Well, the holidays are over and I can't say I miss them! It was a busy season and, although I always cherish the excitement that it brings to Alexa, it is all so exhausting! That said, we really enjoyed celebrating with friends and family and Alexa made out like a bandit in the presents category!

The best present by far, for all of us, has been our new home (blog to be posted shortly about that)! Although it is a work in progress, it's wonderful to have a place to call home and to finally begin settling into some kind of normalcy!

Here are a few highlights from the holiday season! Until next year...

We have a new addition to our little family...she's furry and four legged and she is too cute for words! Meet Tootsie...

I've been promising Alexa a cat for several months now. Itjwas my belief that we wold find an older cat that needed a home (perhaps one that had been declawed!) Having had a cat as a child, I know how long they can live (21 years in the case of my first cat!) and I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to make such an enormous time commitment. In early September, we walked into a local PetSmart store and had a look at the kittens and cats available for adoption. There were so many and Alexa enjoyed watching them play. We filled out a pre-adoption form and we waited!
About a week later, we were contacted by a volunteer from the Pet Adoption League and following a few questions, we were one step closer to having our kitty. Two references had to be called (Thanks to Chrissy and Carrie!) and then we were approved.
We picked our kitty up on September 26th. She was born on the 13th of July and she was so tiny. She was not my first pick, but Alexa had made up her mind and it was final.

We've had to learn some lessons (by we, I mean Alexa!) Like when to let Tootsie go, even when we just want to snuggle her! The consequences of not doing so have proven to be powerful reinforcement of my suggestions! But mostly, we are enjoying her and Alexa really likes the responsibility. She takes pride in her kitty, telling everyone she knows about Tootsie! Today she told another girl at gymnastics how her kitty runs around like crazy! It was cute to see the two talking about their pets together.