'Twas the Night Before Christmas Eve ...

The weather reports have gotten bad enough that Helen called about dinner time to say that she and Jay (and Dinah) are heading down here this evening, hoping to miss the worst of the mess. So we are working to get the house ready to receive them. Maybe not exactly the finishing touches, but enough to provide a clean, warm bed and shelter from the storm. We will hope that Lucy, John and Armand get away from Chicago tomorrow and make it safely through the precipitation -- various and diverse in temperature and form.

The cats are always put out of joint by the changes in their living space -- presents wrapped and stacked, tables moved around, things put away and other things put out. Because we do not know exactly how they and Dinah will react to one another, there are added alterations this year, including gates at doorways (with catdoors in the gates) so Sundance and Cassidy will have some places to go where a frisky puppy cannot reach. And there is a new litter box in the basement and their food has been moved into Tom's office where their front-yard viewing platform is located.

We'll see how all this goes.