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Those kittens really do look magical. You guys are such awesome parents 
I'm glad you had a good Christmas and I hope next year is easier than the last.
You just made me want to add to our cluster of cats (currently, three) next Christmas.
That was fabulous. I also had no idea that things were so tenuous for you. Of course, I'm sure that's by design; you assume that no one wants to hear about your troubles or you just don't want to talk about them.
Perfectly understandable, and I hope things get better all around for you all.
Merry merry, happy happy!
Kittens! Such cute kittens! With such a great story but who cares because they are so very cute. What are their names?
Alex named the female "Cindy," where he got the name I have no idea, so we had no choice but to name her brother "Bobby." So they're Cindy and Bobby Bradycat.
Yay! Kitties!!
{flea} I'm sorry things are so bad for you guys right now. Something's gotta get better. I hope things turn around for you in the new year.
Cindy and Bobby Bradycat? Could I love you guys anymore? Yep, looks like I could.
Congrats to the winners.
I've been there with the having to boil water on the stove. Okay, let me rephrase that. My parents were there, I was just a long for the ride. I think our water heater went out one winter and that is how we ended up taking baths. Be careful, please, I still have a horrible memory of my mom dropping the pot of water on her foot and having to be rushed to the hospital. Since I can't have that happen to you, I'll be tipping again very soon.
Merry Christmas to you, flea and family.
I'm such a sap - when I read your instructions about the "magical kittens", I immediately choked up. What a great story - and a great gesture. You two must be fantastic parents.
Ooh, magic kittens -- I'm filing that one away for when I have kids...
I know it's too late for the contest -- but I thought I'd throw in my I-almost-ruined-my-own-christmas-this-year story...
On Christmas Eve, I was up in the attic of my rent house, moving stuff around so I could put more stuff up there. I had my feet perfectly balanced on two beams -- but then I slipped and my leg went crashing through the sheetrock. Did I mention I only rent this house? The shoddy construction (the entire sheetrock panel was only held in by four nails and a light fixture meant that instead of just punching an easily fixable hole though, half the panel came crashing down...
My dad and brother nailed cardboard over the hole, and I have a guy coming out to give me an estimate to fix it. I just can't figure out how to tell my landlord I broke her house... or that is was partially her fault (we think the panel was also weakened beacause of a previously leaking roof.)
Ahhh, kittens!
And I wish you lived nearby 'cause my step-dad does water heater installation. cheap.
I'm glad to hear you had a merry Christmas.
Damn, that magic kitten story was smart. Next Christmas, I'm emailing you to come up with something super clever like that for PK.
Yay new water heater, yay tip jar.
Great pic. Isn't it amazing that kittens are such camera-sluts? Mine would step in front of each other to hog the frame.
C'mon? Magical Kittens? Santa on the roof?
That was the Christmas of all Family memories. What a good Mom and Dad you are!
Here is to a better 2006. My family has had a similar shit-eating year. I feel ya, sistah.
And I believe that Scalding Skin was Mao's favorite "pre-intercourse with virgin" ritual....
and of course you've made me cry. What a wonderful story.
So, you'll not be wearing light-colored clothes out of the house ever again? Two cute (hairy) black kittens. You and Steve are geniuses with the "magic dust" business. And someday when the kids really drive you bonkers, you should swap out the kitties for the beanie babies, just once; bet they'd behave beautifully after that! (And have great things to discuss with their therapists someday.)
Am I the only one who's alarmed that there's another robot in your house now? The end times are near.
Best wishes for a far more prosperous and much less worrisome 2006! Y'all deserve it
oh. my.
i've been thinking a lot about how who cares about if it's christmas or holidays or whatever. it's all based around a pagan holiday anyway. and the jesus that i'm down with (which, i'm just so weird about? am i down with jesus? yeah. the one *i* decide!) just wants love and smussiness and all of that anyway. it's not about gifts of the store, it's about gifts of the heart.
this story is great, as usual. i just love it. i love cats and love and family and the idea that people will take care of one another. we will take care of one another if we let each other.
i love the cats' names, i love the idea of the barter system (!!). i just love.
thanks so much for sharing yourself and your writing with us.
What a wonderful story about the kittens! I'm looking forward to your anecdotes about them and the boys growing up together.
Hope the water heater gets installed soon, and that 2006 brings lots of good things -- like the new drapes you'll need once the kittens find the old ones 
!
Oh that kitten trick is just about the best thing I've heard this holiday season. You guys are awesome.
That whole thing is *awesome.* Thank you so much for sharing it. It's just so . . . I mean, people are trying to help each other fix stuff. Loneliness and water heaters and bad Christmases past. It makes me happy.
The kitten idea is classic. Santa brought my son a new Beta fish to replace Jack..our last fish lost in tragic accident due to the irrepressible curiosity of Buddy, our dog. He was flabbergasted that Santa knew exactly where Jacks old bowl was and took the time to fill it up with water and such.
As the adult I look back and wonder if my parents struggled as much as I do to make sure the kids have a magical Christmas, if they saved and avoided dinners out and buying new clothes just to make it all happen. I hope my son never knows, that he always believes in the magic of it.
