It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like..........

......nothing new really, just our normal slightly crazy life.  Harley Rose disappeared late last night when we let her out for a toilet break.  Phill went to work at 3ish and I was up at 4 for my own toilet stop and she still hadn't come back so of course I couldn't get back to sleep.  Lucky was sleeping peacefully in his nest oblivious so far to his mother's absence.  I couldn't believe that Harley would stay away deliberately from the kitten, especially having lost her other three.  Before she delivered she would sometimes stay out all night if we couldn't catch her to get her into the cat hut, and mysteriously would always return at around 11am.  I wondered if some old lady had taken a fancy to her and was keeping her, and feeding her (her appetite wasn't always what it should have been) and letting her out at a certain time in her morning routine.  Anyway in the meantime I waited anxiously for the shops to open then ran down the street to get an eye dropper.  I'd googled orphan kittens and figured that all we needed was to warm up the cat milk that I buy and give Lucky a little bit of it every so often.  He took it quite well and seemed to like it.  I also found out something I didn't know, that very young kittens don't go to the toilet naturally, they have to be stimulated down there by their mother, or their carer to make them go.  We did that gently and successfully, and I figured that if Harley didn't come back, we could manage quite well.  I searched the street and the back lane in case Harley had met with an accident but no cat bodies were to be found.  Of course at 11am she was sitting outside the back door and went straight to Lucky and seemed really relieved to be home and hasn't left his side all day.  This reinforces my theory that someone is keeping her somewhere.  Why they wouldn't notice she is a well cared for cat, AND that she was pregnant but isn't now but is clearly nursing, is anyone's guess.  Anyway she's home safe and not getting out tonight and Lucky is a very happy baby.
I went down and bought a kettle and was just about to put the Nano in it when Phill came home early.  I threw the kettle at Josh and told him to hide it in his room, then ran like a madwoman into my room with the box and the warranty etc, hitting my elbow on the door jamb on the way in but we managed to get it all out of sight before he came in the door.  He looked at us strangely but we act strangely quite often so he didn't think much of it.
So I wrapped the Nano in bubble wrap (quite snugly) then in Christmas paper.  Then I put it in a gift box with lots of red tissue paper around it, then wrapped up that box, then put it into the kettle box, with more tissue then wrapped up that box and tied a ribbon around it and put it under the tree.  Small things amuse small minds I guess.
I can't get over the fact that the kids only have a few gifts to unwrap, they are old enough now to understand quality over quantity but the mother in me hates to think they might be disappointed even though the pragmatist in me knows they won't.  So I went down and got them an itunes gift card each and put them in cute little bags under the tree.  They can buy music, apps and especially for Josh who doesn't have an Ipod, games for the pc. 

And I got the turkey out to thaw in the fridge today.

Only two more sleeps.