Christmas Tree Adventures

I saw a few days ago that Gerrit's Greens was going to be closed this year.  It was mostly because they need the trees to grow because they sections have been picked over during the past few seasons and maybe a little bit because of Covid.  We've been coming here for years and Greg has told us that he needed his trees to grow so he might have to close his farm down for a year or so to let them grow.  It seemed like the perfect year to do that was 2020.  We were bummed because we liked coming out here, picking our trees and chatting with them for a while on what was happening in their life.

I try to get everyone motivated to go get trees.  This year we were going to Sproufske's Tree Farm, the other tree farm in Rainier.  I like to support people I know.  I went to high school with Jonathan.  I try to do it when we know there is a day on the weekend in early December when it isn't raining to go pick one.  This year we found a day we could all do it and not get soaked.  I talked Mom into going with us because she needed to get out of the house...even though she is not getting a tree.  We take Grandma with us because her tree is her Christmas present from Ben and I.  I've been doing this for at least a decade.

Ben and I got ready to go, jumped into the Escape, dropped off the recycle and went to pick up Grandma and Mom in Rainier.  I made sure I had some rope to tie off our trees with.  I found some at the Dollar Store the other day and threw it in the back.  We picked up Grandma first and then Mom and headed up the hill towards Finian Road.  

We pull into the property and find a parking spot.  We walk over to the building and spotted Jonathan helping out some customers wrapping up their tree.  I briefly chatted with him for a few minutes.  Some about the tree choices and some about geocaching.  We borrowed a saw and off we went to find a couple good and somewhat symmetrical Douglas Firs.  We spend a little bit wandering through the west lot trees looking for the best one to put in our living room and Grandma did the same.

After about 30 minutes of walking around we found the two trees we wanted to bring home with us.  We cut down Grandma's first and she and Mom walked it to the building to have Jonathan wrap it for them.  Then we cut down ours and walked it over to have it wrapped. 

There were some people in front of us so we had to wait in a line for a few minutes.  I went and paid for the trees, then I talked to Jonathan for a few more minutes, thanked him and then met up with Mom, Grandma and Ben at the Escape to tie the trees onto the top.  I am so glad I bought those small ropes.  They came in super handy.   

We took a few pictures of the sign near the entrance with everyone and saw that they got rid of their cache they placed here about five years ago.  I don't know how long it was here nor when they got rid of it.  I was going to have Mom and Ben find it but it had been archived.  

Dad called me wondering if I wanted some holly from Grammie and Grandpa's house so we stopped by there for a few minutes to grab some.  

We drove to Grandma's house to drop off her and her tree.  We did go inside for a few minutes so we could help her trim the bottom limbs and place it in the tree stand.  Her tree stand is a challenge.  We did manage to get it in and secure.  She thanked us and we drove over to Mom's house to drop her off and she wanted help figuring out how to finish her Christmas lights.  She made us some sandwiches for lunch and we talked about how we could get everything plugged in so it all works on her timer.

After some creative unplugging and plugging in, we managed to figure out how all of the Christmas lights could work together with Mom's timer.  She could actually turn on her Christmas lights with out a huge section missing because we couldn't figure out how to get them plugged in with her current scheme.  She thanked us for helping her and we drove home so we could get our tree up and decorated.

Ben and I brought the tree in and got it into the stand and stable.  We found out our tree had a bird's nest in it and we thought it was strange we didn't notice it until we got home.  I wondered if having a bird's nest in our tree meant that we will receive luck over the next year or that we won a prize.  Ben helped me get the Christmas decorations out of the garage and we started going through it.  He helped me for a while putting up the lights and the garland.

Once the base layers of the tree were on, we went through our Christmas ornaments and I had Ben put his on while I went through mine and added mine to the tree.  Every year we add a new ornament to our "years that we've been together" and this year we added our 7th ornament to our collection.  We have been together for 7 years already!  

We put the final touches on the tree and placed the skirt down below.  Voila!  We have a masterpiece!

Now to see what the new kitties will do with the tree.  I was really hoping neither of them ate the tree.  Fingers crossed!

I still needed to put some of the decorations up in the house, finish our Christmas cards and put the lights on the house but will have to wait later on this week when we had time.  We made rice yuck for dinner, cleaned the cat room, did some online shopping and got my elf scene ready for the next day.   

