Dec
2018

Roll out the barrel!

I got a kitty early for my birthday! I love her! Her name is Gabby.

He said

In the blink of an eye, we went from talking about Christmas almost being here in last week’s post to looking back at an amazing few, festive days spent in the company of the people who matter most to us. Tomorrow is already New Years Eve and after another busy run of days at work, I am looking forward to three straight days off again. Christmas Eve I worked and once the store was closed I made a beeline over to Mom & Dad’s so we could spend the evening having dinner with them. We visited for a little after dinner and then made our way home so that we could get to bed before Santa showed up.

Christmas morning, we were allowed a sleep-in all the way to 7:00am (she likes to remind us that she was up at 6:00am, but didn’t wake us up until 7:00am as if that is some feat worthy angel’s choruses). Once we Danielle & I were downstairs, Emelia was allowed to make her grand entrance. She was surprised to see her gift from Santa, a UCLA Bruins shirt, that she had asked for, as their school is one of the best in NCAA athletics for gymnastics and a dream of hers is to get a scholarship there for gymnastics. She got a lot of the clothes and trinkets she asked for and was her usual slow self opening gifts.

The big surprise on Christmas morning was the gift that Danielle and Emelia worked together to get me! As someone who went to university for Visual Arts and had a 22 year career in Graphic Design, art has obviously been a passion of mine. I have also had the fortune of becoming friends with amazing artists and have long coveted their artwork. One of those artist friends, Julie Fader`~ is an accomplished painter but also a musician in her own right. Her abstract artwork is totally unique and Danielle has heard me go on for years that I would love to have one of her pieces in our house. Well, Danielle was able to do some super sleuthing and get one of her recent paintings, and delivered by another musician friend of ours who had a gig in town. I was totally blown away and in love with the gift. She knocked it out of the park!

The other big surprise was an early birthday surprise for Emelia. Ever since seeing Charlie & Todd’s kittens this summer, Emelia has been bugging us incessantly that she wanted a friend for Gord and more specifically a girl kitty. Given that Emelia and Danielle had a week and a bit off at Christmas and that there was a rescue with an adorable little girl kitty looking for a forever home, we impulsed and put the pieces in place for an early birthday surprise. So, in Emelia’s stocking she found a kitty collar and very quickly pieced together what that meant and she was beaming with the early birthday gift. Quickly, she landed on the name Gabby and was totally in favour of the adorable little girl we had pictures of.

Arrangements were made to pick up Gabby on Boxing day and bring her to her new forever home. After a few hissy hours from Gord, the two have sorted each other out and have become playmates. Gord really enjoys having someone to chase around and play with and the two have found all sorts time to run around the house together. And one night I even found them curled up together at the foot of our bed in ‘Gord’s Spot‘ which was reassuring after all the initial hissing. The two get along great despite Emelia’s initial worry that she ruined Gord’s life, and Emelia even declared that this was the best Christmas and Birthday ever. Which if I am being honest, I completely agree!

She said

I know we say this every Christmas but this was the best Christmas. It was the perfect balance of family time and time taking things easy. Emelia is really transitioning from little girl to young lady and this year really showed it. This year Emelia’s Christmas wish list was mainly clothes, decorations for her room, a little big of make-up and of course a ton of gymnastics ‘stuff’. Well she got everything on her list and then some.

Needless to say Christmas was a big hit, Emelia must have said thousand times that this was the best Christmas and early birthday EVER. Take in account that she hadn’t even opened her presents from her grandparents and aunts and uncles. The biggest surprise and of course biggest change in our lives was the addition of Gabriella to our family. For months and months Emelia has been asking for a second kitten, the only requirement she has was the kitten HAD to be a girl. Our requirement was personality match to our family and the daycare as well as making our little girl find the right match.

About 2 weeks before Christmas I reached out to a local rescue. I found them through a good friend of mine who had rescued two sisters. The rescue was absolutely amazing to work with, Sonia (the owner) assessed our needs and sent us many pictures and stories of some kittens. Quickly a kitten captured our hearts and we hoped that Emelia would feel the same way. We really wanted Emelia to have a say in which kitten we chose but the kittens were being adopted quickly and we worried that we wouldn’t have the right match at the right time. Sonia agreed that she felt Gabby would be the best match and agreed to hold on to her until Emelia could see pictures of her Christmas morning. Thankfully Emelia fell in love with her as well.

Emelia went over to see family and excitedly told everyone about our newest family member and even more excitement that Amy would be able to come with us to meet her and bring her over to introduce her to the family. Boxing Day morning we went over to Helen and Doug’s early to get the girls and to head to Masonville for the girls annual shopping trip. This shopping day is one day that Emelia and Amy look forward to all year. Since we got to the mall before 8:30 the mall wasn’t too bad and the girls were able to make their way through a record number of stores in record time. Before we knew it it was time to meet Gabby and bring her home.

The rest of this week has been all about getting Gabby settled in. Emelia has had lots of time with her kittens and with friends who have been over visiting to meet the newest addition to the family. The week has been a fair bit of relaxing and time with friends. I am sad that our break together will come to an end on Wednesday but we have had lots of time together and that is what the holidays are all about.

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