Hi Friends –

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I send my warmest smooshes for a grand 2015!

Now that 2014 has wrapped I’m gonna take a run at telling you about our holidays. I have to start out by telling you it was rather busy so getting to write about it took some time. I will do my best but it may come as broad strokes since I didn’t take notes as it was happening.

The big thing I noticed is that Dad does NOT like Christmas music, and seemed to have a tough time with the entire season. I asked why, because Mom is the polar opposite and LOVES it. He said as far as the music goes, he says he likes it about once a year and is tired of the same nine songs being rearranged by every singer and band and pseudo-celebrity. I didn’t really understand, since Christmas only comes once a year, right? Oh Well.

As for what appeared to be his seasonal depression, he said that he really didn’t have this deep seeded issue with the holidays. There was nothing tragic around the time of year that he recalls, he was just not a jolly elf. Again, this was an issue because the rest of the family had a great time! I thought that if his immediate family was around to share in the fun maybe he’d feel differently? He said, sure he misses them, but that wasn’t really the problem. Since he couldn’t explain it to me, or Mom, we just wished it was different for him and moved on.

For us the Season kicked off at Thanksgiving. It was great seeing Mom’s family, and boy there is a lot of them to see. We had a gathering at Papa Joe and Nana Mary’s brand new lake house. It was fun to see them again, and the house for the first time. I was so excited I almost forgot to let Nana Mary lead the tour! Once I checked every room and saw Papa Joe’s “man-cave” I was happy to settle into a bowl of water, in the shower. Yes, the shower. It is a great walk in, with a seat in the corner that I am sure papa put in just for me, because it was just at my shoulders and perfect bowl height. Dad says it was perfect because my drool could be contained. Woof! Several family members showed up from all over and we all shared a great day. We got to know more family and the girls ran Papa Joe ragged. Papa Joe has an all terrain golf cart that let’s him zoom all over his property and even the beach! I stayed with Dad and Mom in the house because I would chase that cart and go simmin’ in the lake if I was off lead. It was November, so it was kinda cold for those shenanigans. I could tell Papa Joe loved it! And I’m sure he slept well that night.

The next week we had second Thanksgiving! It’s like a Hobbit second breakfast, but WAY better. This time we went to Nanny and Baboo’s house where we had fewer guests on the list but the feeling was the same. There was lots of love, conversation, and again, their food smelled wonderful.

After Thanksgivings were Christmases, and back to the music Dad doesn’t prefer. Our first Christmas started on Christmas-Eve. We loaded up in the car for a trip headed for a cowboy Christmas. Mimi Warren, Nana Mary’s mom, rented a space that had a western theme, complete with animal mounts on the wall. (I wasn’t sure about those.) There was also a big fireplace, wood paneled walls a kitchen, and the best part of all, there was an indoor riding arena. There were horses!! They were at a safe distance so they were fun to watch through the windows. As long as they were there I kept bringing Dad back up the 3 horribly high and uneven stairs to check in. As this was going on we met new family members and chatted about life, secret service dogs, and whatever. It was a good time. Santa even stopped by before his route. The bestest best part was that there were little human puppies! I got to give smooshes out. When they fell down (they were not all steady on their feet yet) I would groan and alert the grown ups. I had to be on duty to make sure they were safe too!

When we came home the family opened gifts from one another. Soon after we put the cookies and milk out along with a letter to Santa Paws and got the puppies off to bed.

Christmas day came and we all got gifts from Santa. We spent the morning lazily enjoying our gifts . I got two new stuffies! Dad got litter from the kitties. I think they didn’t really get the concept of gifts, but dad laughed. The afternoon came and we headed to Nanny and Baboo’s house. I’ve been there a handful of times now so I was pretty calm. My Aunt Lorey (yes it gets confusing with all these similar names) even commented on how calm I was being and had been the night before. This was the first time she had really gotten to see me on tip top best behavior. We got to have dinner with family, conversation, and even more gifts! Nanny made me a snow globe with a Dane that looked just like me it’s really cool. (Mom says she will get a photo of it on Facebook soon!)

On the way home we stopped at Aunt Hollie and Uncle Kyle’s house. We got even more gifts, met some more people, and had more fun. I got to watch mom get competitive, and loud, at a family game and finally home so I could go home and nap on my couch.

The holidays really are a special time, I hope yours was as much fun as ours.