It's going to be hard to muster up the usual festive Christmas spirit this year. On Thursday, we took our cat Milo to the vet after he started showing signs of weight loss and weakness. The diagnosis was kidney failure. The vet told us the end was coming fast and that we should consider having him put to sleep. This was all too sudden for us, and I held out some hope that the vet might be wrong/Idaho Dad, A Family Runs Through It. More here.

• Trolling for trolls/Community Comment
• Thank you notes/From A Simple Mind
• Top 10 signs it's almost Christmas at our house/Gathering Around The Table
• Christmas clam bake/Get Out! North Idaho
• Bad Santa/Nuts & Nonsense
• Love this day/Slight Detour
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• 60 votes and Tom Coburn's prayer/Accidental Rabbit Trails
• G'bye, Mr. Gibson, we hardly knew ye/Atmospheric Ruminations
• Nostalgia/Dogwalk Musings
• Happy solstice/JeanC's Cat House & Shooting Gallery
• Woodsy Owl must wear slacks/KEA Blog
• Focus/Live, Love, Laugh, Hope
• White Christmas/Silver Valley Stories
• Silence Is Poetic/Tumblewords

HBO Numbers (for week of Dec. 13-19): 52145/30234