…and instead of being tucked up in bed waiting for Santa, Rosie & Marmalade were wide awake. Snow fell steadily outside and Dad tracked Santa on his laptop, giving them regular updates as to his progress, while Rosie toasted pink marshmallows by the fire and Marmalade toasted his belly.

Very soon Betsy ‘Nextdoor’, Marmalade’s owner, would be back from the Midnight Mass and take him home to wait for Santa to bring him tuna to eat and sparkly things with feathers on to play with. Then Rosie would head off to bed too, snuggling down under her purple quilt and dreaming of coloured pencils and pirate costumes and pretty orange hair ribbons.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Dad would be stacking up presents under the tree, eating mince pies and walking carefully out of the room, backwards, sprinkling talcum powder over the carpet and his feet. It was a pain to hoover up, but Rosie loved to see Santa’s footprints around the tree on Christmas morning.

'Toasting' 8"x12" mixed media © 2009 Klair Scattergood

Wobette, my giveaway winner, wanted a Rosie and Marmalade that reminded her of her own cats, with Rosie toasting marshmallows on a fire while Marmalade toasted his belly. I loved doing this one because my cats do that too. It felt like Christmas Eve magic to me.

So, this is me officially signing off for the holidays. There might be the occassional upload of journal pages, but I’ll be putting the Etsy shop into vacation mode any minute, kicking back with a glass of rum, watching a few old favourites (The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Hogfather are top of the list) and relaxing by way of sifting through some new art books and doing some art just for me.

Hope you all have a wonderful time during the festivities. See you all next decade!

Rho

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