Blogville Holiday Card Exchange

We love the Blogville Holiday card exchange and this year we swore we were going to be registered before Lassiter Chase and Benjamin had to remind us. However, Mom has been hunting since Halloween to find out about the card exchange and couldn't find a thing as it has a new host this year. Thankfully we have pawesome Sheltie buddies in Lassiter and Chase and they posted on our blog Monday to tell us how to sign up. So we thought it only fair to share with others who might be as clueless as we.

This year the Blogville card exchange is being hosted at Kylascott and you can find all the info you need to sign up here. The deadline to sign up is November 17 so you'll want to get your information in soon.

Looking forward to posting all my cards and seeing everyone else's card piles too.

Christmas Card Wreath

Our first wreath is filled and our second wreath is filling up. We don't have a card count, but Mom and Dad have had a slight increase in cards this year. Clearly Blogville has them beat, but Mom is pleased her card count is up as well.

This is one of Mom's favorite Christmas decorations every year. It is familiar but different every year based on what people send. It also makes her smile as she looks at it during the season.

Christmas Cards are on the Way

Despite snow and icy roads Dog Dad got to the post office and mailed out all our Christmas cards yesterday, so they should be coming to Blogville houses soon.

Turns out it is a good thing that same day service really means same day service at the photo department. We pushed Mom really hard to work through all the card lists in one day. That is something of of a record. She normally does the cards over a couple of days.

We hope you are enjoying your Christmas preparations. We are doing our best to keep everyone safe as they keep moving stuff around to put up decorations.

Christmas Card Wreath

Christmas Cards began arriving right after Thanksgiving and Mom and Dad brought out the wreath holders to organize our paper cards. We've been getting e-cards, too. Along with sending and receiving cards from family and friends, Mom participates in 2 online card exchanges every year and she loves watching the card wreaths take shape. We want to thank all our Blogville friends for taking the time to remember us at this very busy season and tell all of you that no matter what kind of cards you send we read and appreciate all of them.

We mention this because we got a disturbing email from someone who perhaps thought they were trying to help, but was kind of insulting. We send paper cards to all the people on both our card exchanges that live in the US. We just got our picture taken for our Christmas card on Saturday, so don't be surprised that you haven't received our card yet. We did send out e-cards, though. Only our Blogville list has residents outside the US and we send e-cards to those on that list. We use e-cards instead of scanning our Christmas cards or creating picture cards to attach to our emails. It is our choice and our preference. I've gotten both over the years and understand everyone chooses what works for them. We received an email from someone upset that they couldn't print our card and therefore had taken a picture from our Blog and created their own Christmas card from us so they could print it and display it I guess. Then they sent me a copy of the card so I could use it.

Well, clearly they thought they were trying to be helpful and I am trying to respect that. However, if I'd wanted to send a picture card, I could have done that. I didn't choose to do that. We don't print our e-cards, it is just too crazy this time of year to get to more than just reading them. However, we do enjoy the various types cards we get every year. The cards have ranged from hand made works of art to very simple cards and each is a sign that someone remembered us and thought to send us a card. As far as e-cards go we also get a variety from funny or sentimental e-cards to picture post cards and again all are welcome and appreciated. Each person does what he/she can.

The Blogville community is a very special one. However, all successful communities are based on people being considerate and thoughtful of one another. The Christmas Card Exchange is a gift we give to each other and we all participate in the best way we can. The simple reaction to a gift is thank you, not you didn't give me what I wanted in the format I wanted. These are the kinds of reactions that do eat away at the goodwill of a community.

So we end this on a positive note by thanking all of you for all the cards you send each year. We love seeing our Christmas wreaths fill up each year with cards people send. We also are grateful for those who remember us by email as well. There are many people who feel lost and left alone at Christmas. It is an amazing gift we give each other just in remembering and reaching out in what ever format that takes.

Card Wreath is Full

Thanks to a pile of cards that arrived yesterday, our second card wreath is full. The card wreath has slots that will accept more cards so if your card is on the way it will have room. The point is there won't be any holes in the wreath as Christmas arrives.

It is much harder to get a shot of this card wreath because it is located in a hallway. Mom did her best, but she couldn't quite get all the cards in and she apologizes.

We are trying to be really good as we wait for Santa to come. It seems like it's taking forever. Dad's parents arrived on Saturday and Mom's Mom is coming to the state today. That means lots of goodies on Christmas Eve, even before Santa comes.

