Jasper liked to lead the way down the basement steps—slowly. When I was carrying a basket of clothes down to be washed, the basket blocked my view of where he was. I would ask him who he thought was going to feed him if I fell down the steps and broke my neck. I didn’t like the look he was giving me, as if he might be wondering how tasty my dead body might be. Eventually, I invested in a few laundry sacks which I could toss down the stairs ahead of me leaving me a clear view of my feet and my cat. Going back up the stairs with a basket of clean laundry wasn’t a problem. He saw it as a race, so he would zoom up ahead of me and sit on the upper landing gloating at his win.
For Christmas, my mom would start with raspberry Jell-o, add chopped apples, celery, English walnuts, and cooked cranberries. She had a Tupperware mold that had different lids with shapes you could put on the bottom what would end up being the top once it was unmolded. She used the star shape for the Christmas mold. I can’t even remember what the rest of the shapes were.
And plushies!