A Christmas Riddle ...

What do you give someone's kid who you don't see very often? Give up?

A kitten of course (or a puppy as my Dad tells it - he is always full of wonderful gift suggestions).

Meet Sergent Tibbs. And before all you who have sent me Christmas cards get antsy thinking Sgt. Tibbs will be your child's Christmas present, fear not - this kitten is now settled in on South High Street for as long as it chooses. Sgt. Tibbs was left near our house by her mommy (a cat we feed in the neighborhood) who wanted to wean her kittens. Tibbs was right wild last Saturday, but is now tamed down and spent this evening pulling the ribbon off of the lower branches of our Christmas tree and playing with Vivian. I named the cat Sgt. Tibbs after the cat in 101 Dalmatians (a movie I have seen one to many times).

So, time to catch up a bit. I have been MIA on the blog lately, but it has been pretty hectic here in the evenings. With Rick working 2nd shift every night, I have Vivian in the evenings on my own and lately she has been very clingy every evening (1st year molars are trying to come in - not fun). When you add in getting Christmas ready to all the usual stuff to get done, well, there just is not enough time to work in blogging (but I am really enjoying reading everyone elses blog).

Last Saturday, we headed over to the church to and helped out with the free toy store for folks who are having a hard time affording gifts for their kids. We had a good time trying to put together some of the toys - so much so that I am considering getting Rick the car track that he helped put together - he really seemed to like it:) In the afternoon, we took in the Franklin Christmas Parade and baby - it was COLD outside.

Here she is waiting for the parade to start. She was being very patient.








Finally, the color guard arrived and the parade was on.





Vivian watched the parade candy fall on the ground, but she is still a little small to pick it up.





Finally, the big guy arrived in Franklin, and it was time to form a line to tell Santa what to bring on his next visit to town.

Vivian was not to sure what everyone was waiting for.

And when she got to the front of the line, she was not sure it was worth the wait.

This week I have tried to get some Christmas shopping done. I am really liking online shopping, but Thursday I took off with my Mom and Vivian for some in store shopping. We had a pretty good day and gave Santa another try - Vivian was even less amused in her picture although after the pictures were taken and she was off Santa's lap, she really enjoyed talking to him - weird. It seems like Vivian is the easiest person to shop for, so she is going to get lots of cool stuff this Christmas. One very cool thing that I already gave her and incorporated into my decorating was the Little People Nativity/Inn at Bethlehem/3 Wise Men set. I figured it gave Vivian something she was allowed to play with, and she loves it. Every time we go through the Christmas story, she laughs. She also really enjoys dancing when the nativity plays Away in a Manger. Tonight I got a picture of her in action.

Lately, Mary has been hanging out with the wisemen, and the shepherds have been far away in another room of our house - Bethlehem was not ready for Vivian. You can sort of see our tree in the background. I will post better pictures sometime. I was disappointed that the tree would not hold ornaments well, so I decorated with lights, ribbon, poinsettia picks, and other stuff and put our ornaments on a small artificial tree out of Vivian's reach.

As for my Vivian Christmas pictures - hopefully I will be able to get the pictures I want in the morning - I will explain it all later. In the meantime - stay sane and enjoy the Christmas season.