Thankful Thursday: Christmas Prep Continues

Mom is making progress on getting ready for Christmas. Dog Dad picked up our Christmas cards last night and Mom worked on addressing them until she ran out of stamps. Not giving anything away, but Dog Dad says this is the best card ever because of Katy. As for the lack of stamps, never fear, Dog Dad picked up today when he mailed the huge stack Mom finished yesterday.

Dog Dad suggested making use of the flower boxes on our deck, so they went out searching for something to put in them last night. We are hoping the birds will discourage the squirrels.

Monday Mischief: The Christmas Card Wreath

Well it was a busy but productive weekend. Mom and Dad finally got into Christmas mode.

Friday they left us home and took the great niece and nephews to the Christmas tree lighting. The little ones got to visit with Santa who arrived on a fire engine to open the festivities. We didn't get to go because it was incredibly crowded.

Saturday we finally got to see Santa at the Baypath Rescue fundraiser. Can you believe it Santa remembered us!! With all the dogs he sees we didn't expect he'd remember us. I guess he doesn't see many Shelties and who knew Santa has a thing for Shelties. Santa even remembered to rub Katy's side so she stopped being scared. We got to our picture taken with Santa and then we got to go shopping in the store that hosted the event. We found lots of cool toys to suggest for Santa toys and we also pointed out some bully sticks that might be interesting.

Mom and Dad finally got our card wreaths put up and the first one only has our cards in it so far. I suspect we'll fill the first one before Mom even gets one card in it.

They also got the tree up this weekend so the holiday decorations are coming along. Next weekend we are helping one of the great nephews celebrate his birthday. We love birthday parties because Dog Dad always gets us cookies to celebrate with the birthday child. The tradition is the birthday kid gives us the cookies before he/she has birthday cake. We don't get bakery cookies often so we are looking forward to it.

Happy Chanukah to all our friends celebrating. We hope the holiday is filled with joy, happiness, and wonderful memories as you celebrate with family and friends.

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Terrific Tuesday: The Christmas Cards are Arriving

Yesterday our box was filled with Christmas cards and Dog Dad hasn't even dragged our card wreaths out of the attic yet!!! We are so thankful to our Blogville friends and look forward to decorating our wreath with all their wonderful cards.

We actually had a much better picture of all our wonderful cards, but Mom quickly realized all the addresses were showing and decided that wasn't such a good idea.

Monday Mischief: Putting out the Holly Buckets

Mom was quite excited when she moved here to find she had Holly bushes in her own front yard. Oddly they seem to have the best berries in the summer, not the winter as all the fake Holly she's used over the years assured her she'd find. However, this year has been so warm that the bush is very berriful and Dog Dad decided the day after Thanksgiving would be a great day to do its winter trim.

The weather was very tropical for New England on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Mom was out in a short sleeved shirt and her sandals. She hates putting shoes on when its muddy. Mom loves putting out the Holly buckets full of Holly and ornaments to decorate the front yard. She and Dog Dad just never have done the whole Christmas light thing, but she does enjoy having something outside. A few years ago Santa's elves found their way home. Other outdoor decorations have not survived the brutal snow storms, so Mom recruited a gnome planter to help. She may be checking out some outdoor sales to see what she can locate.

We were very helpful supervising and making sure nobody got hurt while working with the pointy Holly.

Mom helped us send out all our digital Christmas cards this weekend to those who requested e-cards and to all those living outside the United States. We have an appointment with Santa on Saturday and hope to get our paper cards made up after that so we can get the rest of the list mailed.

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Our First Card Wreath is Full

Thank you to all our friends who have been helping us to fill up our card wreaths. As you can see, the first one is full and Mom has started on filling up the second one. We of course are responsible for most of the first card wreath. However, Mom has had a respectable showing this year from her crochet online friends who have been sending cards, too.

She wanted us to note that the first two cards in the second wreath are actually not dog cards, the third one was and another arrived after this was taken that was also Mom's. We have also received several e-cards that Mom has shown us and we thank all of you for sending those, too.

We are hopeful both wreaths will be filled before the season is over and we will get pictures posted so everyone can see.

Our First Card

Well after discussions with Dad, we agreed Mom might have received the first card, but we have the honor of having our card hung on the card wreath first since Mom lost hers. Our good friends Lassi and Benji's card arrived yesterday and we were very excited to get it all hung up.

