While the cats are away...

Prior to our big adventure to the states, we had to send the cats and dogs to their vacation homes. There is a hundepension (aka dog kennel) just a couple of miles from our house and so we arranged for Lexi and Zoe to spend the holidays there. We would have loved to have had them with us, but it simply isn't possible to do so when you're spending Christmas 4000 miles from home! But, before we took the dogs to their temporary housing, we had to deliver the cats elsewhere.

We were extremely lucky because Ole's parents offered to take the cats during our trip. So, we packed up a litter box, a bag of litter, a litter scoop, their food, food bowls and water bowl, and finally - Mr. Pete and Coal, and loaded all of it into the car for the trip to Struer. I snapped a few shots of Coal and Mr. Pete in their travel crates - from the moment we put them in their boxes, they howled like it was the end of the world. Lexi was extremely curious about the whole thing!...





I wish I could've gotten the picture, but the camera was not where I needed it at the time.. Lexi put herself down on her belly in front of Coal's box and put herself nose to nose with him. I think she was trying to tell him that it would all be okay!

Mr. Pete, who NEVER meows (well, except for the one time that we decided he needed a bath, but that's another story for another time), cried in his box from the moment he was put into it and until the moment we arrived in Struer - poor thing must have had one hell of a sore throat!!

We unloaded them at Ole's parents and today we picked them up again. Rumor has it they pretty much hid out in the closet any time someone entered the room they were staying in, but that's no surprise. Coal has an intense fear of strangers and does not like his world interrupted. Mr. Pete is generally friendly but he's also a bit nervous about new places and new faces.

Lexi and Zoe shared a kennel at the hundepension and they were bouncing off the walls when we picked them up Tuesday evening. Who knows what adventures they may have had during our week away - all we know for sure is that the two blankets we left for them were in many, many pieces when we arrived. Hopefully the whole experience wasn't too traumatic!!

Everyone is now safe and sound and home again. :)

The weather outside was frightful...

... but the city was sooo delightful!

I love NYC but boy, oh boy, I'm not so sure the city likes us! We were in NYC a few years ago for Christmas and on that trip, the temperatire hovered around 5'F. We were in NYC again before and after our wedding, and the temperature was approximately 100'F. On this trip... oh, about 20'F. I wonder if we'll ever experience NY with 'normal' temperatures!!

We didn't do too much while in NYC itself as it was exceedingly cold on the only complete day that we did have there, but we had fun despite the cold. We walked from our hotel on 48th and 8th down to the Manhattan Mall and then over to Macy's to see the Christmas windows and enjoy the big Christmas sales. With the economy in such turmoil, the stores were doing everything possible to sell, sell, sell, which meant tons of bargains everywhere - hurray!!

At the Manhattan Mall, we were both happy and sad to see that one of our favorite stores, Steve & Barry's, was going out of business. Sad because Ole's entire family fell in love with the store when they were in New York for our wedding. Why? Well, if you've never been there, the store's mantra was "3 for $20!" - yes, three items of clothing for $20. When you're used to DK pricing, or even ANY pricing for that matter, 3 for $20 is a wonderful thing. And we're not talking junk clothes either - the store resembled an Old Navy and had awesome jeans, sweatshirts, etc. The prices were awesome, but perhaps their pricing also explains why they are now going out of business!

Happy, however, because the prices were even lower for the big sell-out and we took full advantage; we are now the proud owners of several college sweatshirts. It didn't matter to us what state was strewn across the front - it mattered only that we were purchasing big heavyweight sweatshirts for... wait for it...

$3.99

Yeppers - what a steal!

We had dinner at the Olive Garden (one of my favs!) in Times Square, looking down on the yellow sea of taxis and spent some hours just relaxing in our room. We didn't do all the 'normal' Christmas things in NYC but for us, it was just perfect. Here are a few pics from our adventure - including a rather frightening self-portrait!!