Do Your Pets Factor into Your Holiday Plans?

Do you make your holiday plans around your pets? That’s an assertion that the Associated Press recently made in an article: pet owners revolve their late-December events around their pets. Examples given by the AP include taking holiday-themed photos of pets, using these or other pictures with the animal for seasonal cards, buying pets gifts (the article maintains that just over half of pet owners do this), and even creating special menus for the pet so it can have a holiday meal alongside its human family. There are two sides to this: one, in which a little holiday cheer is … Continue reading

A Merry Christmas for Pets

For Chihiro and Cole, seeing a rabbit this close is like Christmas My extended family used to have a unique Christmas tradition. As we circled around the living room to exchange gifts, pet-owning relatives handed out special presents to other family members with pets: presents to dog and cat cousins from each other. That’s right: my aunt’s dog Chessie might receive a wrapped bone from my other aunt’s cat Patches. I have no idea how the tradition started; it’s one I remember always being there as I grew up. When my family finally got a cat we were then included … Continue reading

Have a Merry Minted Christmas

I don’t drink, but walking into Target or Wal-Mart right now makes me want to run home and pour myself a boot of something stronger than beer. Tis the season for breakouts and breakdowns. Seriously. Have you been to the mall recently? Retailers have dumped their Halloween costumes and candy; bypassed Thanksgiving paraphernalia; and are shoving Santa down customers’ collective throats. Fa-la-la-la. We’re not even 85 hours into November and I already feel my inner Christmas Grinch bubbling up from the bowels of my being. How can I feel so behind on Christmas preparations when I still have buckets of … Continue reading

Parents and Christmas Firsts

Like it or not the holidays make people very nostalgic. It’s hard for some parents not to think of their son or daughter’s first Christmas when hanging stockings or trimming the tree. Then, there’s the tidal wave of memory triggers that come to us via the media. For example, if I see that TV commercial about the mom being “forced” to buy her daughter a new cellphone plan because “it’s the first Christmas that she won’t be home,” I’m going to hurl. Do you remember the first Christmas your child didn’t spend with you? I can’t imagine it’s a very … Continue reading

Interview with My Fellow Pets Blogger and Mystery Author Courtney Mroch

Recently, Courtney and I decided it would be fun to interview each other. After all, we’re both writers and pet lovers. So read on, and learn something you maybe didn’t know about my awesome blogging partner, Courtney Mroch! Aimee: What kind of things do you write about? (Genre, subject matter, themes, what have you.) Courtney: I’m not prejudiced to any form of writing except maybe poetry (and that’s only ’cause I suck at it) so I pretty much write everything. Essays, short stories, novels, articles… Whatever notion my muse strikes me with, I run with it. As far as genre … Continue reading

The Pets Blog Week in Review for December 17-23

Merry Christmas Eve! Maybe you were like me and rushing around last week doing last minute Christmas errands, which left you little time for reading. (Or much else for that matter.) If that’s the case, and you want to catch up on what Aimee and I dished about here in the Pets Blog, look no further. You’ve found the handiest tool around: the Week in Review. Monday, December 17 Diary of a Cat Care B&B: Cleanliness Aimee’s new job made more good fodder for the Pets Blog. She explained what she spends the majority of her time doing at the … Continue reading

The Marriage Blog Week in Review for December 17-23

Merry Christmas Eve! ‘Tis the season to be even busier than usual, but maybe today you have some time to catch up on things. Such as reading the Marriage Blog. If you missed any of last week’s musings from Lyn and myself, check out this edition of the Week in Review to see what we wrote on: Monday, December 17 How Much are You Willing to Give? Lyn proposed situations of spouses giving and wondered which ones would be giving too much and would warrant a “No!” Why Nookie Should Be on Your Christmas Wish List A report I saw … Continue reading

‘Twas the Day Before Christmas…

‘Twas the day before Christmas And there was excitement galore. The stockings were hung And presents were piled on the floor. Garland graced the stairs And ornaments adorned the tree Just begging to be batted By Mr. Meow and Tabby. But good they were being Because if they were not The man named St. Nick Would leave them to rot. Stayed away from temptation Did Murph and the cats And steer clear they made sure Of tantrums and spats. For they knew the man who bore gifts Kept lists of the naughty and nice And desperate were they to prove … Continue reading

Christmas Cards, Letters, or Pictures: Which Represents You as a Couple?

Our first Christmas as a married couple, which would have been December 1995, I started the tradition of sending out Christmas cards for both Wayne and I. Back then I picked cards with funny or clever pictures, wrote a short, quick note to the recipients, and mailed them. Christmas 1999 marked the first time I attempted a Christmas letter, which I’d previously never had much respect for. Most of the ones we received painted an entirely too rosy picture of friends and family living entirely too perfect lives. We knew the letters meant well but were stretching things a bit. … Continue reading

All I Want for Christmas….

Can it really be December? It feels like we were just diving into the heat of summer yesterday and now it’s cold and brisk outside, shopping is ramping up and all that holiday cooking is beginning. It was a year ago today that my husband had an emergency appendectomy and a year of health problems assaulted our family. It’s been a tough year from surgeries to cancer scares to wisdom teeth that took forever to take care of. Thankfully, we celebrated Thanksgiving together as a family, healthy, happy and pretty whole. Last Friday, my daughter turned 7 and it’s hard … Continue reading