With Mom's help, we finished addressing and stamping all our cards and hers too, yesterday. Dog Dad took the last of them to the post office this morning. We even got our e-cards sent to those who live outside the US. Now we have to get serious about decorating, as in where did Mom pack our Christmas toys. Now that the turkeys have made their way back into the Thanksgiving box it is about time we got our Christmas toys out of those big boxes.

We are all excited for choir practice. We can't wait to find out what we will be singing. Katy's hoping we will go Christmas Caroling. She has heard people will offer you treats at the door, kind of like Halloween.

Card Score Parents 1 Dogs 1

The Card Wreath is Up

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was delightful. Lots of attention. However, Dog Dad forgot to buy us birthday cookies. We celebrate a birthday on Thanksgiving and we are used to getting special bakery cookies on birthdays. As soon as the birthday song started, we sat down very nicely and waited for the cookie. No cookie came and Mom realized why we were being so respectful. Then she offered us one of our regular cookies. We were very disappointed. Birthday girl got her birthday pie, but we made sure Dog Dad won't forget us for the upcoming birthdays we will be celebrating this month.

Over the holiday weekend, Mom and Dad started transforming the house from Pilgrim themed to Christmas central. Katy has become fascinated with the tree this year and it is making Mom a bit nervous. She has realized she's just short enough that she can walk around the Christmas tree and scrape the branches on her back getting a little back rub. Of course, this also knocks ornaments and risks knocking over the tree, but every bit of fun has some hazards. Mom's not seeing it that way.

After the tree, one of the first things Mom insisted had to be out was the card wreaths. She has been busily addressing Christmas cards to friends and family all weekend. Three stacks have been mailed. We are still working our paws to the bone working through the Blogville list, but we will get all of you your cards soon.

We are having a debate with Mom. Technically, she got the first card of the season from one of her crochet friends before Thanksgiving. However, in the great Thanksgiving clean up the card has gone missing. Since she can't find it to put it in the card wreath we aren't sure it counts. Mom says it does. The debate continues.

Christmas Wreaths Final Picture

We got behind in our postings AGAIN. However, Dad had a really awesome long Christmas vacation and we enjoyed every minute of it with him. So, no blogging. We are going to try to get everyone caught up on what we've been doing this week. First we thought we'd post our Christmas wreaths before they come down. We filled two wreaths and probably could have started a third this year. Suprisingly Mom and Dad got more this year than usual. However, most of them were for us from our wonderful blogging friends.

We had such an amazing Christmas holiday. Christmas Eve we had a house full of grandparents, Aunties, and cousins. It was so crowded and everyone wanted some Sheltie time. Dad's Mom and Dad bought us tons of toys and treats. Mom's Mom made us new fleece blankies in our favorite sports teams. A visiting friend bought us a box of our favorite treats and some toys. We were so thrilled.

Mom and Dad were so tired after hosting Christmas Eve that they went back to bed after letting us out on Christmas morning. We hunted everywhere, but that Santa is better than the Easter Bunny at hiding out stockings. Finally Katy couldn't take it anymore and started scratching at the side of Dad's bed demanding to know where Santa hid the stockings. I think she was afraid she might have been on the naughty list and Santa decided not to leave stockings this year. She was wrong.

Santa filled Dad's socks with toys and bully sticks. Santa makes round bully sticks. These are the coolest things ever because you can stick your paw in the middle and just chew away. He also found new toys that talk. We got a kitty that meows and a frog that ribbits. Mom finds the kitty kind of freaky because it really sounds like there is a cat in the house.

Christmas Card Wreath

Well Mama has filled the first Christmas card wreath and has moved on to the second wreath cardholder. This is why the card exchange is one of her favorite traditions. It does make for a really pretty house decoration that every who visits comments on as they see all the beautiful cards.

Mom finished off all the cards yesterday and Dad brought home a boat load of stamps to get the second batch of cards mailed out. Mom also sent out e-cards to those who live outside the US border. She wanted to make sure everyone got remembered. Hopefully, all of you will be getting your cards soon, even with the bad weather making postal deliveries challenging.

We are finally getting a decent supply of snow cookies. Dad is worried we are due for an overabundance of snow cookies this weekend. We are torn. Grandma and Grandpa are flying in so we need the skies to be clear for them to get here safely. However once they are to their destination, we want a big storm because Mom and Dad have plans to be busy all weekend and we want them home with us. Mom keeps saying Santa wouldn't like our attitude and something tells us she has an in with the big guy.