Next Adventure:  Saying Goodbye to Ben's Grandma Bonnie

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thursday, November 26

I was so glad we had a four day weekend.  I was so excited to sleep in.  Unfortunately, Ben's Grandma Bonnie lost the fight and passed away yesterday.  At least she wasn't in the terrible nursing home or in a hospital.  She was comfortably surrounded by her daughter inside a warm home with people who care about her.  Ben was upset that he wasn't able to see her one more time before yesterday and soon became depressed about it.  I didn't blame him.  He had just lost his last grandparent.

We were going to go over to Shelly's for Thanksgiving and have my family over on Friday but with the sudden change of plans, Trish ended up deciding to have a small Thanksgiving gathering at her house with Amy and Ed.  So that's where we were going to go.

We got up, had to clean up poop in the cat room because Oliver was having a hard time adjusting to a cat box after living on a farm.  I've had a lot of cats in the course of my lifetime and have never had one struggle to use a cat box.  We ate cereal (I had one bowl because I knew we'd be eating a lot of food later on), cleaned the kitchen, microwave and the oven because it desperately needed to get done.

The Texans and Lions game started at noon and we listened to that as we cleaned up the house before we went.  The game was very one sided, the Texans really made the Lions look bad.  Then we turned on the other game, Washington and Dallas which started at 1:30, for a bit and then decided that we should start getting ready.  Washington was making Dallas look bad.  With the loss of Dak for the season, the Cowboys weren't going to amount to much.  The third game of the day was postponed due to Covid.

I had a shower the night before so Ben took some time to get cleaned up.  We put something other than sweatpants on and got ready to go.  We packed up food, water and the cat box to take with us since we didn't want to leave the kitties behind since they've only been with us for a few day.  We put Oliver in the cat carrier and I held Wade in a blanket since he was cold.

We left later than we wanted but didn't hit any holiday traffic which was good.  We did get there past when the food got done but they waited for us and kept the food warm.  We pulled in, unloaded the cats and their things and got ready to eat food.  Trish had made a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots and Worcestershire sauce, rolls and some pie for dessert.  Of course, we ate too much.

We watched the rest of the Washington and Dallas game while we ate.  Washington crushed Dallas and in the other game the Texans destroyed the Lions.  We helped Trish clean up the dining table and put stuff away.  I got too comfortable with Wade and ended up falling asleep for about an hour or so.  That darn tryptophan! 

Ben and I brought our marble board, dice and marbles so we can play a different game for once.  We play the crap out of the games at his mom's house.  We played a few rounds and even Wade and Oliver participated in some of the dice rolls. It was a good time.  

We decided it was probably time to head on home.  Trish, Ed and Amy all had to work the next day but Ben and I didn't have to.  We packed up the cat's stuff, thanked Trish for having us over for Thanksgiving, she sent us home with her Jell-O dessert since she was undecided about tomorrow and we left towards home.  We stopped at Safeway to get gas and had no traffic keeping us from getting home.  It was nice.  We got home at a decent time, got some of the food ready for tomorrow's Thanksgiving with my family, Ben played his game, I worked on my blog for a while as I watched some of my crime documentaries.  It was a chill evening. 

Friday, November 27

The next morning I got up around 9:30 and took care of the cats.  Wade was so ready to come out of the bathroom and start his day.  Oliver was ready to be let out of the cat room as well.  I made French toast sticks and sausage for breakfast and had to make Ben get out of bed to eat it before it got cold.  We watched some college football as we ate.  College football wasn't as exciting this year.  So many good games were canceled or delayed because of Covid.  Black Friday was also canceled because of Covid too.  I am so sick of Covid.

After breakfast, we spent our late morning moving and setting tables up, chairs, vaccuming, cleaning the bathroom and making sure I had everything for the dinner.  I worked on my blog for a while and sat with our kitties.  Around 1:30ish I got the turkey and stuffing ready to go and put it in the cooker.  We had gotten this free from Josh and Heather a few weeks ago.  Heather works at Costco and one of the perks is free meat during the holidays.  They decided on having prime rib for their dinner this year instead of turkey.

Tracy had called me to let me know she wasn't coming for Thanksgiving this year.  It was a combination of several different things keeping her from coming.  Kevin and Karla emailed me back a few weeks ago telling me they probably wouldn't be coming to anything family related until Covid is gone or there is a safe vaccination.  Trish also called us to let us know they weren't coming either.  She was letting Covid dictate her decisions for some reason.  Ben was disappointed.

