Christmas Decor, Part II

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cam, back with more of our Christmas Decor!  Yesterday, we showed you where our "memories" tree is -- that tree has an eclectic collection of all kinds of ornaments on it!  It has old ornaments from when Mom and Dad were first married, ornaments from friends, ornaments with special memories behind them.  Today, we'll show you a couple more!

First up, the tree with the German angels on it!

"How's this, Mom?"
"Yeah, how's this, Mom?"
"Umm ... Maggie?  Are you supposed to be up there?"

That tree has all wooden ornaments, mostly from Germany, one or two from Belgium, and a couple Nativity scene ornaments from Israel. They're all very special!

In case Maggie was blocking anything ...

"I was OK the first time, though - right?"
"Fine.  Is this better?"

Mom made the quilts on the wall when she and Dad lived at Fort Riley, Kansas, in Montgomery, Alabama, and in Seoul, Korea. They bought the Nutcracker guy in Germany, when they lived in Belgium. Maggie and I are fascinated with his hat and beard!

I like to lay by the fireplace (without a fire, of course) and take it all in.

"Ooh, very festi-zzzz..."

Or take a nap. One of the two.

You can sort of see the fireplace mantle - it has a pottery Nativity scene from Belgium and all kinds of angels from all over the world!

"At least there are no hats!"
"Don't even mention them, Maggie!"

We'll do close-ups of everything eventually.

To the right on that photo above, you can see another tree - our Patriotic tree! We honor all those men and women serving in our nation's military, remembering them at Christmas and always!

Me and Mags with the Patriotic tree!

Mom took more pix of us there yesterday; it's our favorite tree! More to come on that one!

That's enough for today ...

Mags and me - being perfect angels!

More to come!

Cammie!

Christmas Decor, Part I

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cam.  Maggie and I worked really hard helping Mom deck the halls here at Ao4 Headquarters, getting it all set for Christmas!  We thought we'd start showing you some of the festive things!

Dad helped Mom carry a bunch of storage boxes down from the upstairs. We thought we should help, too.

"Watch your step!"
"No, it's no trouble.  We'll come up and help."

We may have run up and down the steps a few times.  Just to help.

After everything was brought down to the main level, Maggie helped go through some of the ornament boxes.

"SOCK MONKEY!!!!"
"Uh oh."

Maggie has a thing for Sock Monkey.  Unfortunately for her, Mom has just the deterrent:

"Look!  It's the Maggie Motion Monitor!"
"Not the ol' triple M!"

You can read up on the MMM at this link.  But to sum up, as the saying goes, "Every time a bell rings, a Siberian is too close to the Christmas tree!"

"Don't worry, Mom.  I'll keep an eye on her.  I mean, she's FOUR now!"
"How come Sock Monkey is so high up on the tree?"

Mom also got out our wood resin Saint Nicolas and Santa statues.  Our grandmother painted them many years ago!

"I like these!"
"I always thought St. Nick and Santa were much bigger than this."

Mom put them up on a shelf in the breakfast room eventually, but wanted us to pose with them first.  She asked us to do a "down"; Maggie was getting bored, but I obliged:

"How's this, Mom?"
"Perfect, Cam!  Wait.  Where is Magg--"
Off-frame:  "DING DING DING DING DING!!!"
"RATS!  Next time, Sock Monkey!  Next time!"

Hmm.  Maybe it's a good thing Mom put the triple M on the tree after all!

Cammie!

Being Super Cooperative

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cam.  Did you like the picture Maggie posted yesterday?  That was a fun one.  We had to work up to it, of course.  Before we went outside with the Santa hats, we posed on the porch just "as is" - with the little trees.  Like this:

Me and Mags posing like very good girls.  Even if Mom did hook the wrong leashes up to us.
Oh.  And she did some kind of special effect thingie on it.

We were super cooperative the whole time. No, really. OK, Maggie may have checked to see if any of the neighbors were looking, but you can't blame a girl for that!

Later that day, Mom got the Santa hats out. She asked Maggie if she'd like to try one on and ...

"Sure, Mom.  No sweat.  How's this?"

Mom seemed surprised.  Mostly because she did this without treats.

I'll wait while you pick your jaws up off the floor.

Really, she did!  Then Mom went for the money shot:

"How's this for a pose, Mom?"
"Perfect!!!  I mean ... perfect!  You know I don't have treats, right?!?"

Maggie didn't care.  Mom did the special effects on that one, too.

By this time, I had just finished playing with my toy and ...

"Hey.  What are you and Maggie doing?  Can I play, too?"

Mom explained that there were no treats involved, but that didn't matter!

"Is this what you're going for?"

She did the special effects thingie again, so she must have been pleased!

Yep.  Being SUPER cooperative.

Just.

To.

Throw.

Her.

Off.

Ho ho ho!

Cammie!

Photo Finish Friday - When Hats Aren't Hats

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags.  Santa hats. Who needs them - right?  (Except for Santa, of course.). But Cam and I have a way of turning ours into something a bit more palatable.

"No, this is perfect, Mom.  Really."
"Very festive.  Trust us."

I think it's a big improvement, don't you?

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Since We Didn't Do Wordless Wednesday ...

... let's just call this one "No Need For Words Thursday"!

Mags and Cam!

Saint Nicolas Day 2017

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags, here with Cam!  We'd like to wish all of you a very happy Saint Nicolas Day!!!!

"Pose by the sabots.  Got it, Mom."
"We hope your horse liked the treats we left him, Saint Nicolas!"

We left some carrots and apples in our wooden sabots last night, and Saint Nicolas left us some treats in return!  Mom removed them for the photo shoot, just so we wouldn't stare at the treats the whole time.

