On the First Day of Christmas, my True Love Gave to Me….

A Viking Cat in a …..TARDIS?

This dapper young feline bears a striking resemblance to a time-traveling doctor:

The lady who commissioned this piece asked me to paint Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” as the background, in reference to the episode “Vincent and the Doctor”.
I was flattered that someone would think me capable of recreating a famous painting. LOL

I had something nearly finished to publish here on December 17th, but it was quite depressing for a Christmas post…. as I was experiencing “the winter blues”; depressed and anxious, dreading each day, alluding to various stresses we’ve been dealing with (without mentioning details), grieving over lost children I never knew, and of course, making a few sarcastic references to The End of The World.

After two early appearances in December at the Westminster Farmer’s Market…

… I spent the latter half of this month buried under a mountain of blankets, eating comfort foods (lots of homemade pumpkin pie), and watching pre-recorded episodes of Glee.
Oh, and working on commissioned portraits that I’d assured customers would be ready by Christmas.

A Viking Warrior Cat on-board his long-ship, crossing the dark ocean to conquer new lands:

This fella is Angus McMeowd ….a.k.a. Otis the tabby, named after “Big Otis”, a fictional character on the cover of Kellogg’s OKs cereal boxes in the 1960′s.
I “borrowed” the Scotsman’s costume to dress this handsome boy.

And here is a new portrait of a beautiful Bengal kitty as a Redcoat soldier:

As far as Christmas goes, it was a small quiet affair; just Joe, myself, and the kids.
He surprised me by bringing the Christmas tree down from the attic on Thanksgiving!

I don’t really collect fancy or expensive ornaments (although someday I may), preferring to use whatever we have on-hand.

This year, we made paper-chain garland to string around the tree.

I hung leftover cat art ornaments from my craft shows…. and we filled in the gaps with pine-cones.

It was a simple and fun tree, and I think, really captured who we are as a family.

Oh… and I’ll share one brief encounter that brightened one of my otherwise hectic work-days:

While setting up a cookie display in our bakery, a family passed by…
and I overheard the little boy asking his mother whether we made our Christmas tree cookies using real Christmas trees!

I wanted very much to reply,
“Why, yes! In fact, we use actual pine sap in our secret recipe.
They taste just like real trees!“

Yummmm nom nomnom.

The Real Truth About Creation…How the World Was Made

“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”
~ Genesis 1:1

To hear a human tell it, you’d think it was The Beginning… but what do humans know?

Truthfully, the heavens and earth were created because Samson had spent entirely too long waiting for his lunch.

You see, the omnipotent Creator – to Whom Creation itself is attributed – dwelt with a black and white tomcat named Samson.

Samson was well-mannered. He didn’t spray the edges of the universe (which would be gross, considering the lack of gravity), nor did he attack Jehovah’s wiggling toes while He rested, and he even refrained from sharpening his claws on the Throne of Judgement… although he did shed a few hairs upon it, but that was to be expected from such a fluff ball as Sam.

Samson was also patient and longsuffering, which served him well as the Pet of God… since his Master was usually busy in business meetings with angel investors, and seldom remembered to feed poor Samson.

One day, God left early for work and forgot to fill Samson’s breakfast bowl… and when lunchtime passed and He hadn’t returned, Samson became very irritable and extremely hungry.

So He escaped through a wormhole that the Lord had accidentally left open, and off he went in search of food.