Ben went into town to visit with Josh and to see if he could get a holder for my birthday gift that came in the mail a few days ago.  He couldn't find what he was looking for so he decided against it.  It actually didn't need one because it came with a cover.  He stopped by Safeway to get some beer before he came home.  It was getting almost time for the potatoes and green beans to cook as I kept an eye on the turkey.

I got all the plates, silverware and decorations ready and decorated the table while I was waiting for everything to get done.

As it approached 6, most of my food was done so I set it on the table and put plates and tin foil over the food to keep it warm.  Erika and Zach arrived first with the salad I asked them to bring.  Erika got that all mixed up and put on the table.  Mom and Grandma arrived.  Mom brought her cookies, fudge and some Costco pies that she got from work.  Grandma brought some rolls and I immediately got the oven going so we could get them warm.  Dad came and got settled in and then Doug and Jenn came a little while later after we started eating with the sweet potatoes and green bean casserole.  Jenn got stuff cooking later than anticipated.  

We ate, chatted about funny things, Dad updated us on Grandpa's status at the rehab place since we couldn't go visit home because of Covid, he seems to be doing pretty well, we watched the Civil War and the Beavers beat the Ducks just before the end of the game.  There was no Apple Cup this year due to Covid.  This was the first time a game wasn't held since 1944.  The Pac-12 this year was a disaster anyway so it was just as well.

Everyone stayed for a bit, ate some dessert, and then everyone decided they wanted to go home and relax.  Everyone took home some leftovers.  Ben and I cleaned up and put everything away, watched the Masked Singer and the Mandalorian and then went to bed shortly after.  I was tired.

Saturday, November 28

It was nice to sleep in a little bit.  Ben slept in longer so I had a Poptart and milk while I watched some of the college football games while I ate.  I got some laundry going, Ben and I did a little bit of house cleaning, wiped the kitchen down and started gathering up the recycle and the garbage, which takes me some time because I want to make sure I get all of it.

I piled the recycle into the back of the Escape and headed on into Rainier.  I dropped off the recycle first and then proceeded to Mom and Dad's house for the truck.  He decided he wanted to go with me so we stopped at Grandma's house for some cans, then Grandpa's house for cans and then drove into Rainier to load up my three cans.  I would rather have a load of six cans so paying the $18 is well worth it.  We got to the dump and didn't have to wait too long to get rid of it.

We drove back to my house to drop off the cans and then headed back into Rainier.  There was an accident on Rainier Road just before Military Road, a motorcycle drove off the road and into the trees.  Luckily, we didn't have to stop and wait a long time...plus I don't think it was a fatality so they didn't have to close the road.  

We dropped off Grandpa's cans and then dropped off Grandma's cans.  Dad took me back to their house so I could pick up my Escape.  I thanked Dad for the dump run and then went to the store in Hawks Prairie to pick up a few things and to get a cat bed for Oliver.

I got home, snuggled with the kitties for a while, watched Mike Tyson box on TV, then crime shows, Ben started playing his Mario 64 game that he plays between Thanksgiving and Christmas...a tradition he and his dad used to do and just relaxed because we could.  

He eventually got ready for his 24-hour shift the next day.  That meant he had to shave, shower and get some food all packed up to go.  I stayed up a little bit longer working on my blog and watching random shows on our streaming sites.

Sunday, November 29

Ben got up, got ready and fed the cats.  I could hear him thumping around the room as he got ready.  Now that I was awake I got up and peed and then went back to bed.  He took the stuff out of the room and got his car started.  He came back in, said goodbye with kisses and he headed out.  The cats ran around for a while and then settled down again and laid with me until I got up, a few hours later.  I didn't have to get up for anything.

I managed to finally get up around 10.  I ate some cereal and called Mom to see what they were doing today.  She said that she bought some new Christmas lights for the house and wanted help putting them up.  I said I'd be there in a while.  I wanted to get some of my clothes washed and a couple things put away.  So I spent a few hours doing that.  

We didn't quite trust the cats to be out in the living room quite yet so I grabbed some of their toys, made sure they had food and water and their cat box was good and put them into the cat room for a few hours. I would rather minimize the destruction of the house than come home to see what all they got into.  At this point they haven't been here quite a week yet.  We were all still feeling each other out.

