What I got for Christmas, by Ronnie Cat

Back when I was miserably sick with the flu, had just started to stop worrying about an illness in an elderly relative, and my computer was broken, I promised that there'd be a post that wasn't quite so irritable and which pointed out some of the joys of this past Christmas.

This painting of a forest stream was a gift from my sister, who's taken up oil painting in the past year or so. It was a really delightful surprise because I've never gotten a painting from her before. The photo doesn't do it justice at all, for two reasons - I couldn't use a flash as it's under glass, so the colours aren't properly represented, and as you see there is some reflection on the glass from objects in the room. So forgive me, Sis, but I did want to share it with the people who drop by the blog.

Art was big this year, and my niece and Goddaughter also sent us an original framed artwork. "Diane" is 10 and this was done with oil pastel sticks. It's a fox chasing a rabbit and, as with Sis' picture, the photo doesn't begin to do it justice. One of the things that I found remarkable was its resemblance to a particular style of Australian aboriginal art called "X-Ray Art", in which the artists depict the internal organs of the animal (you'll see she has drawn patterns on the animals' bodies). I don't know if this is a type of art she's studied in school or if it comes from her imagination but I love this, too, and I think it's beautiful.




My best friend in Ontario always sends neat gifts to Husband and me, and this year he got a pair of robots. I think they're battlin' robots but Husband proved decidedly resistant to my characterization and decided they were instead dancing robots.





Actually, he's got a point - they look pretty happy for battling robots and they do dance in the cutest fashion, actually swinging their hips back and forth.

So those were some of the notable gifts this year... the kitties got some treats, some mice, a neat pom-pom-on-a-spring toy from their cousins in Newfoundland, and new leopard-printed leashes.

My luckiest and/or most inspired find this year was via Ebay - a miniature remote-control ZipZap PT Cruiser identical to our real one in every way, right down to the tiny sunroof, for Husband. I also got him, on Brian's recommendation, a copy of Moondust, which he is enjoying very much. Brian and Husband are both big space buffs; they're both just the right age for the space race to have added a real magic to their childhoods.

I got a water dispenser for my office (yay!), and two kick-ass PC games (Half Life 2: Episode 1 and F.E.A.R.). The latter crosses a straight first-person shooter genre with a horror backstory and paranormal experiences. It's, how can I put this, not a game you play at night with the lights off.

So we got lots more stuff than any of us deserve and will be amusing ourselves to death for some time to come.

Hope you did as well!

ronnie