It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (posted by Lani)

Yes, it certainly is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. I've been purely giddy with relief and happiness having Onyx back, so (crazy cat lady alert!) I made Christmas stockings for all of the cats. They're empty in this picture, but in reality they're now stuffed full of cat toys and catnip and laser pointers and treats and everything you can imagine that I'd want to shower on a cat who was missing for five months -- times five, since we now have five cats. I've also decorated everything including our bird feeders, which doesn't bother the birds at all and the cats don't seem to mind either.

Speaking of Onyx, he really is doing incredibly well. He's put on weight, and he's calmed down a lot with the other cats. They all play together now and while he isn't cuddly affectionate with them like he used to be, he isn't afraid of them anymore, he isn't hostile towards them, and he actively seeks out their company. He still wants to have me in his sight every waking hour, but I don't mind that at all.














There's someone else who seems to be glad that Onyx is back, too, judging from yearning glances and all that. They sit and stare at each other through the picture window in the hallway, and I'm not quite sure how to interpret it!

And finally, my Christmas gift from Annie arrived unexpectedly and from a source from which I had ordered something myself, and I opened it by accident. Whoops! It's a kit for the Nonna's Garden Shawl, a gorgeous intarsia design, and once that genie was out of the bottle it wasn't going back in. I'm not sure whether Ann really loves me or is trying to drive me insane, but I've started it and this is just the first of many many updates to look forward to since I'm sure this will take me months if not years to finish. Look at all those bobbins, and this is only the beginning! Knitting this is a huge challenge not only because of all the colorwork but because of all the cats; as you can see, the feline consensus of opinion is that long circs with lots of bobbins attached is a GREAT idea.