Dickens & Suess

Tomorrow is my family's annual Christmas Eve Shindig at my Aunt Ida's house. This has become a "new" family tradition of ours. I say "new" because we actually used to do it years and years ago, but we fell out of practice until Christmas 2000. After my cousin Bridgette passed away we decided to try to gather together every Christmas Eve as a family. I have taken it upon myself to plan the event every year and Ida has volunteered her home for us during the night. I can't take any of the credit really though...all I do is mail out Christmas cards with reminders to meet at Ida's on Christmas Eve. Nothing too strenuous. Its a simple affair really. People bring food, soda pop, and their pretty little festive selves. We play games, take pictures, talk, sing...nothing too complicated but lots of fun.

We also get together on my Mom's side of the family as well. Usually the Bowles' clan will gather together somewhere at some point and time. We have a dinner. If there are gifts to exchange, then we pass them along. Otherwise, we just enjoy one another's company. In my more immediate family on my Mom's side, every year we get together at someone's house (this year it will be at my house) and we exchange gifts (we draw names earlier in the year) and nosh on some grindage (sorry, random Pauly Shore reference there...couldn't help myself). Nothing extravagant. Nothing boistorous. (I like throwing in words I can't spell but make me sound important.)

At any rate...the point is this...it doesn't take a lot to enjoy the holiday.

This year I can't tell you how many people I've heard say "I can't afford Christmas this year." or "We're not having Christmas." or "Christmas costs too much."

I keep my mouth shut when I hear these things. I try not to judge folks. My opinion, as much as I like to share it with people, really doesn't count for much in the whole grand scheme of things. And Lord knows, I've spent too much on Christmas gifts this year. And the truth be told, if it weren't for bill collectors harrassing me on the telephone, I would have spent even more on gifts for people. I enjoy buying presents. I'm horrible at wrapping gifts, but I even enjoy that. I like to give to other people. Its why I donate to charities, why I volunteer when I can, why I want to go to UK and get my Masters in Social Work...I like to give. But...Christmas time is a hard time to give to people. Most gifts cost money and some of them cost a great deal of money. And its really a lot like Scrooge told his nephew...what is Christmas but a time to find yourself "another year older and not a penny richer" and a time "for paying bills without money." Its sad but true.

But that's not the point.

We all know the story behind Christmas. I'll not "preach the Gospel" to you on here. You are free to believe as you choose to believe. But it is my hope that you don't believe that all Christmas is about is G-I-F-T-S. Because its not.

Whether or not you are a Christian at Christmas isn't my concern, but if you think that you "can't afford" Christmas or that you just won't celebrate Christmas because its "too expensive," I urge you to think again.

Christmas isn't about gifts. It isn't about how much money you spend or who you buy for. It isn't about Black Friday sales in November or After Christmas Sales on the 26th of December. It isn't about pretty paper and bows. Or tinsel on trees.

You can't cancel Christmas because you have too many bills to pay. You can't make Christmas wait until January because you need to save your cash for a rainy day.
Christmas isn't about any of that. Not really
We get so caught up with all the wrappings and trimmings, all the commercials, and the "I Wants" that we forget what Christmas time is really about.
Christmas, if you are a believer, is about the ultimate gift from God...his only son, given to humanity to suffer and die for our sins, so that we can have a chance at an eternity of peace and love in Heaven. Whether we accept God's gift to us, is of our own choosing. Simple as that.
If you don't follow the teachings of Christ (or of any religion at all), Christmas is still worth celebrating. For those of you that aren't Christian followers, Christmas can (and should) be about family...about friends...about sharing a little love with the entire world wherever you can.
Christmas is for memories. Most...no...ALL...of my BEST Christmas memories don't involve gifts at all. I remember getting a bike one year, but I don't remember what year it was. I remember getting all the Barbies I asked for another year, but they weren't important enough for me to play with every day of my life. I can remember gifts I got and gifts I gave, but they weren't my BEST memories. My BEST memories always, ALWAYS involved the people I was around. Laughter shared. Stories told. Little ones that grew up too fast. Older ones that passed too soon.
Christmas isn't about gifts or money or mindless consumerism. Christmas is about L-O-V-E. A love that we should carry in our hearts every day of the year. We should keep Christmas like Scrooge kept Christmas after his visits from the three Spirits...in his heart all year long. And we would do good to remember the wise words of one of my favorite authors:

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store."
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"

goodbye my friend...

