To all of you:

Merry Christmas

I suppose it is time to move the kittens down the page. They're still settling in nicely here. Abby is getting along with them pretty well and we're finding their favourite sleeping spots and discovering their personalities.

This sundog is from Sunday afternoon. I'd gone out to do the grocery shopping and had to stop at the pullout along the road so I could take a picture of the sky. The winter sun is so incredibly fantastic. It's only visible between about ten in the morning and three in the afternoon right now (though as of tomorrow we will be seeing more of it) and it hangs very low in the sky. The light it gives has a pearly yellow quality and you can't help but feel better when you get to be outside in it even though the lack of cloud cover usually means colder temperatures.

While I was driving I was treated to the annual Christmas Sing-In at the Church of St. Andrew and St Paul in Montreal via radio 2. When I saw the sundog they were singing the Huron Carol and it just fit the world around me so well. I sang along in the car. It's one of my favourites.

Olivia and Frederick if you want to use their full names.

We had to take Abby into the animal hospital last night because of a reaction to her shots on Monday and while we were there we got to see a newly arrived litter of kittens. We were told they were nine weeks old, immunized and micro chipped and all ready to be adopted out. We thought about it over night and called back this morning to say we'd like to adopt one. We took Abby with us and stood by the cage trying to decide which colours we liked the best and lifting out the kittens to introduce them to Abby. We found two that we particularly liked the look of. Both were calm but inquisitive, neither freaked out or tried to scale the wall when held and both seemed interested in Abby without being overly nervous. We realized we couldn't choose between them and that a pair of cats is a healthy thing so both came home with us.

Olivia is the tawny coloured one and Frederick is the charcoal. They've been exploring the house and pouncing on each other and generally being super cute. Abby doesn't seem to know what to do with herself. She's done a bit of chasing and been chased a bit herself. I saw her go nose to nose with Ollie very politely. Right now she is laying near my chair trying to snooze but really keeping watch on the hallway where the kittens are.