Monday Mischief: The Christmas Prep Edition

We got new jingle collars when we got our holiday grooming done on Saturday. Mom says they look like jester collars, but we know they are jingle collards, not as good as our plush ones, but still a cool holiday edition.

Dad and Mom are both a bit under the weather as we approach Operation Santa Paws. They are barking lots and making that funny sneezy sound. We are hoping they are better before Christmas Eve when all the sheep come to visit.


We've been trying hard to pick up those last minute Santa Paws points by being good. Katy stayed up to watch over Mom when she wasn't able to sleep. Bailey's been wrangling lots of Jr. Sheep. We think the crowning achievement that will take us over the top is that the Jr. Sheep are no longer afraid of dogs thanks to us. While they don't trust all dogs they are no longer afraid of us and that took real work on our part. Especially since Katy had to get over being afraid of them first.

We are posed next to Mom's heirloom Nativity. Sadly, Grandma lost the roof at one point, but it was handmade by Grandma's Uncle during WWII for Grandma's Mom as a Christmas present. Mom has been nursing it carefully along. Most of characters have changed over the years. However, Mom still has the 4 Kings from her childhood (Grandma always tells the story about the 4th King and Mom finally found the story to add to her Christmas collection), two baby Jesus (one always got lost during the season), and one shepherd. The rest are pieces acquired when Grandma had grandkids. The older pieces didn't all survive because they weren't all plastic.

The second card wreath is almost full, but Mom is winning the card race in that one. Her crochet friends have been sending lots of cards, but we got another batch on Saturday to keep in the running.

Welcome to Monday Mischief – The pet blog hop that wraps up the weekend! This Blog Hop is brought to you by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, and My Brown Newfies.

Wordless Wednesday: Setting Up the Outdoor Decorations

Blog Paws is hosting the Hop

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.

Thomas the Train Birthday Party

Working with Jr. Sheep is lots of work. Birthday parties seem to be a big deal in Jr. Sheep land. This weekend Mom and Dad had a Thomas the Train themed party for one of the Jr. Sheep in the family and he wanted everything to be Thomas. As you can see, even we got into the party mode.

One of the coolest things about birthday parties is dog happy birthday cookies for us. The birthday sheep gave us each our own cookie after everyone sang Happy Birthday and Dog Dad was cutting his Thomas cake. We are looking forward to future Jr. Sheep birthday parties.

The sheep got a Thomas set and Bailey had to examine it to make sure it was safe for little hands. That required him to climb into the Figure 8 and examine it from all sides. Cries of Godzilla were heard and we were sure they were glad I was there to make sure they were all safe. We can only believe Godzilla must be some safety inspector or like Bob the Builder, someone that promotes safe building. After all, we know they were thrilled to have me playing with them. Still not sure, what is so exciting about those little cars that go round and round and keep kids entertained for hours. However, we have decided that happy sheep playing with trains are better than crying, screaming sheep.

Katy is taking to little sheep. She was the most engaged and involved she's ever been with people at the house. Bailey exhausted himself being the entertainer and sheep herder in chief. At one point, he curled up on the couch with the youngest sheep all in the line of duty to get the sheep to take a nap. Of course, once the sheep was down he did decide it would be OK if he napped, too.

Sunday, we all rested, as we were quite tired.

Welcome to Monday Mischief – The pet blog hop that wraps up the weekend! This Blog Hop is brought to you by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, and My Brown Newfies.

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.

Thanks Blogville

We encountered Blogville shortly after we started blogging and no matter how many breaks we've had to take because of life happening people always reach out and make sure we come back. Lassister and Chase every year make sure we hear about the deadline for the card exchange because they know how much we love it. No matter how hard Mom tries, the fall is always crazy and our Blogging time falls off. Yet, they never forget to post something to remind us we need to sign up or we'll miss out on something that always brings us so much holiday cheer.

Let's not forget those holiday cards. There is something so amazing about opening the mailbox and finding bright, cheerful holiday greetings from our blogging friends every year. We fill two card wreaths each year with warm holiday greetings from our friends.

We don't participate in all the amazing Blogville events, but we have enjoyed the Olympics and many other great events hosted here. Even when we aren't participating, we have loved reading and looking at the pictures others have posted. We have been fortunate to win several contests and to get to try out some fun new products that others have offered as prizes.

On this national day of Thanksgiving, we do want to say thank you to all who make this community such a warm and welcoming community. We are not always able to participate as much as we would like, but we are always better for the time we spend here. For that, we thank all of you for your generosity of spirit and kindness. We look forward to another year here in Blogville.