Date: 2006-12-17
To: Prep #64--The Joys of Christmas' Past
Miles today: 0.0

As a person who really loves to celebrate the holidays, I always reflect on the good and hilarious moments I've had with family, friends, and for the purposes of this post....my cats. Rusti (as pictured to the left) was my kitty for 18 years before kidney failure set in. He was a Christmas kitty, being born on Dec. 27. We had just given him a bath when I snapped this picture. He was thrilled...as you can tell.Then there was Christmas of 2004. It was the first year I ever had an artificial tree (can't say I like them now...but they sure are easier to deal with!). The picture below shows how much effort I put into arranging the branches to look exactly like the picture on box. I was proud of my masterpiece to say the least.And then....one day I came home from work to find this!!!!!!!!!!I thought, "My gosh!!! Has the Grinch been in my apartment? Was he taking part of my tree back to his "workshop" to fix it? Did I not push the branches in good enough so they just fell off? Or was I just drinking too much eggnog the night I put all of the decorations on?"Well....I fixed the tree, put it back to its near perfect condition, and went about my merry way. The next day, I came home from work, and finally discovered the answer to my mystery.....it was none other than our new family member, Andi (our girl kitty who won't take no for an answer and talks back when you scold her). Apparently, I was rude enough to wake her from her nap, because when I snapped this picture, she still had sleepy eyes. Yup folks...that's our kitty, Andi about half-way up the tree, just chilling out and completely unphased with the fact that I was standing there. Eventually, she got bored with playing supermodel, and decided to get back to the hunt. Look closely...that's her white paw about to knock off the silver bulb.Needless to say, our tree ended up getting anchored to the wall because we'd come home and it would be completely knocked over with bulbs all over the place. I even found 2 bulbs in January, long after the tree had been taken down!!It's only 8 days until Christmas day (and Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends!) I'm starting to feel a sense of calm regarding my hike. The next big milestone is informing my boss that I'll be leaving at the end of February, so that conversation is only a few weeks away. I think once I've done that, my brain will have finally accepted that I'm doing this....and I'm leaving in 2 months and 23 days. After Santa comes to visit me and hooks me up with the remaining pieces of hiking gear, I'm going to completely update my gear list. There's a few things that have changed, but I feel good about what I've decided upon. Oh...one last very cool Christmas memory that Rachael (who is a chef) is actually getting to enjoy tonight. She's preparing dinner for 15 special-needs adults who get life-skill assistance from a local non-profit organization that is having a Christmas dinner for all of the adults. The cool thing is that there's a 60 year old man who absolutely and genuinely believes in Santa....and guess what...Santa is making an appearance at the dinner tonight. I wish I could see that. I'm sure it will be very special for him and everyone there. Happy Holidays everyone!