Our Christmas has been interesting to say the least. We gots human relatives staying with us for the Holidays. They’re gonna be here till New Years even! I wants them gone already, especially the annoying little ones. They hurts my floofy tail and makes me miserable all the time. And considering the way Mom’s eyebrow twitches and she pinches her nose and starts counting to twenty…..I’m thinking they’re getting on her nerves too. Mom got this really cool spyderco endura knife too for Christmas….which probably ain’t a good thing right now. I thinks I should hide it for her own good.

Aside from the family that crashed with us unannounced, Mom’s been putting in long hours at her new job. So our Holiday really didn’t feel like much of a holiday, even on Christmas day.

I think what also didn’t help was certain traditions that were skipped or ignored this year. Like Mom didn’t bother to decorate because, well, Isis really loved Christmas lights and it just kinda reminded Mom too much that my big sister was no longer with us. So Mom didn’t go driving around seeing Christmas lights either, ’cause again, that was a tradition she and Isis did together. They tried to take me a few times, but I never got interested in it.

Over all, our Christmas felt like just another day. We’ll be happy to celebrate though when New Years rolls ’round ’cause we’ll have the house to ourselves again!

But, looking at the samples that Pear Tree sent us makes me kinda wish she would change her mind. Pear Tree Greetings sent us six sample cards that are done up like how a real-person might have ordered them so we could get a feel for how the final product would look.

Since there are six of ‘em, I’ve put numbers next to each card so that you can tell what card I’m talking about! All of the cards we gots to look at are made using heavy 100 lb Matte Card Stock, and for the environmentally-conscious, all of these cards shown here are 100% post-consumer recycled.

1. This one is very nice. It has a maroon-colored plaid background and you can customize it with a picture of your family (and the picture has a nice simple, white decorative border). It also has a portion where you can include a little greeting on front and your family name. The bank is blank so that you can write a message there. It’s very nice, and the different size (it’s rectangular!) makes it stand out from other cards.
Denali’s Rating: 4 out of 5 meows

2. This card had a very cute design on it with a gingerbread house, gingerbread man, and candy cane colored candies. You can customize it so that it has a name on the front too. It’s a small card that flips open and is blank on the inside so you have plenty of space to write a message. It looks pretty, but Mom and I don’t like the size. It’s much smaller then most cards so it could get lost easy in the mail or misplaced at home.
Denali’s Rating: 2 out of 5 meows

3. This card Mom and me were very mixed on. On one hand, it’s a lot like what Mom likes to order. It allows for multiple photos to appear on the cover, and has space for a greeting and the family’s names. On the minus side, the back has a gray design on it that is dark enough to make reading a written message there hard. So there’s really no space for a personal written message to the person you’re sending the card too. I didn’t really mind, but Mom loves writing messages on cards so that’s a big turn-off for her.
Denali’s Rating: 3 out of 5 meows

4. This one is a postcard and it is very, very plain. It’s got this stencil art of two humans (a man and a woman) with a simply-drawn sprig of mistletoe above ‘em. It’s a sample of a holiday invitation and has room for the event’s information, recipient’s address, and mailer’s address. This one Mom and I didn’t care for at all. It’s really too plain and, well, blah, to be a holiday card. Totally lacks holiday cheer.
Denali’s Rating: 1 out of 5 meows

5. This one is a little smaller then your traditional sized Christmas cards, but definitely bigger then #2 was. It opens up and on the inside there is a greeting, family member’s names, and plenty of room for writing a message. It’s simple, but nice. Mom liked this one and showed it to Grandma ’cause she’s going to be ordering cards soon to send to her clients. Grandma liked this one!
Denali’s Rating: 3 out of 5 meows

6. Mom and I liked this one quite a bit too. It’s got room for two pictures on the front, has a pretty snowflake design on the background, there’s the space for the greeting and family names, and the pictures have a plain square border around ‘em. Unlike card #3, the back of the card doesn’t have a design on it so you can write a personal message to each recipient without worrying that the background makes it hard to read.
Denali’s Rating: 4 out of 5 meows

Visiting PearTreeGreetings.com, Mom and I saw that a lot of the are pretty decently price, with a lot of ‘em being a much less expensive then what the print shop Mom buys from charges her. You don’t have to get the cards in the colors displayed in the samples or on the site, you can get them changed to suit you which is nice too. Quantity varies, some cards come in packs of 8 or 10 while others can be bought in packs of 24. So on average, the cards cost between $.84 to $1.25 each. Which really isn’t that expensive when you think about it. I mean, they charge more for individual commercial greeting cards in stores.

