Christmas.

It's been so cold and stormy here, but the past couple of days it's cleared up, and we've had the heater off for two whole days and it's still 72 in the house! With the front door open!

Awww. Merry Christmas Eve, merry the whole 12 days of it and Hanukah and Kwanzaa and Yule and whatever holiday floats your boat to you and the grocery checker and Roy and the whole feline gang.

My kids loooooved strained pears. I bet Roy doesn't.

Oh, lucky. It's a whopping 40 degrees outside here.

Hmmm, maybe I'll try baby food with my youngest kitty. She's allergic to something, and I'm trying to introduce more meat into her diet in case it's the dry food.

A friend of mine directed me to your site, and I was inspired to pick up knitting needles for the first time in years. I'm almost finished my Magic Scarf. :-)

Merry Christmas!

Happy ChrisHannuYule (or even ChrisHannuYuleZah!) from CT. Yes, I made that up. And it predates the O.C., thankyouverymuch. *grins*

It was actually really weirdly warm today - like in the 50s. It was great!

Merry Christmas Laurie.

The universe gave you the perfect weather to brighten your spirts. Enjoy!

Awwww, this is truly a Christmas Story to remember! I laughed, I cried, I'm so glad Roy has baby food! It's in the 60s here at the moment, may cool off to the 40s later. A Very Merry UnChristmas to You.

Roy looks just like a christmas angel....
Merry Christmas my friend.

Our grocery stores don't carry wine or beer...you have to go to the WINE AND SPIRIT shop for them...

I braved the stupidmarket this morning as well, because a certain someone decided *last night* he did want my yummy homemade ginger snap cookies after all (he's lucky I adore him!) So I go to get the baking supplies, and grabbed the stuff I needed, witnessing only one potential assault (over button mushrooms!!). I wait in line, pay and head out to my car. As I am loading stuff in, I heard a screetch of brakes and spun around in time to watch grumpy man in car one roll down his window and scream as loud as he could "F YOU SANTA A$$" (mind you I cleaned that up, he actually said the whole thing). I think the person driving car two was unsure what to do, as they simply pulled away without a reply. Me? I couldn't help myself - I went *hysterical* laughing!! I mean really - "F You Santa A$$" ? I thought it summed things up perfectly, no?

My OJ ate alot of baby food after he had a tooth pulled - he loved it too! The bananas were his favorite, as odd as that is =) Anything for the furrbabies =)

I braved the stupidmarket this morning as well, because a certain someone decided *last night* he did want my yummy homemade ginger snap cookies after all (he's lucky I adore him!) So I go to get the baking supplies, and grabbed the stuff I needed, witnessing only one potential assault (over button mushrooms!!). I wait in line, pay and head out to my car. As I am loading stuff in, I heard a screetch of brakes and spun around in time to watch grumpy man in car one roll down his window and scream as loud as he could "F YOU SANTA A$$" (mind you I cleaned that up, he actually said the whole thing). I think the person driving car two was unsure what to do, as they simply pulled away without a reply. Me? I couldn't help myself - I went *hysterical* laughing!! I mean really - "F You Santa A$$" ? I thought it summed things up perfectly, no?

My OJ ate alot of baby food after he had a tooth pulled - he loved it too! The bananas were his favorite, as odd as that is =) Anything for the furrbabies =)

I always wonder what the checkout folks are thinking my groceries say about my family. Although I bet after the first week at that job, they probably just tune out and go through the motions.

I've been wearing a large star of david necklace for the last week or so and it's been amusing to see salespeople start to wish me a merry Christmas and then stop themselves. It's also been a perfect Jingle repellant. Haven't been cheerfully/obnoxiously asked if I've gotten all my Christmas shopping done.

For the record, I was raised by my Jewish dad and my Hindu mom, which makes me a Hind-Jew. So sometimes the necklace is a star of David and sometimes it's an Om medallion and sometimes it's both at once.

Laurie, have a lovely time with your convenience food and much alcohol, and take pity on me and the annual family trip. Not helped by the family saying scornfully that of course we have nothing better to do, and we'll jolly well be there, and like it. But fear not, we have minor acts of subversion planned! Oh yes!

Am I right to feel a little sad that my daughter didn't hang her stocking up this year?

hey you, you just have a good Christmas for yourself. Cats and all, they are they best aren't they. They just judge someone to figure out if the person likes cats or not. If that person doesn't like ... all the way to hates ... cats, they throw themselves all over the person in varying degrees. I know this... I have four cats!

Ain't life grand?

Better than being with a self-cntered moper! Think about it! go out and shock the rest of the grocery establishment crowd ... buy more cheetos and beer and baby food! Pretty!

happy holidays, laurie, and enjoy your hooch!

This is the funniest christmas grocery story ever! I hate it, hate it, hate it when the grocery clerk comments on my food. Like when I bought the expensive pepperoni that was $8 a pound and the cashier had to tell me how sometimes she buys just a few slices, as a treat, cuz it is too much money, or when I buy chicken livers and gizzards to feed to my dog and she looks at me like I am the grossest person in the world. Merry Merry Non-Christmas to you and Roy and Sobakowa and Bob!

Cheers! And Merry Christmas from cold Ohio.

What a picture of a blissed out, anticipatory, cat-in-the-sun. :)

Merry Christmas Eve to you and your kitties.

It's not 85 here, but it's not a White Christmas either. I live in CANADA, for God's sake! It should BE a White Christmas.

