Holiday Cheer

Hello. The year is again coming to a close. I haven't been writing like I used to because a. I am not happy with the political climate these days, and b. I recently bought a new phone, and even though I do not have tech fright, the recent technology challenges me day by day as if it will swallow me whole, knowing my digital knowledge is still so miniscule despite my being abreast with everything. I guess I just find my creativity flowing more by editing video content these days than by writing. Still images remind me of the good old days of photography back in college, where I had to endure the smell of odorous liquid fixer inside my old school's darkroom/photo developing studio, which I think now barely exists as everything these days holds every memory in a small USB stick, which can even contain as many as a terabyte of your life. 

Update. I have been busy working remotely. My small e-commerce business is still thriving, and my feet have been itching to travel these days, but I haven't even renewed my passport yet because I don't feel that the global safety standards as far as traveling with the ongoing pandemic (which the world seems to be already turning a blind eye on just to have a sense of normalcy) are yet ironed out pretty well policy-wise. 

I haven't been reading a lot either and still haven't finished reading John Green's ebook called The Anthropocene because I often get sidetracked when a whiff of creativity kicks in or my cats ask me for kibbles. I have long considered getting an automatic feeder for them.

 And oh, speaking of which, my siblings and I decided to adopt a new kitten last June and July of the same year because we thought our ten-year-old ginger cat needed a friend, and the pup from the same home where the kitten came from was just a bonus. The pup, btw, is a mayhem, lol. With our current situation, we coined a term in the house: "The Cat Team," a.k.a. "The Cattery vs. Team Dog," which now consists of our eleven-year-old dog being the tiniest, a medium-sized one, and our new recruit, who looks like a pup version of those gigantic and fluffy white dogs called Shepadoodles except he's black, which we also coined a made-up breed for Shepadevil because of the amount of chewed items he has contributed to the household so far. Don't get me wrong; he's a very sweet dog for his size and thinks he's still a small puppy even if he's already seven months old. 

Our Calico kitten is a sweetheart though, because her meow will melt your heart whenever she asks for food, and I have been meaning to have one since I saw this huge ad billboard of a calico cat on one of Japan's crossings that went viral over social media. These past eight months of owning a female kitten, my sisters and I realized that our adult ginger cat isn't so bad at all socializing with another cat. We might've judged him sooner that he would not get along with another one of his kind, forgetting that he's neutered, and neutered or spayed cats are often less aggressive. 

Anyhow, our ginger cat turned out phenomenal despite the bites and scratches he accrued from playing with the new kitten in town. We even got worried at one point after his would get infected. Upon further research, we found that bites or nail scratches from another cat often cause puss-filled wounds, and whilst already considering a trip to the vet, we found a last-minute solution in the form of Nanopets (Nano silver), which was an awesome antibacterial for pets when Aozin couldn't seem to make the troubling wound go away. It worked like a charm, although I still suggest always consulting your vet because it's always on a case-by-case basis. 

Anyways, despite the biting cold these days, the holiday season compelled my sister and me to be creative by decking our house for the holidays and coming up with menu items for our Noche Buena and Media Noche. This year, we went for "Winter Woodland" as our holiday decor inspiration. It incorporates a lot of fake snow, icycle baubles, wood decor accents such as deer ornaments, fake milky leaves, and a little bit of gold baubles as well. My sister made her biggest purchases of all time by purchasing dinner plate sets, christmas ornaments, etcetera, whilst I went cheap since I already bought timeless dining cutlery and pieces in the past with my usual mantra of going for gold colors every holiday season so it'll be apt for whatever theme we will come up with, although for next year, I suggested we go for a candy cane holiday theme just for a change and so as to exude a little bit of that childlike charm before our age totally eludes us lol.

As an end note, don't lose that holiday spirit no matter how difficult things are, and always be thankful because the Christmas season isn't really for us as we are celebrating Jesus' birthday and consider ourselves guests. In a nutshell, this season is for us to celebrate life and be grateful for being alive despite all the challenges and adversities life throws at us, so don't be a Grinch. May you and your family have a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year! 

♡ lots,

 Philly Jeane