Happy Birthday Charley!!!

Our little guy Charley is 3 years old today! The little winter solstice kitten was born December 21, 2004 to Dad, Catara Remington Steel of Lawrence and Mom, Catara Blizzard's Little Snowflake of Phillipsburg, PA. He is a Chocolate point Siamese.

In his 3 years, Charley has enjoyed things such as:

• Being the main subject of his mom's photography hobby
• Being the star of the Peck's 2007 Christmas card
• An addition to the table centerpiece luminaries at the wedding
• Playing with milk caps and wristbands
• Knocking over trash cans to chew on Q-tips
• Carrying around stuffed animals and socks
• Tearing around the house at full speeds
• Laying in the sun
• Sitting on the vents when the heat comes on
• Burrowing and sleeping under the covers
• Making his mom and dad laugh every day
• Being the most loyal cat his mom has ever seen.

Here are some pictures from when we first got Charley (in March 2005) and through the years!

^He was so little when he came home - look at that collar, it was the smallest available!

^He was also very light, the coloring on his face and extremities, like all Siamese, didn't really come in until later on

^For the first few months he was so little we had to keep him in a spare room during the day

^He played from the minute we brought him home

^He was so little he fit in Duane's hand when he curled up!

^He enjoys a good acoustic guitar solo by Duane

^Sometimes he doesn't want his picture taken

^Our wedding reception luminary centerpieces starring Charley (and us and the table numbers on the other sides)

^2007 Christmas card

^Our naked boy. (The back of the 2007 Christmas card)

P.S. - We know we seem like crazy cat people, but we just can't help it! Charley is the best and most loved cat ever!

10 monthiverssary was Monday!

It's been 10 months of marriage - 2 more and we've made it a year! To celebrate we're going on a trip to St. Kitts! We've booked everything and are just counting down the days now!

We'll be staying at the St. Kitts Marriott from February 23rd to March 1st! Now to get into bathing suit shape again!

Weekend Recap

It's been a busy few weeks for us with traveling for work and classes winding down. By the end of this coming week, Duane and I will be done classes until January and I don't have any more trips scheduled for 2007. Two more weeks of work then the holidays! I have the last week of December off and can't wait!

We had Duane's Christmas party at the Commonwealth Manor House on Friday. It was nice because it wasn't the normal sit down format and the band was great - a 10 piece band!

^Here we are ready to go out on Saturday

Saturday night was my work Christmas party. It was at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. On our drive down we were reminded that Hanuka is going on with this menorah on top of a car on the Schuylkill:


The party was really nice but a little overwhelming. I never thought about how many people are at Shire until my manager put it in perspective - three buildings each have three floors of people...makes up about 600 people at this party! Sadly I knew more people at the Nextgen party than mine but hopefully that will change soon! We didn't get to see too many exhibits but we did meet a few of the signers of the Constitution...

^Here's Duane and George Washington! Who knew George was such a big guy!

We left early to make our way up to Tammy's 30th surprise birthday party. When we left, all the cars parked on the street in the area had menorahs again! It was just so crazy!

Tammy's party was kind of winding down by the time we got there. She was definitely surprised and happy to have everyone there though! Good thing we weren't there all night - we had a bit of a fashion fopa...check this out (Great minds really do think alike!)

Happy Birthday Tammy (a little early)!

Finally, some sad news, we lost my Uncle Barry this Friday. I'm sure he's in a better place now with no pain, probably fishing for catfish and finding great deals.