Hold Your Breath, It’s the Holiday Season!

Karen's little fur bunny maker GT enjoying the holiday season

The newest member of Pet's family, Chase Wyatt, bundled up and ready for his first holiday season.

Karen

Well Pet, the holiday season is once again upon us. Its time to get out the recipe books and clean the house like mad. Cleaning my house has become a real core with two long hair cats in the house. I don’t have dust bunnies I have fur bunnies in every corner! Just bought a new vacuum to tackle the problem. Has a special pet fur attachment. I never thought a household appliance could give me such joy. It was love after first use!

Pet

Slowly, but surely I’ve begun a necessary task before holiday planning begins – transforming the wardrobe from summer to winter. You might do a little bit of this yearly chore but it’s much more of a necessity in the country where the temps swings from 105 degrees Fahrenheit to just plain 5. So whenever there’s a break from the huge job of cleaning up the garden I’m toting sweaters and sweat pants from closet A and replacing the tank tops and shorts in closet B while the B stuff goes to A. Only when done will I check the calendar.

Karen

Well, that’s one advantage to living in sunny Southern California. We don’t have to trot out winter clothes and totally change over the closet. Just throw on a jacket and maybe a scarf and we can transition pretty easily. The closet I dread this time of year is my decorating closet, which is huge! I have to haul all my spooky stuff out for Halloween and then shift everything around so that I can get to my Christmas bins. As I’m a Christmas fanatic we are talking about 8 large bins stuffed with greenery and cheer. And of course several are filled to the brim with my well over 300 ornaments. Poor Thanksgiving gets short shift. All I have is a small wreath made up of fall flowers and very tried out old stuffed turkey that looks like he’s been shot twenty times. : )

Pet

I’d love to spend the holiday season with you in the city. Never mind that over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go stuff. Goodbye wild turkeys and venison on the hoof, autumn leaves still pretty, and clear crisp days. Hello city life with closets full of decorations and all those pretty store fronts. I’m not much for decorating but love to see the fruits of others. If it weren’t for getting x-rayed and frisked I’d be checking the plane schedules and over the Mississippi and mountains to Karen Anne’s house we go.

Karen

LOL Pet. Yes, traveling ain’t what it used to be. Now not only do you have to start a diet to lose 10 pounds so you can indulge in all the wonderful holiday goodies, you have to lose another 10 so you look good going through the body scanners at the airport to get to the holiday goodies! I swear isn’t there enough pressure on women to look good? Don’t get me started. : ) I do think the city does have a lot to offer during the holidays. Why we have some killer sales already going on. And the store windows are such a nice diversion from my massive gift list. But my favorite part of being in the Pasadena during the holidays is the pre-Rose Parade excitement. Nothing like looking out a store window and seeing a giant parrot cruising down Colorado Boulevard. : )

Pet

Thanksgiving starts the celebration in the country. Each little town has a parade with Santa (that guy does get around this time of year) and a couple of hours of Christmas in Olde (you name the town). The lights go on and do look pretty though the small towns can’t compete with the tourist towns of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg (think Dollywood) where they boast one million lights. But then, not even Karen Anne with her humongous decorating closet can compete with that! She tries though…Pasadena’s answer to our Tennessee diva, Dolly Parton.

Karen

Wow Pet, and I thought living up to my Martha Stewart reputation was a burden. I think the thing about the holidays in the city that really burns me up is the fact that some stores start putting out their Christmas merchandise before Halloween! By the time Christmas rolls around I’ve been so over saturated with Santa’s and reindeer I’m looking forward to pink bunnies. On the upside the sales start almost as early and you can get your gift shopping done months in advance. Of course do I take advantage of the fact, no. I’m one of those people that searches high and low for the perfect gift. My friends are an eclectic bunch. And like me they are crazy for antiques. The funkier the better. One year I spent four months trying to track down an 1880’s silver-plated pickle fork!

Pet

Nothing echoes the true spirit of Christmas like giving the perfect gift. Accomplishing this last year, I am now faced with what to get her this year. No such problem with the perfect gifts I receive every holiday season. Seems Hubby detests shopping. An hour in a department store is like a week in hell for him. So I told him not to worry. “I’ll buy all the presents, even the one for me.” Now you’ll find two happy campers at our house during the holidays. For 2010 hubby is generously gifting me with two presents since the ones I now own recently self-destructed. A lovely watch and a camera for dummies under the tree will insure I have a merry and a happy!

Karen

Oh, crafty Pet! You’ve come up with the perfect solution for all husbands gift-giving woes, hand over the chore to the wives!!!!! My hubby asks me for a five item wish list. He also gives me 50 bucks worth of eBay mad money. I’m an eBay master. 50 bucks in my hands is like 200 in someone else’s. When someone raves over one of my antiques I can blow their mind and say I snapped it for 20 bucks. Because of my auction prowess I score the best presents. This year one of my friends wants a Victorian era asparagus server. Where will I get one of those? eBay of course! And the perfect gift will be at her door just in time for Christmas! Love that Internet!

Pet & Karen wish you all the best of luck finding the perfect gift for that special person and the greatest holiday season ever!