On the home stretch now ...

Another pair of reindeer stitched - just one more pair to go now, and then the message to stitch. I've decided to stitch the final line of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'. It will go under the reindeer, perhaps in three lines of text:

Merry Christmas

to all

and to all a good night

(if those are the actual words - I haven't yet checked to see how accurate my memory is on this one). Looks like I'll have my alphabet charts out soon, to work out the text details.

I'm starting to feel confident that I may finish this project by the end of February. If I do, that will be the earliest I've finished a Christmas project in the 19 years I have been stitching myself an annual Christmas cross-stitch. As soon as Midnight Journey is off my floor-frame I am going to put my HAED Jolly Old Fellow back on. I will work on it all March and April, and see if I can get at least another page stitched. It really is such a beautiful Santa, and it does deserve to get some attention soon.

Enough about stitching - on to more important news. here's Miss Maddie in her favourite position these days:

She has spent the past week in her basket, except when I take her out for food or eye drops. She's not coping at all well with the heatwave we've been experiencing in the past week or so. Most of the time she's been inside, in an airconditioned room, but even so she's been off her food and very lethargic. I'm not too concerned, though - she livens up considerably when she hears the lid come off the treat container. I lift the lid so carefully, but she'll hear it even though she appears to be asleep in her basket downstairs in the loungeroom. By the time I get to the top of the stairs, she's dancing round in circles at the foot of the stairs waiting for her treat. We clipped her coat before her bath this week to try to cool her down a little. Her hair is now so short that her pink skin shines through - that pinkish glow in the photo isn't an artefact - that's really the colour she is. Her ear infection has cleared up, and those drops have now been stopped, so that's some progress. She is such a little angel with her eye drops. I am so lucky! I'm hoping for good news when we go for the vet review on Tuesday - I'm hoping her cyclosporin drops can be reduced to daily.

It's almost 1am, and I have an early start tomorrow, so I'd better start thinking of bed. Tomorrow I'm taking my Dad for the first of five visits to the denture clinic, and that may be an interesting experience for all concerned. He is suffering from dementia, and has almost no short-term memory. He lives in a secure aged care hostel, but seems to think he's in prison. He is usually quite delightful, but if the mood takes him he can really spit the dummy - not tomorrow, I hope!