Sleeping kittens, US Thanksgiving, and the (reasonable) beginning of the Christmas season
There are many, many things in life that are as lovely as having a purring kitten on your lap, and then having them slowly drift off...and their purring slowing down and stopping...and then that one deep, deep inhale as they fall asleep properly. But I don't think there are many better things.
Claudia did it about an hour ago, although she didn't nap for long. Just having her on my lap is an accomplishment, though! (We did the "I scooped her up from the short cat condo beside my desk and plunked her down on me, and she stopped and thought about it before settling in.) And sadly, last night Jinksy did it...but it was late, and he stayed put for an hour or so. I had to wake him up so I could go to bed. He was terribly confused by having his comfy nap interrupted, but it was 2 AM and I couldn't even use writing as an excuse for staying up even later, since he was getting two-handed petting.
Is it common for cats to cover their faces with and burrow into both front paws when their sleep is disturbed? Both Jinksy and Claudia do it, and it's unspeakably cute. (It's so very like a teenager shoving hir head under a pillow and moaning, "Noooooo, I don't wanna get up!" ["Teenager", I say, as if I don't essentially do that every morning of my life.]) But I don't recall any of the three cats I grew up with doing it.
It's the last day of November, and the last day of wrisomifu. I'm really going to miss it! But as I've said before, this year I got to participate more effectively because Casual Job didn't start for the fall session until this week. (Oh, poor wallet.) I'm so glad I convinced
wildpear to give it a try, because she was a bit skeptical and wound up loving it to pieces.
And now US Thanksgiving is behind us. I hope everyone who celebrated had a lovely one! I've been enjoying people's picspam of their dinners; I've become bizarrely fond of Thanksgiving dinners, given that turkey leaves me cold about 95% of the time (duck! Let there be duck!) and I don't eat vegetables.
US Thanksgiving means a few things to me: 1) Pretty food pictures. 2) Occasionally a second Thanksgiving dinner here, since my mom is American and I can sometimes use that as a way to have Thanksgiving with my parents (November),
scruloose's parents, and with our local friends (both of the latter in October). 3) Most/many of my TV shows not airing--and it always takes me a few minutes to clue in to why I suddenly don't get to see Elementary or Haven or heaven knows what else this week.
And finally, 4) It's now officially-to-me the Christmas season. I love a lot about Christmas (but I usually don't talk about it all that much, since I know a lot of people are really not into it, even if they observe it in some form, religious or secular). It helps that I stay the hell out of malls and don't get overexposed to horrible renditions of the music or flash-blinded by a billion little lights. Setting aside both the religious elements and the fact that I do enjoy seeing people I often don't get to otherwise, I love a lot of the music, and I love the lights (so beautiful when not overdone, and sometimes fun even then), and evergreens and candles and seasonal baked goods etc.
Tomorrow is the first day of Advent, whether you mark it from December 1st or the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which I think is excellent timing; next weekend, weather permitting, a huge mob of us are planning to drive out to the usual Christmas tree farm. We'll need to put more thought into a tree than usual, since it's Claudia and Jinksy's first. We want to make it at least a bit difficult for them to knock over, and we're going to avoid using breakable ornaments, so a smaller one is probably good. (Our main living area is the entire main floor of our place, so there's a lot of room for a tall tree if we want to go that route.)
Two winter-holiday-related things have crossed my radar on LJ already: mrissa's Cookie Day report [see also: I really enjoy people's posts about food], and the BPAL Yuletide update. I've managed to not buy BPAL at all for nearly two years, because I essentially never wear it and have a horrifying number of imps given that, but the Yule and Hallowe'en updates are always my favorites (and the Yules generally work better on me, snow/ice/cold notes aside), and bookandbroom, through whose decant circles I acquired the bulk of my collection over a few years, is calling it quits after this one. So I succumbed and joined in, although I managed to keep it to only four new imps.
Skadi 2013
Frost-rimed winter berries, crisp pine needle, and a slush of bright snowy notes.
Yule Cookies
Clouds of flour and spices with the scent of ginger tea, warm caraway cakes, snickerdoodle pinwheels, and sugar cookies with sweet orange frosting.
The Spell of the Eastern Sea
Sea salt, kelp, and twisting willows.
Gingerbread Snake
Gingerbread and exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla.
(I don't expect Skadi to work on me, unless the pine is strong, but it's one of those scents that I've seen people talking about for years and have never smelled myself.)