But thanks to your crafty tips, I learned to knit in November, and have completed THREE knitted holiday gifts. See, you're inspirational the world over, and how many people buying married groceries could say THAT?

Merry Christmas, CAP. I hoist a glass of vanilla vodka and diet coke to you. Next year will be better!

Merry Christmas Laurie! If I werent still down with this darn bird flu or whatever virus has flattened me this week....Id bring over the boxes of sparklers I never opened last year and we could barbeque and knit and gab and have a great 4th of 'er Christmas/Hanukah, anything you want to celebrate. Give those kitties a great big hug and then give yourself one. Thank you for continuing to bring a smile to my face through this blog and in person!

:-) Debra

I went and bought myself some Christmas Beer and I do have a small child in the house. Although she is long past baby food, if your supermarket cashier needs to send some hate, give her my email address.

Me? I won't notice. I'll be drunk.

When we lived in LA, I often bought babyfood for my REAL babies (who were with usually with me, and often screaming and throwing stuff out of the shopping cart) and I would also buy beer for my hub, and for me....V-O-D-K-A.
The bitches used to ask to see my ID!

Ice in the latrine this morning. almost slipped. Could see my breath as I shaved. Some $($%(^*^ forgot to turn on the heater.
ENJOY your holiday time.
I know I will.

Merry Christmas :)

Happy Holidays! Could I get some of that beer? I'm heading to my family's house tomorrow morning and I'll need all the alcohol I can get my hands on!

Merry Christmas Laurie! I'm toasting you from my half-way clean house, with my dog sleeping beside me. It's not perfect but it's my life and it's a good one. Wishing everyone out there a lovely holiday and a good new year.

thanks for putting a smile on my face. i'm having the shittiest christmas eve ever. tomorrow will be shitty, too. oh well. you're the best.

Now, see. You reminded me of a grocery store visit with my, then, 7-year-old son. I had some groceries in my cart and a big bottle of vodka. My darling son says "mommy, is that water?" As I turn to look, the man behind me says "yeah, FIRE water." Too funny! Could it actually be that was 12 years' ago? Sheesh!

Baby food is so handy for ailing cats . . . or toothless cats. One of my parents' cats had no teeth at all for the last couple of years of her life; she ate baby food, and seemed to be just fine. One thing: my vet says if they eat meat baby food, be sure to give them/him something else too sometimes, because just baby meat (oh, doesn't THAT sound wonderful! anyway . . . ) will sometimes make them constipated.

Merry non-celebratory Christmas! (and I bought myself knitting needles for the January doldrums. I will yet learn . . . )

merry christmas girl...to you, your cats, and even to the concerned check out person...

This post made me love you. I loved the imagery of you standing there wanting to hug her for judging you. You describe things so eloquently. Be sad if you want to. It'll get better. And in the mean time we will get to share a part of your life with you and give you sympathy and empathy and love. Because knitblogreadercommenters have love.

Merry Holiday. and to your cats!

Merry Christmas Laurie! As always, you put a smile on my face!

Thanks to you, we had a bonafide Christmas miracle. My sister actually picked up knitting needles and is amusing/amazing herself with her new found beginner ability!!!You have NO Idea how epic this is.... really!!!!And Oh yeah...again thanks to you.... I got 2 gift certificates to my LYS !!!!!!!!!!( DONT HATE!) and 2 sets of awesome wood needles and some NON-acrylic/nylon/ synthetic yarn!!! Thanks again for the fun and KNITSPIRATION!!!!!!

Is this real?! It is so funny! I have had the evil cashier look given to me and I was about to run out of the store without my stuff. They can be so cruel some times! LOL good job on not running out of the store looking out for the possible police that she called.

If I had found Newcastle for only $6.99, I'd have bought TWO 6-packs! Maybe three...

That is sweet, that the cashier gave you a "look". I would have probably confessed about the cat, though, at that point.

Just so you're aware, though there are many flavors of baby food with meat in them. They all taste the same. You were not missing out on anything when you had the mashed up homemade stuff as a kid. Really, taste them, they're awful (and there aren't much better warm).

I went to Ralphs and bought a bottle of Georges DeBoeuff(?) Shiraz, two chocolate eclairs, a bottle of milk, and Nestles ready-to-bake Chocolate Chip cookies. Can you say single girl hating the holidays and medicating with sugar and alcohol? I could not look at the cashier for fear of the disapproval.
I applaud your strength.

And darn you for mentioning the sale at Unwind. I have spent $256 in 8 days at that place.

Roy is looking well. Asleep, but well.

Loved your post! I bet the cashier was a vegan:p

By the way, please feed Roy stuff other than "baby meat" (loved that Anita). Cat's will get very sick without Taurine or enzymes that all cat foods have in them. Cats also do need a lot of veggies. I don't know a cat who doesn't like squash or pumpkin or tomatoe paste. Think of the amount of entertainment he could give you by eating "baby squash". One of my cats once ate the entire middle out of a pumpking pie I made and left on the counter to cool. She walked around with a poofed out beer barrel belly for two days!

Mmmm, babyfood for cats! My elderly Bill-cat gets organic winter squash baby food for fiber (I have no kids, so it feels a bit wierd to buy it at the co-op. The pureed veggis, ah, help him manage his "outputs" a bit better. He loves it even more than canned cat food. Try it!

And Happy days after Christmas... it will get better!

It makes me so happy to see Roy napping in the sun... I hope it's a great year for you and your good kitties.

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