Monthly Archives: December 2017

Looks like Obsidian found the catnip inside the castle! He’s never that mellow…haha!

Glen went to his house last night and told me not to peek when he came back. After another hour or so was the big reveal…a castle cat tree! Ebony walked in, loved her new present right away, and stayed all night as Queen of the Castle enjoying the catnip, but Obsidian was so wary that he only peeked onto the shelf!

A Kitty Christmas so far, including guarding presents under the tree, “sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy” and Queen of Cookie Mountain. 😸🎅🎄🎁

Ebony is becoming more demanding about hugs, so much that she is climbing up on my shoulders all by herself! When she walks around in front of my face it’s quite difficult to get anything done!

Yesterday as soon as I set the furry fleece super-soft snowflake blanket folded up on the corner of the couch, Ebony claimed it. Obsidian wants some too but he can’t get much more than a pillow’s worth. Ebony slept on the bed last night, but by this morning she was back on the blanket all day and all evening again! Glen keeps asking what is so magical about this blanket?!?

During kitty quality time tonight I finally convinced both of them to play! Ebony is an expert at the single paw technique, then she had to get up higher of course, in some of the same tilty-head poses as ten years ago when she was a kitten. You have to understand that Obsidian plays with toys all the time by tossing & batting them on his own, but any toys moved by a human have always made him run away in terror for the past 5 years including just last week…but tonight he played with the wiggly wire toy for a long time! Maybe it didn’t look like a human was involved?

Through last year the kitty treat of choice was shredded cheese when all three would come together for a snack, but ever since Onyx has been gone, Ebony comes running when she hears the cheese drawer but she looks at me funny and never eats the cheese, no matter what the flavor. Glen decided to try tuna, and boy is that AMAZINGLY tasty, and slow-eater Ebony even finishes before Obsidian and horns in on his pile! Since Ebony still shuns Glen and hides if I’m not around, Glen is now the only source of tuna treats as well as their catnip dealer. 😸

On our way to Seattle trying not to catch anything else! Did you know that the airport Menchies Frozen Yogurt just got Dole Whip 2 days ago?!? The sign says Dole Pineapple Sorbet but it is creamy just like at the Tiki Room!

We were picked up at the airport in style with a furry welcome! Made it to Grandma’s house and unloaded all the luggage and presents before dinner!

Merry Christmas from Diagon Alley in Ballard! Impressive amount of work in just a driveway and a constant line of people! We did our best Azkaban escapee faces, took advantage of the mistletoe at the “moving bricks” entrance, inspected the construction behind the scenes, spotted a holiday R2-D2 near a spare dragon, and even peeked through the window into his garage shop in back and spotted some new details in progress. Congrats to them for having creative fun and raising so much money for a good cause! #diagonalleyproject

It’s snowing just in time for a white Christmas! 😃No need to dream anymore! ❄️🎄🎁⛄️

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Lutefisk, lefse, pickled beets & Swedish meatballs for our Christmas Eve dinner, all while snow continued to fall and a couple snowballs were thrown, then fun opening all our presents, including some challenging puzzle boxes for Glen that required group effort! 😉

Merry Christmas! Do you wanna build a snowman?!? Our Olaf-Zilla is 8ft tall! I hadn’t built a snowman since I was 9, but Glen was on a mission to go big! Thanks to Diane for taking photos, thinking of the sweet potato nose, and mason jar rings & cut out leaves for eyes!

Our 8ft tall Olaf-Zilla is already leaning so some last photos before he melts away! Hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas Day!

Great to see my Peterson cousins today and the big brothers were all smiles! Thanks to Kathleen & Brian for hosting at their new house only one week after moving in! A bit of stress when we couldn’t get the van up the hill in the snow, so they drove us up in shifts…whew!

Singalong carols around the piano like the old Clouston Christmases! Of course we had to sing White Christmas this year with all the snow still on the ground!

Glen inspected the last pieces of Olaf-Zilla, we packed the RV, and said goodbye to Grandma out the back door for another snazzy ride to the airport as Gary & Diane keep driving to California! The Spaceneedle was peeking through the melting snowdrops on the window, but Mt Rainier was out today!

Home again! We got lucky with an open seat in our row, and Southwest has smartly moved the magazines to the top of the seat and plenty of knee room even for my long legs! When we disembarked, Glen immediately headed the opposite direction from baggage claim with a sneaky grin…it took me half the walk to figure out he was headed for some Dole Whip to go before we left the airport…hahaha! Even though there was no lid that fit, that giant container is now safely in our freezer. Both kitties are fine but Obsidian somehow lost both his normal collar AND his Christmas collar!

After 26 years(!) in a row of Christmas caroling with Jeff and me, Tracia finally had a scheduling conflict, so no Barbieri family for 2017, but the rest of Cibo Cantabimus kept our annual tradition alive at the Peterson Holiday Party. We tried Facebook Live this year, so there aren’t any still photos of our performance…oops!

We have kept our tradition of spreading silly holiday cheer by caroling at Margarita Friday since 2009! For 2017 we split Fridays between the two restaurants again…

The Margarita Friday Chorale strikes again at Roberto’s Cantina in Sunnyvale! None of our non-singers got photos or video of us, so big thanks to the person at the bar who recorded everything but our first song. Thank goodness for AirDrop! Next week we spread silly holiday cheer in Mountain View!

Margarita Friday Chorale at Fiesta del Mar Too in Mountain View!

Feliz Navidad Tequila after the Margarita Friday Chorale sing-a-long