Christmas sort of got away from me as the New Year moved in, but in addition to sharing what we received for the holidays this year, I’d love to take a minute to find out what we all gave. :smiley81

Did you give anything to anyone that they just loved or that was truly appreciated?

I expected to spend Christmas Day alone because Madame Mommy Dearest was scheduled to pet-sit, but at the last minute, her job was cancelled.  So even though we’d already done our sit-down Christmas dinner on the 23rd, we did it all over again on Christmas Day. :smiley67 Everything was delicious, too!  We had turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green bean & carrot casserole, & cranberry dressing.  It was all so good, I could eat it three times a day every day until next Christmas. :smiley72

I didn’t realize it at the time, but for about the third year in a row, I purchased almost all of my gifts for others from charity organizations such as The Animal Rescue Site.  So not only did I get gifts to give, but my purchases raised money for some really great causes! :smiley88

I was also delighted to be able to donate more than a dozen giant bags of dry cat food to the Hundred Cat Foundation for their annual “Feed the Ferals” Food Drive.  If I can’t rescue every stray/feral/homeless cat on the planet, the least I can do is provide much-needed food to help get some of them through the winter. :smiley11

In addition to a gift certificate to her favorite winery, I got Madame Mommy Dearest two adorable new tops.  Both Christmasy, with cute little rhinestones here & there, but one with cats & the other with dogs.  She loved them both so much, she couldn’t decide which to try on first!  But when she did actually wear one out—the day after Christmas—she said she got tons of compliments.  And she loves them because they’re comfortable, cute, & just her style.  (FYI, MMD is terribly hard to clothes-shop for; she’s so particular & picky about materials, necklines, seams… Sheesh. :smiley64 )

I also got her a little notebook to keep track of all of her usernames/passwords because I get tired of her asking me what they are.  How am I supposed to know that???  I have enough trouble remembering my own! :smiley58

And I found a replacement part for her hot air popcorn popper that she’d been bugging me about for months.  (Yes, sometimes Christmas is about buying gifts that will get someone off your back for a while. :smiley62 )

It was also Princess Pippa’s First Christmas.  So fun to have a baby in the house for the holidays! :smiley33

I got all of The Kittehs a few fun new toys, of course, but everything is so new & exciting to Pippa!  She ate & ate & ate turkey from our Christmas dinner; I couldn’t fill her dish fast enough & had to wait until she was full before I could actually stop to eat myself. :smiley72   Then she played & played & played with crinkled-up wrapping paper & the new toys.  And eventually, a couple of the others got to play with them, too. :smiley73

So all in all, I feel like I did a decent job of finding items my loved ones would like & use.  How about you? :smiley57