I’m not really sure Mom is going the personalized greeting card route this year at all. I do know she’s not doing one with pictures of me and Isis, or with just me. But if she was, I’m pretty sure Mom would have seriously considered getting her cards from them this year. I do know Grandma is looking over them to find one she would like to use to send to her clients.

Do your humans send out holiday cards with pictures of you on ‘em too? If sos, they may wants to check this site out.

Yes, clothes. I am excited over clothes. No this is not Isis, this is me, Denali, excited over clothes. Why? Well just look:

Do I look like such a pretty and stylish kitty in this jacket? I thoughts so too, and so does Mom. It’s black and the hood is lined with fur. It’s really nice and warm and has a pocket too. And the hood has a little snappy-button thing to keep it from falling forward if I don’t wants it to and it can come off too, the hood I mean. Here’s another shot so you can see the design:

Did I mentions it has star studs on it? Well it does and it’s so cool, I really loves it. If Mom always bought clothes as cool as this then I’d wear more clothes.

Isis doesn’t like it and actually tried to pull it off of me. She’s so mean to me. I mean she gets all kinds of clothes all the time and the one time I get something cool Isis throws a hissy fit and claws and tries to pull it off of me. And she growled at me too and batted me in the face with her paws. Mom looked so upset and shocked when Isis did that, like she didn’t know whats to do. Mom is probably gonna find a smaller jacket like mine (but pink because Isis likes pink) for her and give it to her. She’s such a baby and she’s older than me too!

Oh look Isis, I looked here and found a jacket for you too!

NOT!!

Aside from a lot of treats and some catnip mice I also got this outfit for the holidays:

It’s okay and the collar that came with it was red with bows and bells on it. No way is it as cool as my jacket though, but it’s still pretty good I guess.

I didn’t get anything on my wishlist though. No chirping birdies for me. Sanata FAIL!

The first present I got yesterday was a new outfit specially for the holidays! It’s got a little santa hat with a strap on the bottom so that it doesn’t fall off my kitty-head and it it had a pretty green and white collar that was poofy and has bells on it.

Denali got a holiday outfit too, but hers was a little different from mine. We wore our new outfits for the holiday card we made for everyone. I also got a few catnip mice, two new bandannas, a couple of my favorite cans of wet cat food, and a bag of kitty treats.

I also got a new sweater too! It’s pink and has a big heart on it and smaller hearts too. It’s very cute, but the style is different from other sweaters I have and doesn’t seem as sturdy. What I mean is that the part where I put my legs through looks like it could tear easy. So I might not be wearing this sweater too much.

Denali got a really awesome jacket, which she still hasn’t blogged about. I dunno why she wouldn’t blog about it because it’s so awesome. But I won’t spoil it for you all and let her tell you about it. I was sad that Mommy didn’t get me a jacket like that. I know I saw a cute pink one when we went to Wal-Mart the other night. It was one of the outfits I really wanted too. Maybe I can convince Mommy that she needs to buy me a jacket too. But how do I do that?

So from Denali and I, we wanna wish all the kitties, doggies, and other furriends out there a very Merry Christmas!

We’ll be back later to tell everyone what we gots!

It’s got such pretty feathers and it chirps!! It’s just like a real birdie.

This one too chirps and is soft like and looks yummy to chew on and play with. Plus they both got this feature that lets Mom send them flying for me.

I wants a cool jacket for once. *nods* Isis gets a ton of clothes all the time but not me, Mom gets me mostly toys and treats. She thinks I don’t like clothes, but I do, I just don’t like the frilly, funny, and pink things Isis likes. So I wants something cool like this jacket.

And Santa-human, can you bring my Mom some money so she’s not broke or helps her with getting a good job? I’d really appreciate. Kthnx!

And for those kitties where it’s already December 25th – Merry Christmas!! Isis and I will be posting again when we gets our presents.

When we went out shopping I managed to sneak a few pictures of things I wanted. Mommy’s camera card did something funny though and most of the pictures were lost. Including the pictures I took of the light displays we saw on the way home! But the picture I took of one outfit I really want was still there thankfully:

It was so soft and warm. And it has a hood and, you can’t see it, but there is this cute little fluff-ball on top of the hood that I thought would be fun to play with. I really want it! Another outfit I saw, which you can kinda see in this picture, was pink and had skulls, lightening bolts and said “Rock Star”. So cute! I’m cute, Mommy will buy it for me, right?

There were lots of other things too that I saw that were cute. There was this one set that had leg warmers and a scarf for pets. I wanted one and I think Mommy planned on buying it right then and there for me too but she couldn’t find a small enough size for me. If I’d tried to wear the smallest size they had there they would have looked like breeches on me. There was a size perfect for Denali, but Denali hates things on her paws and legs so she wouldn’t have worn them.

