Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the Night Before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a tree squirrel. Now you know we have a problem. It's Christmas Eve, this house starts getting moving in the early hours of the morning to prepare for the crowds that start arriving about now. Yet nobody is moving. It's way too quiet. In fact it's been quiet for days. You see, Mom let a bug in the house.

Oh not those creepy crawly ones that you can step on or call the bug guys to kill. Hey, we've bought those into the house and it hasn't killed a Christmas Eve party. Mom got a stomach bug on Tuesday and it wiped her out. Dog Dad nursed her back to health and we thought we still might get to have our party only to discover Dog Dad had the bug this morning so the party is off.

The parents are a little down, in 16 years they haven't missed throwing a Christmas Eve party. Not even one during a year the basement got flooded. This is the first they've had to cancel and it's bumming them out just a bit.

Mom and Dad assure us Santa will still find our stockings and all will be well. However, we have to wait to see the grandparents and all the little sheep will have to wait to get their presents until Dog Dad is feeling better.

Mom was finally up and moving today so she snapped her traditional Christmas Eve pic of us in front of the Christmas Tree. Something she usually does in advance and preposts, but at least she got it done before Christmas. Yesterday that was looking questionable.

This is Mom's first new tree. She ordered it during the tree sales right before Christmas last year. It arrived right before Christmas, too late for Christmas, but perfect for this year. The tree she'd inherited from her Mom just barely made it through the Christmas take down of decorations. When Dog Dad is feeling better she's hoping he can get the whole tree with his camera. This was the best she could do with what she had.

We hope Santa is good to all of you this evening.

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.

Monday Mischief: Santa Take 2

We always get multiple shots to choose from when we go to visit Santa and this year Mom just couldn't resist getting more than one shot of us visiting the big guy. She of course chose the one with Katy sticking out her tongue at Santa for the Christmas Card, after all how often are you going to get that shot. However, this shot just said while Bailey was trying to demonstrate how good he was for Santa, Katy had mischief in mind.

Some good news from Bailey. He had his weigh in with the Vet Saturday, no visit, and is up 3 pounds so he is just under 3 pounds his normal weight now. This is huge. It has been a real miracle. Those prayers really are working. We went from thinking he wouldn't be here at Halloween and not including his name on the Christmas card list to having him regaining weight and chasing Katy like a much younger dog. Don't know where this will lead, but this has been the greatest Christmas gift we could have asked for and received, a wonderful Christmas season with Bailey.

Thankful Thursday: It's Getting Close

We have much to be thankful for today.

First we won Oz's Petsmart Contest found here and have a $25 gift card to spend on goodies. The big brown truck showed up yesterday to deliver our prize. Sadly, we only heard the bell and didn't get our cookie from the driver.

Second, as you can see our first card wreath is full and the second one is starting to fill up as well. Mom has had a few entries, but as you could expect most of them are our friends.

Third, Bailey is supposed to be going in for a weigh in on Saturday and we hope to get good news that his weight has gone up with his new diet. His face looks fuller and his body feels less bony, but that's all subjective. We hope to have some data that what we believe is good news is real.

Lastly, it's hard to believe, but a week from tonight our family will gather together and have our big Christmas Eve celebration at our house. We are looking forward to seeing Dog's Dad's parents who we only see once a year now, as well as Grandma who will be traveling from PA and lots and lots of local relatives. Mom and Dad still have lots to do to get ready, but we can't wait to see everyone.

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.

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Toys are Back

Dog Dad braved the attic to bring back our Christmas toys. Mom boxes all our holiday toys after each holiday and returns them to us the next year. It's like finding old friends.

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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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