I love animals. I love them dearly. I'm not a vegetarian or a member of PETA. But I have a profound respect and love for all God's creatures, no matter how small. I've always been that way.

Some members of my family have nicknamed me "Ellie Mae" (as in Ellie Mae Clampett) because I've had such an assortment of critters through the years. I'm known for bringing home strays of all kinds, not just cats and dogs, but 'possums, raccoons, deer...whatever needs a home or a surrogate "mommy".

Almost four and a half years ago, while working on our family dairy farm, I came across four little kittens. They were roughly two weeks old and their Mom had abandoned them. They were scared, alone, hungry, and cold, and I took them home with me. The first one I found was a little girl. I named her Poop because she was "the sh*t". :-) I called her "Princess Pretty Poop" to be exact. I'm not sure why, the name just stuck. She's the only cat I know named Poop.

Anyway, I raised those cats. All four of them. I was their Momma Cat. I fed them every two hours, even through the night, I bathed them, I potty trained them (not just teaching them to use the litter box, mind you, but after every feeding I had to use a warm wet washcloth to "stimulate" their privates and causing them to expel their urine and fecal matter...technical terms huh, but it is what Mommy cats do when they lick their babies after they eat, cause kittens that young can't use the bathroom by themselves and require stimulation...there's your cat biology lesson for the day). Anyway...I was the Cat Mom.

Eventually one of the kittens died. He had been stepped on my a calf when he was just born and because of that, his head was malformed and he couldn't be taught to eat solid food. We couldn't keep him on the bottle forever and eventually he died because he wasn't getting enough nutrients. He always had plenty to eat, mind you, but just not enough vitamins and minerals. His name was Weebles, because he wobbled when he walked and sometimes walked in circles...but he never fell down. :-) He was a sweet cat...ill tempered as all get out, but sweet none the less.

Poop and her brother (Bart) and sister (Emmie) made it and I moved them in with my other cat, Oliver, when they were six weeks old (he's just a few months older than them). All was well in the kitty cat kingdom until about two years ago. In the winter of 2007, Emmie and Poop fell ill. They had a lung infection. I took them to the vet. He tested them for feline leukemia and it came back positive. After some antibiotics and some long and stressful nights of me sitting up with them and forcing them to drink Pedalyte because they wouldn't eat or drink anything else, they finally pulled through, although Emmie's lungs were never quite the same. But Poop was fine.

Unfortunatly, there is no cure for feline leukemia and it is VERY contagious to other cats. It basically breaks down a cat's immune system, so anything they catch can be the death of them. Poop and Emmie were born with it, that means that Bart probably has it as well, although I've never had him tested. And Oliver, because he was raised with them and has shared food and water with them, probably has it as well...eventhough I've never had him tested either. For all intents and purposes Bart, Poop, and Oliver have all been pretty healthy and Emmie's only real problem is that she gets congested easily.

That being said, I lost Poop this morning.

She had gotten sick and wasn't eating a lot, but she was still eating and drinking...just not a lot. She had lost a lot of weight too. My vet lives an hour away and my cats don't travel well. So I decided I would just go get the usual meds for the sickness, which is what I did.

Knowing that they have feline leukemia, I knew that it was just a matter of time before I lost them, so I didn't want to add to any stress on them by forcing them to go back and forth to the vet, just to prolong the inevitable. If the vet was five minutes from my home, I might would do it, but an hour up there and an hour back was too traumatic for them.

Anyway, the medicine didn't work this time. Poop's breathing got worse. She stopped eating and drinking altogether. I knew what was coming, so I had been sleeping in the floor with her for the past few nights...just to let her know that her adoptive Mom was there. This morning I left out to go feed my outside critters (chickens, dogs, a couple more cats...) and when I came back to check on her, she was already gone.

I'm terribly upset. These were my kitty "children". And although I know it would NEVER compare to losing a real child, she was my pet, my friend, my family...and I was very attached. So for all you pet lovers out there, tonight give your critters an extra hug from me and Poop and say a little prayer for my broken heart while you are at it.

Thanks.

(Poop facing off with my pet duck, Tenbrooks.)               (Poop & Bart)                                           (Poop after a bath.)