I'm on the road this week and part of next, first doing some in-person work from my company's headquarters, and then going a bit north to my hometown to see my best friend and go to a carding and scrapbooking long-weekend event! Since Sunday, I've been staying with a friend whose house is the most cozy, "home-feeling" place I have been in for quite some time. It's very nice. And there is a fine chubby small poodle-ish dog named Mochi, who is sweet and fun. Not quite the same as my MANY KITTIES, but I do like dogs too, believe it or not!

These are the thanks for the last cards I received before I headed out on this trip; I'll post any received while I was away as soon as I can next week when I'm back at the Cactus Cathouse.

u/56Thorns - Thank you for the beautiful Merry Christmas penguin card, tea and lovely penguin Christmas ornament/tag! It was so nice to hear from you!

u/Boomer1717 - I very much appreciated your letter and that you were willing to share those partridges in pear trees!

u/Casstronomical - I adore this Christmas cats postcard just as much as I had expected... thank you so much!

u/ch037866 - Your handmade Let It Snow card and all the stickers are wonderful! You asked what was the highlight of my 2023... I was thinking about that. I guess going back down to one house instead of two, in a practical sense as well as a "now I get to wake up next to my wife every day" sense. Raising a little of 5 tiny kittens is a pretty sweet accomplishment too, especially because the family that adopted 2 of them together recently sent photos of them settled into their forever home and they seem SO happy.

u/cookalot - Thanks for the cute Happy Holidays reindeer postcard!

u/DoraDoodle - My friend, how can you say that your beautiful handmade January collage postcard was not "thanks enough"? It is absolutely beautiful, and the coolest thing is, I do a folio each month to keep memorabilia in, which I then bookbind together at the end of the year, and this is the PERFECT thing to use as the cover for my January one! So, I don't think you could have found a more fitting and wonderful thanks if you tried!

u/dwrfstr - Garbage Goat postcard WUT!!! Thank you so much for sending a PNW smile our way.

u/ez330 - Thanks for the Happy New Year disco ball card!

u/Fancykiddens (x2) - Thank you for the absolutely beautiful and SUPER kind friendship holiday card, the amazing sticker packet, and then the reindeer mini-card!

u/feellikebeingajerk (x2) - I absolutely adore your special glittery penguins sliding down the hill holiday card (and the super-cute penguins you decorated it with). And then penguins riding motorcycles as a card too? OMG. You're awesome!

u/Jdoodle7 - Thanks for the snowman card! I'm so glad you had fun dog-sitting!

u/likablelobster - This holiday card with its many penguins, plus all the stickers and washi and penguin page flags and coloring page and all the other great things you sent my way, is WONDERFUL! Plus, your postage stamps are just great. I'm always so envious of them!

u/melhen16 - Thank you for the 2024 handmade postcard! That was a fun surprise!

u/mumbagoespainting - Your handmade holiday ornaments card was beautiful (as your cards always are) but hearing from you was the best part. I've been thinking of you!

u/mypetitmal - This is an adorable cat holiday card, but I hear you on all the ways it's hard to be cheerful with ::gestures aimlessly:: the state of things. Sending you big brainhugs!

u/ninajyang (x2) - Thanks for the Loupaper Nevada postcard and the Loupaper shellfish postcard!

u/OGTrashKan - Thank you for the welcoming and cozy holiday door and fireplace scene card.

u/powelale000 (x3) - Thank you so much for your letter, for the Most Wonderful Time of the Year handmade circle Santa and reindeer mini-card, and for your adorable little fall fox handmade mini-card, plus the great door and window diecuts!

u/QuiettPeaches - You, my friend, are amazing! Thank you for making my Christmas special with your hapy mail!

u/snerdboff - This holiday card with the penguin, reindeer and polar bear is so cute! Thanks for sharing it, and the stickers!

u/stephkempf (x3) - Thanks for the funny Ned Young art card of the birds chasing the cat with the hose (relatable), the random Switzerland tourist snow postcard and the cheese card, though tbh now we're in a fight. How is cheese only "okay"? And how is SWISS the one you do like? Pfft.

u/TigerLady13 - My dear friend, how are you doing?? I love your polar bear "season for peace" holiday card. And congrats on the name change!

u/todayisfab (x2) - Thank you for the absolutely beautiful Irina Garmashova cat postcard, as well as the cat thank-you card and the wonderful goodies. I'm going to have to check out that PostcardsMarket site... it looks like my kind of place! But sadly I, too, am trying to do some more focus effort at NOT buying things, so I'll save that to do a bit later on in the year :) I hope your no-spend is still going well!

u/UseYourRuler (x2) - I was so excited to see mail from you, my friend, and so sorry to hear about what was going on this fall for you. I hope you are healing up! Thank you so much for your beautiful handmade Let It Snow cardinal card, and especially for this wonderful hand-drawn Happy Holidays penguin mini-card and the origami tree. You are so talented and I am so grateful! Please keep taking care of yourself, OK?