"Not that we'd do that, Saint Nicolas."
"No, not us. We are very good girls!"

"So ... how come we leave stuff for Saint Nicolas' horse, but not for him?"
"That doesn't seem right.  We should have something for him, too!"

"If you're out there reading .... how 'bout a smooch, Saint Nick?"
"I'll bet that's exactly what he wants!  Kisses!!"

Did you leave anything for Saint Nicolas' horse last night?  Or for Saint Nick himself?  And did you get any treats in return?

Much happiness to you!!!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

How It Really Went

Greetings to all! It's me, Mags. Did all of you see Cam's post yesterday about our backyard photo shoot? It didn't go EXACTLY like she said. I mean, if her version is to be believed, it's like I was the instigator! Today I will present photo evidence to refute all of that! Most of that. Some of that.

Anyway ...

There we were, posing on the retaining wall ...

"No, Cam. I don't see anything over there."
"I thought I saw an intruder or something."

See where I'm going with this?

"I'm trying to be good over here, Cam."
"Me, too.  Just protecting Ao4 Headquarters.  Hey, what's that down there?"

Before Cam could investigate, Mom decided we should move down a level and pose by the sedums.  I was all set, when ...

"How's this, M--Cam!  What are you doing?"
"I need to get closer to Mom.  She might need me."

See that?!!?  See how perfect I was?!?!  REALLY!

"Stop, Cam!  Mom's not done!"
"Maybe she'd like some action shots!"

Just trying to help - right?!?

"Get back over here!"
"Urmph!!!!"

Here are a couple of those action shots Cam mentioned:

It must have been what Mom wanted, since she was still taking pictures and all.

And that's what really happened.  Just us, being really helpful.  And I was not the instigator.  So if any of you out there reading (perhaps especially you, Santa) had any doubts whatsoever, I was being good.  And so was Cam.  Really!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Posing In The Garden

Hello, everyone! It's me, Cam. It's the off-season in our gardens now, but Mom wanted us to do some posing the other day anyway. There might have been treats involved, so ...

"Maggie, look at Mom!  She's got treats!"
"I want to see what the new neighbors are doing!"

One of us might be a bit more food-motivated than the other.  This one wasn't too bad:

Mags and me!

Note the leashes.  There has been a bunny the size of a small horse in our yard lately!  OK, maybe not that big, but maybe the size of a Chihuahua!  Seriously!  Not as tall, though.

"No, really.  I think the new neighbor-man is doing something in his yard."
"Really?"
"I have TREATS, girls!"

I forgot about the treats!

"Really getting tired of this ..."
"Not me.  I'm so hungry, I could eat a carrot!  How's this, Mom?"

Seriously.  I've had a super-good appetite lately.  And yes, against my better judgement, I did eat a bit of carrot Mom gave me the other day.  I'm not sure what came over me; I don't normally like them.  Maggie does, but I don't.

Anyway, Maggie was getting bored, the treats ran out, and so ...

"C'mon, Cam!  Let's play!!!"
"You're ON!!!!"

Maybe not what Mom had in mind, but way more fun!

Cammie!

Frosty Walk

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  This morning, Cam and I took Mom and Dad on a wonderfully frosty walk!  We've been having some record-breaking warm days as of late, so it was great to have some frost on the ground!

"Oooh!  It's frosty, Cam!"
"I ❤ frost!"

Don't we all!

By the time we got up to the shopping center, we were both feeling a bit pumped up!  I don't want to say who started things, but ...

"🎶 Oh, Maggie?!? 🎶"
"Yes, Cam?"

And then ...

Let the Crazed River Otter Games begin!

It was pretty awesome!

By the time we got to the woods, we were back to serious walking:

"Keep your eyes peeled for turkeys, Cam!"
"And deers!  And bunnies!  And squirrels!"

The only thing we checked off our list was squirrels, but that was pretty cool!  Besides, when we went past the Kansas Ocean, we had a cool surprise!

"HEY!  Did you see that?!?!"
"YES!"

There was a beaver or muskrat or someone like that on the bank.  We saw him slip into the water and swim across the KSO!  It was so cool!

We wound through the neighborhood some more, then at the crest of one of the hills caught the sunrise:

"Hey, Dad!  Look!  The sunrise!"
"Oooh, this is so pretty!"

It was an awfully fun walk!  Thanks for coming with us!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Oh.

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cam.  Maggie and I had a conversation somewhere in central Kansas this morning that went like this:

Me:  "Hey, Maggie.  Did you remember to put a quick post up before we left?"
Mags:  "I thought you had that covered."

"Oh."
"Zzz..."

What can I say?  

I hope your Saturday was as fun as ours was!

Cammie!

The Rest Of The Birdies!

Greetings to all! It's me, Maggie, here with the rest of the birdies from our recent trip to Quivira NWR. If memory serves me, we were right about here:

"Prairie Dogs in the Ed Center, but not Siberians.  Reeeee-lly."
"Such a double standard."

Yeah.  Right there.  Anyway, on to the birdies!

We saw a good number of these guys:

Double-Crested Cormorant

And lots and lots of ducks!!!

Lesser Scaups and Green-Winged Teals

American Wigeon

Buffleheads

We saw Mom's very favorite!

Northern Shoveler

Tiny Ruddy Ducks

Mallards

Mostly Green-Winged Teals

Most of the shorebirds are gone now, but a few of these guys are still here:

Greater Yellowlegs

We have lots of gulls that come through Kansas; these guys are the most abundant in the Winter:

Ring-Billed Gulls

Those are the highlights from that trip!

"I think that's a wrap, folks!"

If you'd like to see more, please visit our FlickR album at this link!

"Zzz..."
"Zzz..."

What can we say?  Birding is hard work!  Thanks for coming along with us!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher