Christmas Glitter and Tiger Lily's Surprise Visit

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Abby is a little confused about Christmas. It's arriving a little early this year - even earlier than usual - since holiday decorating around here is exhausting. Always is it rewarding in the end, but there's so much to do that I actually lose sleep thinking about everything that needs to be done.

Since family is coming for Thanksgiving, getting everything up before then is an absolute must. And oh boy.... over the last few days I became so obsessed with non-stop decorating that I aggravated the pinched nerve in my neck. Thank goodness, after some R&R the other night, it's a lot better.

I'm very disappointed in my Christmas Village this year. Always is the village my crowning glory; the one thing I can actually brag about every year; but that just isn't the case for 2012. The trouble stems from not being able to find THE snow that I always use. It's extra fine snow, and it seems Michael's has tricked me this year. One of the stores didn't carry it at all, and the other one is selling something different. I thought it was the usual, but after opening the bag I discovered that this copycat snow is a fake! It's coarse and a lot larger. Not fine at all. Words can't describe how upset I am over this. All those hours upon hours of hard work was for nothing. A failure.

And to make matters worse, I discovered that the ONLY store that sold my favorite cappuccino has stopped carrying it. (See? Remember how I mentioned this scenario a few days ago? If it's something I love, the stores pull it off the shelf).

This is serious. This is so not a nice joke to play on me. Between the village snow disaster and cappuccino death, I'm feeling a little unstable at the moment.

Not good, but that's okay. There's still a lot of Christmas bling around here to distract me from this new cruel world which lacks posh fake snow and my favorite cappuccino fix.

I think I'll post all our holiday decor photos later this week. For now, here are pics of just some of Mom's newest supplies bought for this year's glitter houses and glitter boxes. A lot of this stuff was from World Market.

She got a couple of really cute boxes to store stuff in, too. Even I got some more pretty boxes recently - my #1 weakness - but I still haven't taken photos of them yet.








(I spy HIDDEN MICKEY EARS!)

















I should probably post this next part on my other blog, but it's too beautiful not to share.

On Saturday, we received a really good thunderstorm. When it just started raining, Mom was ironing and mentioned she needed some hangers. I offered to get some, and while I went into my mother's closet to grab the hangers, little did I know that such a tiny and unimportant chore would turn into one of the most AWESOME and comforting experiences of my life!

As I opened those noisy double doors, I turned on the light and starting grabbing hangers when muffled within the clothes on the bottom rack I heard a familiar purr. It was Tiger Lily's purr. (My cat that passed away this summer). The one she always used whenever we entered her favorite napping spot/Mom's closet and woke her from her slumber.

Even though I KNEW it wasn't Wendy, I told myself that maybe she pulled a Superman move and rushed into the closet just as I entered it myself. Still, deep down I KNEW that I had just heard Tiger Lily. You don't have a cat for 20 years, and not recognize their purr after you thought you'd never hear it again.

So I started talking to her.... AND SHE ANSWERED ME BACK because immediately she issued the same purr again.

I then ran - well let's just say I walked really, really fast - to tell Mom that I had just heard Kitty Girl. On the way, however, I doubled-checked to see that Wendy Kitty was still asleep on the chair in the living room, 3 rooms away.... which she was. She was sound asleep.

So now I'm guessing that that really was Tiger Lily who I saw a month or so ago. I had gone into my room one night, and just as I crawled into bed - before I even turned off the light and turned on my laptop - I looked behind me and did a double-take when I saw a quick flash of Tiger Lily rushing into my room. I saw her for only a second. It was so quick, but I could clearly see the black and brown markings on her face.

Now, I am not a religious person, but I've always known there was life after death. That was proven to me when I was 7 years old, so it never was an issue of having faith in such a thing. Life after death was a fact. Likewise, I've also always known that our pets are still around after they pass away, but this was the first time I actually heard a pet and then had actual live interaction with them. It didn't last very long, but it happened. I didn't dream it, I didn't imagine it, I didn't misinterpret it. I wasn't even thinking about Tiger Lily, and yet straight out of nowhere there she is making her presence known.

I really wish that all the people out there that have pets who have passed on could experience what I did. Truly, it was the most amazing and unexpected occurrence. Everyone should be so lucky.

While I couldn't see her I did HEAR her. And actually INTERACTING with her.... well, any adjectives found in the dictionary cannot do that experience justice. It was all too surreal for words.