Originally posted at http://umadoshi.dreamwidth.org/476945.html. Comment here if you like, or comment there using OpenID. Comments at DW:
Claudia did it about an hour ago, although she didn't nap for long. Just having her on my lap is an accomplishment, though! (We did the "I scooped her up from the short cat condo beside my desk and plunked her down on me, and she stopped and thought about it before settling in.) And sadly, last night Jinksy did it...but it was late, and he stayed put for an hour or so. I had to wake him up so I could go to bed. He was terribly confused by having his comfy nap interrupted, but it was 2 AM and I couldn't even use writing as an excuse for staying up even later, since he was getting two-handed petting.
Is it common for cats to cover their faces with and burrow into both front paws when their sleep is disturbed? Both Jinksy and Claudia do it, and it's unspeakably cute. (It's so very like a teenager shoving hir head under a pillow and moaning, "Noooooo, I don't wanna get up!" ["Teenager", I say, as if I don't essentially do that every morning of my life.]) But I don't recall any of the three cats I grew up with doing it.
It's the last day of November, and the last day of wrisomifu. I'm really going to miss it! But as I've said before, this year I got to participate more effectively because Casual Job didn't start for the fall session until this week. (Oh, poor wallet.) I'm so glad I convinced
wildpear to give it a try, because she was a bit skeptical and wound up loving it to pieces.
And now US Thanksgiving is behind us. I hope everyone who celebrated had a lovely one! I've been enjoying people's picspam of their dinners; I've become bizarrely fond of Thanksgiving dinners, given that turkey leaves me cold about 95% of the time (duck! Let there be duck!) and I don't eat vegetables.
US Thanksgiving means a few things to me: 1) Pretty food pictures. 2) Occasionally a second Thanksgiving dinner here, since my mom is American and I can sometimes use that as a way to have Thanksgiving with my parents (November),
scruloose's parents, and with our local friends (both of the latter in October). 3) Most/many of my TV shows not airing--and it always takes me a few minutes to clue in to why I suddenly don't get to see Elementary or Haven or heaven knows what else this week.
And finally, 4) It's now officially-to-me the Christmas season. I love a lot about Christmas (but I usually don't talk about it all that much, since I know a lot of people are really not into it, even if they observe it in some form, religious or secular). It helps that I stay the hell out of malls and don't get overexposed to horrible renditions of the music or flash-blinded by a billion little lights. Setting aside both the religious elements and the fact that I do enjoy seeing people I often don't get to otherwise, I love a lot of the music, and I love the lights (so beautiful when not overdone, and sometimes fun even then), and evergreens and candles and seasonal baked goods etc.
Tomorrow is the first day of Advent, whether you mark it from December 1st or the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which I think is excellent timing; next weekend, weather permitting, a huge mob of us are planning to drive out to the usual Christmas tree farm. We'll need to put more thought into a tree than usual, since it's Claudia and Jinksy's first. We want to make it at least a bit difficult for them to knock over, and we're going to avoid using breakable ornaments, so a smaller one is probably good. (Our main living area is the entire main floor of our place, so there's a lot of room for a tall tree if we want to go that route.)
Two winter-holiday-related things have crossed my radar on LJ already: mrissa's Cookie Day report [see also: I really enjoy people's posts about food], and the BPAL Yuletide update. I've managed to not buy BPAL at all for nearly two years, because I essentially never wear it and have a horrifying number of imps given that, but the Yule and Hallowe'en updates are always my favorites (and the Yules generally work better on me, snow/ice/cold notes aside), and bookandbroom, through whose decant circles I acquired the bulk of my collection over a few years, is calling it quits after this one. So I succumbed and joined in, although I managed to keep it to only four new imps.
Skadi 2013
Frost-rimed winter berries, crisp pine needle, and a slush of bright snowy notes.
Yule Cookies
Clouds of flour and spices with the scent of ginger tea, warm caraway cakes, snickerdoodle pinwheels, and sugar cookies with sweet orange frosting.
The Spell of the Eastern Sea
Sea salt, kelp, and twisting willows.
Gingerbread Snake
Gingerbread and exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla.
(I don't expect Skadi to work on me, unless the pine is strong, but it's one of those scents that I've seen people talking about for years and have never smelled myself.)
Originally posted at http://umadoshi.dreamwidth.org/476945.html. Comment here if you like, or comment there using OpenID. Comments at DW: