Rest in peace, our sweet Annabelle

Today has proven to be a very sad day! When Mark went into the birdroom tonight to refill water bottles for the rabbits & guinea pig, he found that our sweet little piggie, Annabelle, was dead. She died, seemingly peacefully, in her favorite purple igloo. She was old for a guinea pig, but had no visible signs of illness or even aging, really. We will all miss her, but Thumper and Luciana will suffer the greatest loss. L. was devastated of course, and it's always really hard to take when there was no warning or inclination. I hope that means her little heart just stopped and that she didn't suffer at all. We will have to wait until spring to select a special tree/plant for her and bury her under it. I feel horribly guilty, as I always do when we lose one of our babies. I wish I had known. I wish we had been with her at the end. I'm glad Thumpy was, but I still feel rotten. I also feel rotten because I have been meaning to take a really good picture of her and just never got around to it. She was a long-haired guinea, and I had to trim her rear 1/4, so it didn't get tangled and nasty. The last haircut, a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't find the good haircutting scissors (I'm sure they are in the abyss of Dej's room somewhere), so I had to use different scissors. She ended up looking rather choppy, so I thought I would wait for it to grow a bit before the photo session. Now it's too late.

Prior to that, we were having a nice family night. L. & Mark built an FM radio while I was cleaning up from dinner. Uncle Dan got it for L. for xmas. M's family was here yesterday, and being on top of everything as they always are, they brought all the xmas gifts. They were even wrapped this early! I have never been ready for xmas this early! Anyway, we let her open one gift from Uncle Dan & Beth and one from Grandma & Grandpa. She couldn't wait to assemble her radio, as she's really into electronic parts and disassembling and reassembling components (not reassembling them the way that they were, though!). They got it built, working, and were able to find several different radio stations on it. She is very excited to show Hunter--her partner in the gadget "repurposing". The gift she opened from Mark's parents was a game called Math Dice. It was invented by a sixth grader who wanted other kids to share his love of math. It's a very neat game. The three of us played that after dinner, and L. did quite well.

SUNDAY

Sunday was spent with Mark's parents, brother Dan and his girlfriend, Beth. They came up to visit and arrived around lunchtime. L. enjoyed playing games with everyone. Mark had to leave at 3 to start up the light show (Rotary Gardens' Winter Wonderland Walk). Carolyn brought enchiladas for dinner, which we ate after M. left for work. L. just wanted to get through the meal so she could get to the pumpkin bread that Carolyn brought. L. loves it! Ooh, and Beth brought us a gift of homemade chocolate candy. She's won my heart now! ;D After dinner, we all headed out to the light show. Dej met us there for a few minutes after work, but she wasn't dressed appropriately for the outdoor light show, so she went on home when we went outside. The lights were fabulous as always. We came in after we walked through the gardens, and L. had hot chocolate, while we all sat inside and visited. L. finally got the nerve to go visit Santa, after asking us all a zillion questions about him. He may or may not be the real Santa, as he had a real white beard and looked very Santa-like. We told L., that when you order a Santa from the Santa Network, you probably won't get the real Santa, but there's always a possibility. After chatting with him for quite a while, she thought he might be but probably wasn't because he referred to the woman taking photographs as "the boss". As she didn't really look the Mrs. Santa part, we didn't explain to her that "the boss" was his wife. The mystery is so much more enjoyable. She couldn't really think of anything she wanted to ask for for xmas, but she apparently chatted with him at length about the habits of all of our animals.

SATURDAY

We had a date night, and a snow storm. We were supposed to go to our friends' (Mike & Jim) holiday party in Madison, but the weather was very bad, and I wasn't feeling confident in the wisdom of going. Mark was up for the drive though, and it turned out fine. We went out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant (in Madison), and it was very good. I think I prefer Thai food in general, though, as it's more spicy. From there we went to the party. We were the only breeders there. How embarassing! Even the (only) other straight couple there doesn't have children. I did impress Mike by drinking a whole beer, instead of my normal water. I figure if I have to stand out for being straight and a breeder, at least I could drink beer with them! :D I think Mark drank me "under the table" with his 2.5 beers. At about 10:30, I got a cell phone call from Dej, who was out with her friends.

Dej: OK mom, here's what happened. We're okay.

Me: What!

Dej: Well, we were in Chris' car, going to get some food, and he was turning, but it was slippery and he kind of slid into another car.

Me: But everyone is okay?

Dej: Yeah.

Me: Was anyone ticketed?

Dej: Ummm. Chris was for going too fast for conditions.

Apparently Chris' dad was not happy. Dej returned home (well actually to Grandma's where she was spending the night). Evening ended. UGH! Back to the party, but somehow not feeling very festive after that.

Saturday morning I was able to go pick Lila up from the vet. She was happy to see me and very happy to get back home. After about 10 minutes, it became clear that we had a problem. She was obsessed with chewing her stitches out. Not licking--chewing! Since Dej. was out xmas shopping already, I asked her to stop by the vet's and pick up an e-collar for our little girl. I've taken it off a few times since then, but she instantly goes right back to chewing the stitches. So for now, my poor tiny kitten is stuck in this big lampshade that she hates. It's heavy enough that her little head bobs from side to side when she walks. It's really very cute, but I feel so bad for her having to wear it. It has kept her out of the xmas tree, though, so for that small thing, I'm grateful.