TOO CUTE! Oh, Merry Christmas to the flea circus, and may 2006 bring good things, more than one at a time. Thank you so much for all you share so generously.
Kitties! Yay!
I share Dan's pain--I too am gay, but for some bizarre reason insist on all of my pets being female. The horses weren't a problem, but I was definitely unprepared for the amount of feline-on-human humping that went on during my innocent kitty's cycle before we finally let her get pregnant & then spayed her. Good times.
Oh, the magic kitten story will go down in history for its delightful brilliance.
And Orange, you're not the only one worried about the robot army. At least ours weren't armed (were they?).
Have a very happy and merry one, Flea et al!
I've got a ruined Christmas story, too, only this one didn't happen to me, it happened to my co-worker.
She and her husband went down to Florida a couple weeks ago, for an anniversary trip and to see her daughter and her husband. On the second day, co-worker's husband starts vomiting. At first they thought it was food poisoning or the flu. But it continued, and he was so miserable he could barely get out of bed. This continued the rest of their trip, so when they got back, he went to the doctor and ended up in the hospital with a strangulated hernia! They had to do surgery, during which his colon ruptured and contaminated his abdominal cavity, so they couldn't close him up. Then they discovered he has diabetes. There have been a couple other complications as well.
He's still in the hospital, but he's slowly improving, out of ICU now. But it was scary for a little while.
Cindy and Bobby Bradycat! Hee hee! At least that's better than Fluffy or Tiger. I've always preferred human names for cats. That's Julie in my Gravatar pic.
What a great story! And I don't even like cats! But, I do like kids and yours are lucky to have two such creative and plucky(!) parents. Happy New Year and I hope that the Plumber Fairy comes really soon!
I think that was the best way to suprise your kids with kittens. That is so creative! You have inspired me, even though my daughter is only 1...I can't wait to try that out on her. What a cool thing for your kids now (and a cool memory for when they are older). So cool. By the way, I visit your site (and online shop) often and love both to death. Keep up the posts. I really enjoy your comical genius.
oh yeah! i forgot about that part. my cat, flan(nery o'connor), is my daughter who i love so much. i have a sneaking suspicion she went into a mini heat that i didn't know about...i didn't know when the right time was to get her spayed...
well, the time became horribly apparent when she would just be ALL OVER everyone who came over. first it was just the guys. and that was sort of funny in a sick way, but still pretty gross. then, one day, when i was in the kitchen and my girlfriend, shawn, came over and flan started stalking her around the kitchen, aggressively rubbing up against her legs, i knew it was just so uncool. i yelled, "FLAN!"
shawn just looked at me from the corner as my cat sexually harrassed her. i felt horrible. both for shawn and for flan. flan was in so much agony. and the sounds. OH the sounds. yuck. i called the vet, but they said her internal organs were swollen at this point, and we had to ride it out (well, they probably didn't say THAT).
we did, and as soon as they were able, i got her in to be spayed. i took her in, and as i left the office that early morn, i got into my car and said...i'm NOT gonna cry. and then i proceeded to bawl. save for a teeth cleaning this july (she's 11 now), she hasn't had to be put under general anethesia since (goddess willing).
however, she *did* have to wear the sad cone.
Email with my info to follow, flea.
Posting here to give public thanks to my anonymous contributor. Thank you. You've left me speechless enough that it's taken me since flea posted this entry to write this message. I am sufficiently touched by this that I am moved to tears by your generosity, as I was by Togolosh's message. (How you knew the Water Dancer is precisely what I've been eyeing in flea's store, the world may never know.)
And flea -- rest assured that should you run an identical contest a year from now, my story will still be about this year's Christmas... but it will be an amusing tale of woe. The day went wrong in ways I couldn't have predicted, but I kept my sense of humor at the time, and I suspect it will only get funnier as I look back on it.
I'm loving the magic kittens story. And the reindeer part of it. And... Yeah. Best Christmas story I've heard this year. Thanks for sharing it.
"I'm a little scared and freaked out right now. I have to go to my room."--Alex
Alex is going to get quoted a lot at our house. When I read that to Spouse, he laughed so hard he was crying. And he's used Alex's line twice since Monday.
Your kids ARE the richest kids in town...
you're the only person on my list of must-reads who consistently makes me laugh *and* get sniffly, flea.
here's to a very happy new year for you and yours.
Magic fucking kittens..... good thing my kids don't read this blog. They would pack up and move away, or sue me.
I swear that is the coolest, sweetest idea I have heard. Your boys will remember that their entire lives. PLUS you get kittens!
Poor passport moron's wife sooooo deserved that win.
This year has sucked so much for so many people everywhere.
I look forward to 2006 as a better year for all of us.
How do you think up these magical, wonderful things? Your kids are so lucky and so are the furbabies.
Cheers to a better New Year.
I love the magical kittens, what a brilliant idea!! Unfortunately, we have magical allergies, so this could never work in our house.
You showed the wisdom of Solomon with your choice of crappy Xmas winners. The wife that didn't get her European trip because of the missing passport really deserves something extra special in her stockings every Christmas from now on.
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