Snoopervisors, Seasonal Decorating and Such Fun

Our daughter Laura purchased her very first home last May. It is a two bedroom/two bath condo in San Diego that was built the same year she was born, back in 1978.

It needed a few things to make it just right...like plumbing and electrical repairs.
And kittens.

Laura managed to get the kittens...but the repairs were left for her daddy!

Bernie and I flew to San Diego last Thursday with suitcases full of power tools and such. The cases barely made it for weight limit, and of course everything in the suitcases were sharp or dangerous.

The cases made it on the plane after TSA inspection.

Apparently the cases needed Kitten Inspection as well.

Cessa waited patiently for the work to commence.

(Secretly she wants to be a plumber when she grows up. She has heard that girl plumbers make lots and lots of money!)

She also is considering becoming a painter...

(She is very open to all facets of the construction industry. Maybe some day she will have her own show, something sort of between Animal Planet and Divine Design)

(She's not quite sure about what end of the brush should be used....)

Hensley on the other hand is much more of a poetic soul.

He preferred to play with snowflakes while the plumbing and electrical work was being done.

Yes...the grandkitties are growing and are oh so cute when they cuddle up together for their naps.

They especially like taking naps with their Grandpapa.

The kittens are now allowed out on the balcony, where they sit on thrones...um... I mean antique chairs.

It was hilarious to watch them snoopervise the neighborhood.

Laura is such a good "Sister" to her kittens.

SO nice to be tall when working on overhead lighting fixtures...

Let me tell you...having TWO new florescent lamps inside a new plastic cover really shows all the dirt in a kitchen! I had wiped and swiped the kitchen down...after the new lamps were installed I had to start all over.

Cessa has no interest in being a maid OR helping with house work.

She prefers to just pose nicely on soft fluffy down comforters.

Hensley feels the same way about housework...

Cessa is short for Princessa...and Princess types just do NOT do housework. Ever!

Laura and I ran errands...got Mexican food for Bernie and his Dad, who were working like...well, you know.

The Natal Plums outside the restaurant were flush with Southern California Christmas cheer. Their white flowers smell so sweetly in summer, and the fruit weeps white juice inside when ripe!

Magnolia pods were bursting with shiny red seeds all over town.

(Magnolias are so traditional in the Southern locations...even in Southern California.)

What drives me crazy about SoCal: The parking is always crazy!

Laura had decorated her place so nicely since she moved in. She had to work on Friday, and left out all her Christmas decoration for me to add.
I decorated...and decided that the orange curtains that looks so great the rest of the year needed to be replaced with green ones for the season.

"Yes, Mother" she sweetly replied to my suggestion, and we were off to I-you-know-where-kea to find a set of curtains in green.

Perfect!

Now Laura collects Mermaids (she has been a water baby her whole life, as well as a competitive swimmer and water polo player) and globes (globes because of all the years she traveled...her favorite past time) and she also has quite a collection of nurse related items (because she is a RN) and somehow or another she also collects Nutcrackers after scoring some killer deals on some highly collectible Crackers once.

A Nurse-Mermaid: Just the thing to bring two collections together.

She has an entire room for her mermaid collection and one small tree trimmed just with mermaids and mermen. Amazingly the kittens have behaved themselves and left the tree decorations alone!

And of course Laura needed a Merkitten.

I like this mermaid. I think we could be friends.

It is fun to decorate other people's houses. I decided to grab Laura's red high heels and incorporate them into the decorations.

A sprig or two of greenery tucked into the toes and don't they look PERFECT?

And why not put a second pair underneath the sideboard? Why not indeed! But without greenery, as the kittens would snitched the greens for playtime.

Laura had shopped for everyone already, and wrapped up the gifts for the SLC branch of the clan for us to take home. It is amazing what she thinks of to give as gifts. I wish I had her talent for finding perfect gifts for people.

I love her Christmas china! They are so very modern looking...and with the beaded runner and snow men they look just great on the glass top table that used to be ours in Houston.

This is the first year she has been able to entertain for Christmas with the Christmas dishes. She's a regular "hostess with mostess" year around.

Things that she already had...like the globes in the glass were turned into "Christmas" with a silver star ornament, and some flora.

Her Nurse related tree...or at least mostly nurse related.

Her "big" tree will hold a lot of the ornaments that she collected during her travels over the years. A bowl was filled with a few of the red ones...from New York, Alaska and Hawaii.

Hensley as decoration au natural...he is very good at posing, just like his Uncle Tiggie.

We left on Sunday morning while it was still dark. I lit the snowmen...just because.

It was hard to leave, as always. We got soooo much done: Replace a garbage disposal and faucet set, plumbing to a dishwasher, three light fixtures, a sliding screen door...and added a few dimmer switches.

Bernie spent most of the three days on his side working under the sink. Cessa was with him every moment, snoopervising and also knocking over a bucket of smelly water.

Well, what do you expect from a little kitten anyway?

While we waited for our plane I wondered if this lass had forgot her skirt or pants in the early morning rush?

A closer stare showed that she actually was wearing jeans.

I never did see her sit down...
What is with wearing skin tight tights to the airport lately anyway????

Laura will be posting some "before and after shots" on her blog soon!