I drove out to Rainier and asked mom how she wanted to put the lights on the house and if she had enough to make it around.  She said she should have plenty of them.  I went and got the ladder and set it up on the back porch and had Dad hold it because the back porch has seen better days over the past few years.  I didn't want it to slip and I fall and get hurt really bad.  I brought the box of roof/gutter clips with me.  We took the old lights off...many of them were already falling off the roof anyways so it didn't take very long to get them all down.  Mom opened all the boxes and stretched them out and started handing them to me.  We started with the south side of the roof and worked our way to the north side.  The plug in are at the middle of the roof and on the north side of the house.  We were going to have to be creative when we plug them in so the roof ones and the ones she wrapped around the porch all worked.

It was a slow process but we made some strides once we got going.  I was glad the roof was dry or I would be soaked.  I did have a towel underneath me just so I wasn't rubbing against the singles with my pants. 

It took about an hour and a half to get them all up and we were glad they all worked when we did plug them in.  We did plug them in before we put them up to see if they worked before putting them up because you just never know.  She wanted the two stars, one on the porch and the other on the garage to work but we didn't have the connecters to do so.  That would have to wait for another day.  Apparently, the extension cords have two different size prongs now days which makes it hard to plug stuff into itself.  That was one of our issues.

Because it was winter and the days were short, it was starting to get dark and I was getting cold after being on the roof for a couple hours.  Plus, I needed to get home to let the cats out of their room and get some stuff done at my house like finish the laundry and start getting my elf on the shelf stuff ready for December.  

Mom and Dad thanked me for helping them put lights on the house and I headed home.  I made myself some leftovers and watched some shows.  I got cleaned up and then started wrapping presents that I had sitting in the extra room.  I thought, why not...I have some time to get this done before we get our tree.  

I got the elf on the shelf bins out and started going through them for the ideas I've been collecting since last year.  I got some of them set aside for the first week of December,  I only had to have four display ideas for that week.

I talked to Ben for a bit before it was time for bed.  I hate that these long weekend seem to go by so fast.  This year's Thanksgiving was very unorthodox.  I really missed everyone getting together like we did many years ago as a family.  It's just not the same.  Why does time go by so fast and take people away from you?  I never understood why so many people hated the holidays but as of 2018 I now understand.  Holidays to me were very important growing up because it was about family.  My family is disappearing and it hurts.  Covid just makes it worse.  Please go away!

Next Adventure:  Christmas Tree Adventures

Welcome Home Wade and Oliver!

August was a terrible month for me.  August two years ago was the worst.  Why has the month of August been so horrible to me?  I was so devastated when I had to make one of the worse decisions by putting my cat, Calvin, to sleep.  I hated that I had to make such a choice.  I will never forget the way I felt when I left the clinic.  It felt like I had betrayed him when he was counting on me to make him better and take him home.  I wasn't going to be able to make him better because he was an older cat and it's hard to overcome cancer as an older cat.  The worst part was feeling him die in my arms and the realization that he was gone.  He wasn't coming back.  I cried for days.

I wasn't sure when I would be ready to have another cat because losing Calvin made me so sad.  This was my first pet as an adult that wasn't a family pet.  We had a lot of good times and I am glad he was around during the roughest parts of my life.  He will always hold a special place in my heart.

A few weeks later, one of Mom's bosses at the office, suggested this place called Siamese Sensations on Facebook, who are located in the Spanaway area.  Mom had told some people at work about the loss of my cat and I guess Dr. Woods loves cats and thought I would appreciate the connection. 

I finally got the nerve to contact them on August 16th to ask about their services and to see if it would be possible to get a kitty.  I knew adoption places made it tough for people to get pets because of the rules, prices and such.  I get it because they don't want their pets to go to people who can't take care of them or will abuse them.  I was contacted back and she said it was possible but I would have to be put on a list because it is a first come first served basis.  I proceeded to tell her my story and she felt for me.  She had lost cats in the past and knows how painful it is to lose a buddy.

I told her my preferences and she said that she might have a litter coming up that might yield a male blue point but she said no guarantees and I understood that.  She said the litter would be born sometime in mid to late September and that she could put me on a list.  I downloaded PayPal, resurrected my account and sent her $50 plus tax to her account so I could be on a list.  She said she would contact me when she had more information and as it got closer to when the kittens were born.  She added, that she typically keeps them with their mothers until about 8 weeks old so she knows that they can used the litter box, clean themselves and eat before adopting them out.  I told her thank you for the information and that I was excited to be a part of the process.

