<p>dmd, so sorry to hear about the kitty, we went through that same unexplained weight thing with ours. SHe finally just laid down for the last time around D’s graduation. I’ll bet she didn’t weight 2 lbs. So sad but she kept her elderly Siamese dignity until the last.
Hang in there.<br>
You might think this year’s Christmas is out of control, but just let it flow… things will happen if you have prepared or not. Cards don’t go out? So what? Send them next year. IF gifts get mixed up, sort it out later.
Take some time to connect with your kid and ignore the rest of what our culture says you need to do at Christmas.</p>
<p>actually the kid would have done the laundry eventually,hes really self sufficient… but it would have been in my way wherever I tried to put it so it was just easier to do it for him.But, hes a great cook so makes up for it that way!</p>
<p>The cat is now on antibiotics and prednisone and has a bit of an appetite but not much. She purrs when deliberately loved up, but looks unhappy the rest of the time. I do wish she felt better.</p>
<p>We managed to get the tree up last night–arrived at our local tree nursery (it’s the front yard of a strawberry/pumpkin/Christmas tree farm and they’re very nice people) just as they were turning out the lights. “We’ll be fast, we just want a Noble Fir.” “Two left, over there.” “This one’s cute.” “Okay, $20,” and he has it in the back of the car before I could walk back to the car–and the lights were out before I had my seatbelt on. It is a cute tree, it’s about 4 feet tall but very full and it smells pretty good too. </p>
<p>Is it a terrible thing that I think I’m going to wrap the yarn and the needles and let my daughter knit her own scarf?</p>
<p>Our tree has lights but no decorations. We are now visiting sister in law in DC. We have to decorate eventually, although we’ve changed our mind about having a New Year’s Eve eve party - going to do the 12th day of Christmas instead. Tree will get trimmed before the party. Cards haven’t gone out yet as dh hasn’t done his part of the letter. Right now it says “Dh has cured cancer etc. etc.” He kind of likes it that way. :)</p>
<p>Someone in this thread earlier said, Oh, enjoy it while you can. I agree. I LOVE having everyone home, and I fear tremendously what life will be like in thirty years – will I have my spouse to live with? Will the kiddies come home to be with me? Will I bore the cr*p out of the grandchildren? Will I be all alone?</p>
<p>So Yes, it’s all too much right now. But let’s enjoy it while we can.</p>
<p>dmd: It is not terrible to give the ‘craft kit’ instead of the knitted scarf, maybe you can make it kind of funny with a poem about why the scarf didn’t get knitted. Better yet, do you have one of those sheepskin rugs that you could wrap up with it?- implying that she has to spin the wool herself.</p>
<p>I hope the kitty perks up a little more, so y’all can enjoy the holiday. </p>
<p>To all those time crunched mom’s out there, here is my mantra this year (said over the unsent cards, unhung lights, unwrapped presents, and the unpurchased ‘perfect’ gift).</p>
<p>“It’s Christmas, the kids are home, no one is in the hospital.<br>
We have cookies!
It’s all good…”</p>
<p>Son came home on the 13th so he’d be here for his sister’s 16th birthday – he had to leave right after finishing his last final. Now he’s here taking up space in my living room again. His loft is already in storage, so it’s going to be a month of him crashing on the couch, being constantly underfoot. The only way we can make it work is to have him follow my schedule. </p>
<p>Because of the tight space, we negotiated a treaty with my daughter that she could have a half-size tree. Every year we go to Home Depot and she picks out a tree with a great top, and they cut it down to the right size. We used to try to buy little trees, but they cost <em>more</em> and were frequently not as pretty. </p>
<p>I do feel crunched, though. I work on Christmas Day (required by my employer) but also got roped into working on Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas as well – so tonight is my last few minutes to shop/wrap/prep.</p>
<p>So, so sorry about your senior cat. We lost our 4th elderly cat in 2 years a few days after Thanksgiving. Couldn’t tell D until finals were over last Tuesday. Our cat exhibited the same symptons, weighed 12 pounds in February 07 and 6 in November. The steroids and antihistimines helped his appetite for about 2 weeks and then it was gone for good. When he was eating the more expensive little cans from the independent pet stores were most popular. Sometimes warming it in the microwave makes it more appealing for the cat (stinks for the humans though). Cats won’t eat what they can’t smell.</p>
<p>PM me if you have any questions.</p>