Happy New Year!

What an incredibly busy month it has been! Abbie soared through her midterm exams like a champ. She got her exam grades earlier this week and had mostly 96s (including in Math), and even had a 100 in History. Her teacher said that he tried to find points to deduct, just for spite (teasing, of course), but couldn't find anything. LOL. Her semester grades will be released later this week and I expect that they will be pretty good. 

Frosting Cookies

As for the holidays, we did all of the usual things - cookies, puzzle, light looking, etc. - despite the insanely warm temperatures. Abbie was very pleased with Santa's choices this year. He surprised her with a SodaStream, which she had been talking about for months, a blender for single serving smoothies, and a few other odds and ends. Grandma and Grandpa P. went overboard this year. They adopted an elephant (one for each girl), and got Abbie gift certificates for a local vintage store, a trip to the hair salon of her choosing, and a day in the cities when we are in MN this summer.

Abbie also got the long-awaited visit with her friend, Eleanor. It had to be delayed a bit, due to a COVID exposure on Eleanor's end, but she was able to stay with us for three nights over New Years. The girls kept busy with a trip to the above-mentioned vintage shop, making chocolate mousse for New Year's Eve, trips to Starbucks, and a photo shoot in the neighborhood. 

Eleanor

I think the photo shoot was fun, but it also helped with an assignment from Abbie's photo teacher, who asked the students to take photos that document life. The photo of Eleanor above was the class's favorite. Her teacher complimented it, too, saying that Abbie has been growing in her photography skills. I'll take his word for it because I have a hard time telling a good photo from a bad photo.

Many of Abbie's other photos for the assignment came from a trip that we took to the botanic gardens where she was able to get some really nice close-ups of the exotic flowers, etc.

The botanic gardens actually have a volunteer program for 14 to 17 year olds, which Abbie has expressed an interest in. It would be a great way to fulfill her community service requirement, while also fulfilling her love of all things green (speaking of which Emily's Christmas gift to Abbie this year was two new plants). It sounds like they may require 15 hours during the semester and 30 hours in the summer, so we will have to see how we can make that work with our summer MN trip.

The other important update pertains to our sweet outdoor kitty, Pumpkin. In the past month, she has become a more integral part of our lives. Our sweet girl seemed to be attracting the gentlemen callers from far and wide, so we decided to get her spayed. One Pumpkin is enough for us! Before we were able to bring her in for her surgery, there were definitely some interesting events. There was a black and white cat that we named Oreo, who Pumpkin didn't seem to mind. However, the orange cat, which we named Buster (after the brother from Arrested Development, because he is so skittish), was not someone that Pumpkin wanted attention from. One night we heard a terrible cat scream and looked outside fast enough to see both cats darting across the backyard so fast that they both went through the pool in the process. Faster than a bolt of lightning, our sweet Pumpkin was 30 feet up a nearby tree. After Buster left, she came down, but she was soaking wet - poor thing.

Pumpkin and Oreo

Anyway, Pumpkin is on the mend from her surgery and we have been babying her with Fancy Feast and lots of cuddles. She insists on being an outdoor cat, though. In fact, we tried to bring her inside one night when it was particularly cold outside and she was not happy about it. She howled and practically climbed the walls looking for a way out. So, we have bought an insulated shelter and a heating pad for her. Between those two options, she should be OK this winter.

Looking ahead, Abbie is back to school and it is getting busy already. She has started a half-year AP Psychology course, which is already proving to be time consuming. But, she likes the teacher and I think that she is really going to like the subject matter. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!