Mommy bundled me up in a nice warm sweater of mine and got me some blankets and off we went to do some shopping. I would have taken pictures of the sights we saw but with all the rain everything looked very gloomy.

First stop was the grocery store where Mommy failed to buy anything that was warm, ready to eat, and smelled yummy. How she could fail in this I do not understand as Albertson’s has very yummy-nummy chicken there and I love chicken. But she failed this task.

Next she went to this place called The Dollar General which is a very odd name to me. Here she bought more stuff, none of which smelled at all interesting. One bag though jingled. It made sounds just like some of our mousie-toys! When I tried to get into the bag to investigate I was scolded and placed back in the front passenger seat while the bag got put in the backseat. Mommy said “Bad Isis, not until Christmas”. So I think whatever is in the bag is my Christmas present! What do you all think Mommy got me this year? Toy mice, toys stuffed with catnip, little balls? Whatever it is it has bells on them! Oh, I can’t wait to see what it is!

On the way home Mommy took the “freeway” so we would get home faster. There were some new (to me) billboards up. Billboards are those big signs on the roads that humans use to tell traveling humans the strangest things. There was one that said “….something…medical travel Mexico…something something”. I didn’t get to catch it all because of the other humans blocking my view and the speed Mommy was going. I just thought it was silly given all of the bad things that humans are doing in Ciudad-Juarez, Mexico right now. We hear about them all the time on the news. Scary place that. Kitties, do not go to Juarez right now, it’s just not safe for anyone.

Aside from my wonderfully warm, and PINK!, hoodie, I also got a new stuffed mouse to play with, same kind as Denali’s though. I expect she’ll be trying to steal mine soon. I got a new pink and black bandanna as well. That was all from mommy. Grandma bought me a large case of my favorite canned cat food, they have greens and herbs in them, plus two new pots of cat grass. I also got this kitty-goodie bag that is filled with cat treats and little mice. The old man bought me a new kitty blanket for my bed, since it’s winter, and some of mommy’s friends got me gift cards for Petco. Denali looked at hers kind of funny, I don’t think she really realized just how awesome it was to get $25 and $50 to spend on anything in the store.

The day after Christmas, I caught a cold. Mommy and Grandma were really confused about how that could have happened, since I had my hoodie on all day, the heat was up, and I was inside all day. Then Denali just had to show them the window that was cracked open in the old man’s room. And she just had to do it after I had gotten out into the backyard too. So yes, I was playing outside, and yes, I got sick because of it.

The winter is never a good season for me, I spend a lot of the time miserable and cold. So I should have known better than to go outside and play, but I couldn’t resist. The patches of still-green grass were calling to me. Not to mention the big pile of leaves in the backyard.

Unfortunately, my cold turned out to be just a little worse than normal, and mommy, in typical fashion, panicked and took me to see Dr. Calista. I tried to explain to both mommy and the vet that it was just a minor cold and everything would pass. But do humans listen to you? No. I ended up getting a shot and I had some icky medicine that mommy had to mix into my food.

Okay, I admit that I kept sneezing and wheezing a lot, and I felt very, very weak too. So the “cold” was a little worse than normal. But it was certainly not something they had to worry over. I’m just glad to be feeling better and running around again.

I’m just stopping in real fast ta show ya’all some of my gifts. Well, really, my favorites of the loot.

I got this really nice jacket and both Isis and I got a stuffed mouse to play with. I think we’re supposed to share it, and I will, for a few days. I also got some other stuff as well, but this is my favorites. I gots some kitty treats, one of mom’s friends gave me a voucher for a pet store too. But I can’t play with paper, so until mom shows me what it’s really for, it’s not on the faves list. I think everyone thinks I like to eat ’cause just about everyone got me food of some sort. Even Isis got me a treat bag. It has cat treats, a small bag of catnip, and an itty bitty little mouse.

Mommy bought me this really sleek dress jacket. It’s so cool looking and I look so suave in it. Not to mention, it’s black and not the least bit girly like the things Isis wears. Total luv! If mommy would always buy me clothes like this then I’d wear them more.

Even the Old Man liked it, he thought I looked so cool with it. I’ve been sure to show it to everyone!

I have to go now, mommy is taking teh turkey out of the oven now! Yeah, we having turkey this year ’cause mom won a turkey for turkey day from work and grandma had already bought one too. Lots of turkey to eat! Not that I minds of course!

Ah, and don’t worry, I’m sure Isis will be by later to blog about her stuffs too. Teh Clothes Cat cannot resist showing off her clothes, and she made out like a cat burglar today too.