The house was sure lonely without a pet in it.  At this point, I've been working from home for about 5-6 months because of Covid and the house was so quiet without Calvin.  I missed him so much.

My litter was born on September 23, 2020.  He was born into a litter with four other males, the mother, Maleficent (the owner loves Disney and her pets often get Disney names) is a blue point Siamese and this was her last litter.  She messaged me to let me know that the litter was born and will have more information for me once the kittens got bigger.

Once their eyes opened and started moving around more she sent me pictures of him playing and being a kitten.  She told me that she calls him the old man because he has a grumpy old man face.  

As it got closer to the 8 weeks, she messaged me just before Thanksgiving to let me know that my kitten was ready to come pick up.  I asked if it was okay for me to come get him on Tuesday after work and she said that was fine.  I said I lived in Lacey and it would take some time to get out to where she was.  I told her I would text her when I got into Spanaway.  She said that all works for her and said she would see me on Tuesday.

Ben also wanted a kitty.  He hasn't had his own pet since Sebastian, an orange kitty he had picked out of a shelter when he was about 5 or 6 years old.  He had him until he was about 17.  We started looking up free kittens around the area.  Most if not all wanted some sort of an adoption fee, which I totally get because they want the animals to go to places that will take care of them.  Ben finally got a hold of someone who had three kittens on a farm in Oakville.  They were asking for a $50 adoption fee so they could save the money and fix their barn cat.  The family had two orange cats and a black and white cat.  They were older kittens, roughly 4-5 months old.  Mom overheard us talking about it and she wanted the other orange cat.  I asked her if she was sure because we can't take him back.  She said she was sure.  

That day, I let Ben take our cat carrier to pick up the two orange cats after he got off work and when I got off work that day I stopped by Mom and Dad's house to pick up the other cat carrier to pick up my cat.  I told Dad, since he was home at the time, that I would bring my cat by on my way home so he and Mom could meet him.  I went the back way around Yelm into McKenna and then through Roy and then into Spanaway.  I let her know I was in Spanaway and she said see you in a bit.  I turned left onto Hwy 7 and followed her directions to her house.  I was so glad I went and got money from the ATM during lunch earlier that day because I wouldn't have had time to do it after work.

I pulled up to her house, parked, grabbed the cat carrier, my money and my mask and rang the door bell.  She let me in and welcomed me.  I told her I wasn't sure on her mask policy so I just wore mine the entire time.  She showed me where my little guy was and let me hold him while we visited a little bit.  He was so tiny!  She gave me a bag of starter kitten food and a blanket to take with me.  I gave her the money and thanked her for everything.  She thanked me for working with her and being patient.  I went back to the Escape and headed back to Hwy 7.  He was quiet the entire way back to Mom and Dad's house.  Once I got there, I grabbed the cat carrier and took him into the house.  I took him out and let Mom and Dad hold him.  Chloe wasn't a fan of him.  I told her that he wasn't staying and that she could chill out.  I stayed for about a half hour and decided it was time to head home.  It's been a long day.  

I had already picked out a name for him.  His name is Wade.  I picked Wade because Ben and I love the Deadpool movies and I've never heard of a pet named Wade before.

I got home a little bit before Ben arrived with the orange cats.  We took them all out of the cat carriers and let them explore the house.  The two orange cats were very friendly even though they were barn cats.  Mom said she would pick up her cat the next day after she got home from work.  So I had to keep all of them company while I worked tomorrow.

We needed some kitten food so Ben and I ran to the store quickly and bought some kitten food.  We already had litter so we got the litter box ready and made a smaller one for Wade because he was going to spend the night in the guest bathroom while the two orange cats slept in the cat room.  Everyone got food and water in their rooms as well.

They were very busy and even did some wrestling before it was time for bed.  I set up the guest bathroom for Wade while Ben got the cat room ready for the orange cats.  We had to keep the heat on so they didn't get cold since it was late fall/early winter.  The first night was pretty good.  Wade did mew for a while but he eventually gave up and went to sleep.

**A few days later Ben named his cat Oliver and about two weeks later Mom and Dad named their orange cat Kirby.**

Next Adventure:  Thanksgiving Weekend