I have always loved the holiday season, especially our country Christmas traditions…And this year, besides my usual filling of orders and sending Magic Zoo stocking-stuffers to all corners of the world, a few other holiday surprises are in the air.

Like this one: I’m offering FREE priority shipping on ALL orders through December! Doesn’t matter what or how many things you purchase. I figure it’ll get to you just that much faster!

Other Fun Stuff…

This past September I joined my mountain community’s seasonal choir! Every Monday night for the past 4 months I’ve been practicing with 24 fellow singers. We’ll be performing at our local arts community center on December 18. I’m hoping those challenging harmonies come together for all of us by then! Fingers crossed…

Also, over the past 6 months my son and I collaborated and made a beautiful little private apartment for me in the rear of our big old country house. Amazingly, I was able to fit a Christmas tree in the small living room area by doing a bit of minor rearranging. Yes, that’s it at the top of this blog post.

I love my cozy space, which has all my favorite things from years of trading with fellow artists at shows from California to the East Coast. Since my siblings (and my late mother) are (were) artists, my walls are filled with gorgeous painting, drawings and wooden art pieces. And soon I’ll be installing my own handmade tiles as a backsplash above my sink. I just can’t stop creating!

Our New 4-Legged Companion!

And…we have a new family member! Her name is Minnie and she is an (almost) 50 lb. husky mix. After having only cats in my life for most of my (almost) three quarters of a century, I’ve fallen in love with this sweet girl. She’s still a puppy (about 9 months old) and is frisky, happy and quite beautiful! And she adores the snow. Which makes sense, considering her heritage.

Minnie is a stray, who showed up at our house a several months ago. We traced her current origins at that time to a dog lover named Kevin on the other side of our neighborhood mountains (someone had “dropped her off” on his property when she was a little puppy and he had been housing and feeding her ever since). Kevin had her spayed, and she has a cute little heart tattoo on her lower abdomen as proof. I’d never heard of that, but Diana, my daughter-in-law says it makes her look like a biker chick pup.

After deliberating for a few months if we should add a dog to our current menagerie, we decided to adopt her on a trial basis. But you know how that goes…We all love her, despite her being very vocal (she doesn’t really bark, she just “talks” a lot). And she hasn’t quite settled in with the cats.

But Minnie is passionate about her walks, and all of the adults are getting in real good shape with Minnie setting the pace. We don’t let her off leash, at least not yet. Huskies are known to be wanderers, and we want to make sure she sticks around.

Minnie and the cats seem to tolerate each other OK, but I’m hoping for a Christmas miracle where they can actually sniff noses and be friends. Too much to ask? I’m not sure yet. Anyway, the animals don’t live in my part of the house, so I get all the amusement and exercise without any of the cleaning up after. A pretty good arrangement.

Best Part of the Season…Fun with Grand kids!

I almost forgot! This weekend “baking Christmas cookies with Grammy” was one of the kids’ advent calendar treats. So…here we are, creating memories for yet another holiday season.

I hope you have a remarkably, magical and exceptionally wonderful December. Tell me about one or two of your special holiday traditions!

With Love and Magical Holiday Wishes,

Merry