Merry Christmas...Love The Smith Family

2010 CHRISTMAS CARD AND LETTER

Dear Two Legged Creatures,

My sister and I would first like to clarify one important thing. In 2010, the Smith home did not acquire nuisance rats in the attic or garage. We would like to think of ourselves as more sophisticated, domesticated rats….dumbo rats to be exact. Before we share with you the happenings of the rest of the Smith family, let us introduce ourselves. We are FooFoo and Snowflake, two beautiful, sweet, clean, 8-month-old, easy-to-please, friendly pet rats. Well enough about us. Our two legged family has had a great year and we are grateful that they chose us to be their first pets. They made a good choice, if we do say so ourselves.

From what we hear, something fantastic happened. Jordan, the biggest creature in the house and the one who calls us his “other girls,” (we stole his heart even though he was a bit skeptical when we arrived) finished his medical residency in Internal Medicine. The girls, and especially the biggest one, are so happy to have him around more. When he is not home adoring his girls (all 5 of us), he is working on the USS New Orleans as the ship physician. He is the doc for 330 sailors. Jordan loves what he does, and the sailors really appreciate his communication skills and “bedside manner.” Jessica is still wondering why she hasn’t seen this side of the big two legged creature. We don’t like to dwell on it, but next year Jordan will be joining the wild rats on his ship for an 8 month deployment.

The two legged lady, the one who holds the fort down and makes sure we are fed and cleaned by the little ones, keeps busy. Jessica, is always coming and going and loves taking care of her three two legged girls even more than us. When she isn’t doing that, she continues to teach at the community college and an online university as well as write lots of checks as the PTA treasurer. Now that the big guy is around more, she has got him working on lots of house projects. It’s not all work and no play though around the Smith household. We got left behind for trips to Hawaii and Vegas, but they took us up to Big Bear for Thanksgiving.

Sabrina (9) is our biggest fan. If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be here. We love Sabrina, especially because she gives us food everyday and takes us out to play. There is a pretty long period in the morning when she is gone. From what we have overheard, she is in 3rd grade and is very smart. When she is not playing with us or in school, she is practicing her beautiful piano, taking an after-school science class, reading books like Harry Potter, building Legos while begging the little one (Camille) to not touch, or playing computer/video games.

One of our favorite things to hear is the medium two legged girl, Mackenzie (5), singing and playing. Unfortunately, she is also gone a lot in the morning. Can you believe she is in kindergarten? We hear that she is learning a lot and is quite the eager student. She always looks so pretty in her dresses with her hair done and sometimes she sneaks on some makeup. At times, Mackenzie lets us play with her and the Barbies and baby dolls. We wish we could go see her at her dance cheer class she goes to once a week, but we don’t think everyone else would be OK with that.

Camille (2) is making great strides in not rubbing us the wrong way, literally. She loves us very much, but honestly sometimes it gets a bit much. She calls us her “watties.” She loves our yogurt treats just as much as we do, maybe more. Camille walks by our cage a lot during the day, mostly pushing her baby stroller. She keeps busy getting into lots of things and acting like a big girl. One day a week she goes to preschool to hang out with her buddies, Riley and Sophie. Camille keeps the two-legged creatures on their so-called toes and is quite a hoot.

We are blessed to be part of the Smith family, even though they walk weird and make strange squeaky sounds. They are happy and healthy and hope you are too.

Hugs and Kisses, Whiskers and Nibbles,
Jordan, Jessica, Sabrina, Mackenzie, Camille, FooFoo, and Snowflake Smith