The Card Wreath is Up

Well Mama is doing better in this card contest this year than last year. So far, we are of course winning 7-3, but that is closer than last year.

A note from the Mama, with the warm weather we've had an higher than normal level of moths. Bailey is ignoring them, but Katy has taken to hunting them down and batting them out of the air with her paws and then biting them to make sure they fly no more. She takes no moth prisoners.

Papa has been pulling the Christmas boxes out of the attic, which can mean only one thing, the turkeys, will soon be headed to the attic. While we know Mama will be pulling out our special Christmas only toys, we hate to say goodbye to our Gobbling friends. It seems they stay such a short time each year.

The Card Contest Begins

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mom and Dad tried out some new Thanksgiving healthy recipes and were pleased they tasted better than some of the stuff they had in the past. Of course we got the traditional kibble meal.

After a full weekend of football, Dad brought out the green tree and started putting it up in the living room. So far it just has lights, but we know Mom will have lots of tempting stuff hanging from it soon.

Even before Thanksgiving cards were arriving. We are up on Mom by 2-1. We are going to be visiting Santa this week and then ordering out cards. They have local pickup so we hope to get them out quickly after that.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are enjoying the holiday season.

Wreath 2 Filling Up

Wreath 1 is completely filled, mostly with our Christmas Cards. Wreath 2 is also filling up with cards from our blogging friends. They are adding lots of festive cheer to our holiday! Mom is having a tough time getting shots of the 2nd wreath with her phone as she doesn't have room enough to back up to get the whole wreath in the shot.

Two Grandma's and one Grandpa will be arriving soon for Christmas. None of them are staying with us, but they will all be visiting, especially for the big Christmas Eve party. Daddy's parents bring the BEST pressies. Since they come on Christmas Eve we even get our stuff early!

The Christmas Card Exchange Has Begun

Mom was so thrilled, when she got the mail out of the box on Black Friday. She already had Christmas cards from the Dog Blog Christmas exchange. After our Christmas toys, the card wreaths were one of the first things to come out of the box. Mom loves displaying all the beautiful Christmas cards.

We were thrilled when Dad said he found a great Black Friday deal at Walgreens and hopped online to order our cards. He picked them up the same day and now that all the family cards are done, Mom has promised to get to work on our card exchange ones.

Second Christmas Card Wreath Almost Filled

We are so thrilled that so many people sent us cards this year. We even got our own card and doggie bakery cookies from a crochet swap Mom was involved in this month. We got to share a ginger bread man last night. These cookies were huge. Mom had a swap partner with three shelties!

Santa preparations continue. Both Grandmas will be in the state today. Daddy's Mom arrived Sunday. Mom's will be here today. Neither stays here, but they will both be here on Christmas Eve. One always has treats in her pocket because she has a dog. The other brings the most amazing toys on Christmas Eve. We cannot wait to see what she brings us this year.

Visit with Santa Tomorrow

We are off to see Santa tomorrow and contribute to the local Labrador Rescue as part of our outing. Mama has been much more serious with this whole naughty and nice thing so we have much to discuss with Santa. Dad and Mom said they were off to discuss things with Santa last weekend and came home smelling like bully sticks, so perhaps that means we are on Santa's good list.

Mama has mentioned something about singing dogs, I do not think she is talking about us as Katy and I have curtailed our barking since that snowman fountain keeps going off every time we bark.

Frankie thinks he is being terrorized. This thing starts up every time we bark! Mom finds it very amusing.

Our second card wreath is filling quickly although Mom is spreading the card out more than in the first one, as Christmas gets closer. She does not think it will be as full as the first.

We have received cards from:
Chewy Deravi, Bella and Daisy, Bert King, Miley and Maggie, and Dakota & Cody, Frankie Furter, Freedom, Casper & Nikki, Maggie Mae and Max, Sweet William The Scot, Finn, Urban Hounds, Julep & Derby, Remington, Max, Bugsy and Knuckles, Reggie and Lola Baker, and Douglas, Oskar Hoerauf, Brandon, Tessa the Maltese, Erika, Blair, Koda, Sophie, Indy & Jack, Minnie and Mack, Harley, Gibson, Wolf, Chloe & Bandit, Bailey & Nala, and Jacque and Pippen.