Dear Pablo,

Christmas is over now. We had some interesting boxes, bags and paper around, all of which make excellent platforms for lounging. I didn't get a wooden rolling mouse, however, so I am a bit disappointed at that. I have various other types of mice around my house, but your new one does look very interesting.

Well, now something is afoot around here. Tracy and Denis are putting a lot of clothes into some boxes on wheels. When they do that, it generally means that they are going away for a while. We've been told that we are going to Grandma's house, so it must be several days that they will be gone this time. So Grandma will assist us in keeping watch of all the stuff in both houses. But we will not be able to blog while we are at her house. We'll tell you how it goes when we get back.

Christmas Tag Game

Dear Pablo,

Sherman tagged us for this Christmas wish game. It seems that mostly dogs are participating, but seeing as Sherman wants us to, we have compiled our list of wishes and non-wishes.

For Christmas we would like:

1. boxes for us to sit in - and leave them out for more than just one day.
2. interesting objects dropped onto or left on the floor for us to play with or lay upon.
3. Tracy, Denis and Grandma to stay home and hang out with us all day.

We would NOT like:

1. sticky items attached to our heads or tails.
2. to be shooed away from interesting objects (or water sprayed at us to shoo us away).
3. the Papparatzi flashing camera lights in our eyes.

Most of the animals that we know have already participated in this game, so we can't think of anyone to tag. We hope you are having a good Christmas season, Pablo, Sydney and Sherman.

Christmas Tree

Dear Pablo,

Look at what Denis brought into the house last week. This is our Christmas tree. We had one last year too and the year before that. Tracy wrapped little lights all around it and then hung dangly decorations from the branches. I helped by watching for fallen things underneath the tree. Unfortunately, nothing fell. My favorite decoration is a little red apple which is hung on the second branch up. It is just at the right height to be swatted at. I have managed to get it off the tree once and it made an excellent soccer ball. But then Denis put it back up on the tree. Bother!

Do you have a Christmas tree?

Grandma

Dear Pablo,

Our people went away this weekend and we watched out for the house. This is a serious responsibility, of course, and may be considered by some as work... Our Grandma came over each day to visit us and made sure that our food bowl didn't go empty and our litter box stayed neat. She's very helpful and provides us with grass which is a good digestive. She's also very faithful in giving us laser toy time when she comes around.

Grandma lives just next door. Sometimes when Denis and Tracy are gone for longer periods, we go to visit grandma's house. She is a very accommodating hostess and gives us her bed since it has a commanding view of our house. She knows that we must keep up with our obligations. She also keeps some different toys on hand for variety. We have a special rubber band game going wherein I knock the rubber band off the bathroom counter each night and she replaces it each morning. If she goes out to run errands, she leaves on some music playing for us. Tracy says Grandma spoils us, but it's really that she recognizes the privilege that she has in serving us.