busy

Someone has been keeping us busy.

Her name is Sally.   She's a 9 week old Shepherd-Lab stinkbug.   Love her I do.   (hi, Jeff!)  

She likes to chew on shoes and the ties on our daughter's dresses.   She snoozes a lot still, and thinks her crate is cozy.  She's quiet and mellow (for a nine week old puppy).   She's doing really well with her house training;  the little bell you can see on her collar in this photo is part of that - - we can hear her when she wakes at night and take her out to pee.  (Ok, so "we" = my wonderful, lovable, generous husband who volunteered for night duty.  ♥ ♥ ♥)  It also is helpful in announcing her triumphant romps around the house with a shoe in her mouth.    

Sally is beginning to love being out in the backyard.  It's been quite warm here lately and that - combined with her just feeling more at home - seems to make her quite happy to laze about in the sun chewing a stick.  We've got LOTS of sticks back there, she's been delighted to discover.    After school yesterday, our youngest daughter took to rolling down the hill back there.  Sally raced after her, hopping more than running in that funny way that puppies do.  Up they'd go again, and repeat the whole dance over and over again.  It made me tear up to see them having fun together like this -- our daughter was very attached to our 10 1/2 year old lab cross who died back in early September.  To hear her laugh and call Sally's name - to see her so happy?  It melts my heart.

Sally is a bit leery of the big World outside the front door.  We've taken a couple of  "mini walks", she and I - and by mini I mean across the street and back.  This morning she did enjoy sniffing around our front flower beds a bit, but as far as straying too far from the front door?   For now, Sally's happy to be at home.

So, life is predictably crazy with a new baby pup.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  ♥

a week

I'm surprised to see that it's been a week since I last posted.  It was a week of busy-ness - mostly good, but busy nonetheless.  Today it feels good to be tucked inside with a big cup of Christmas Blend, a book and a a good WiFi connection.   It's chilly and damp this morning - barely over 50 degrees, and drizzly.  It finally is beginning to feel like Christmas is coming!  I noticed when driving my children to school this morning that more and more trees are taking on yellow and pale orange tones, and the sidewalks are beginning to be carpeted with leaves.  I know that sounds crazy to those who are already crunching through the snow on their way to work in the mornings, but this *IS* what Winter looks like here.   It feels cozy and good to wear a long-sleeved t shirt this morning and a red sweater over top of that.  Socks, too!  I'm wearing honest-to-goodness shoes today.  It must be December.

PSA:   Caffeine - Breakfast = CrAzY.  Behold.

So, Christmas.   20 days from today, or so I hear.    We will be needing to tree ourselves this week - which means we will need to find a spot to place this lovely evergreen.   Last year we had one less piece of furniture in our living room, and so it will require some creative shuffling this year to make space.   My husband suggested this weekend that we just plunk it down smack-dab in the centre of the room.   Don't laugh;  that may yet happen.   It beats having to crawl beneath the tree to make it from the living room to the kitchen, doesn't it?   Maybe we just don't need to use the back door at all for the month of December... hmmm......

Otherwise, our Christmas plans include tossing some lights up around the house, baking a load of treats to give out at the school  - - Christmas "Crack", Sparkly Ginger Cookies and... hmm... I'm thinking of adding a new cookie to the repertoire this year - replacing last year's Shortbread.   I'm gratefully accepting all recommendations and tried-and-true recipes!    We're seeing The Nutcracker, and maybe - MAYBE - if I can get my act together we'll even do a bit of ice skating.  The youngest girl has been asking to ice skate since July and, while it's *possible* to ice skate here, it's not exactly an easy thing to do.  Texas just isn't covered with ice, as it turns out.  Go figure.

I remember for a couple of years my Dad used to flood a part of our backyard for the Winter, and we had our own skating rink.  It was rather cool.   That wasn't actually an uncommon thing  - to have your own backyard rink - when I was growing up.  Pretty much everyone had a pair of skates, and once you hit the age of 4 you could make your way around a rink pretty well.  Like all neighbourhoods have outdoor pools here, where I grew up most neighbourhoods had standard, hockey-sized rinks.  On weekends, parents would dump you off for a couple of hours with your skates and 50 cents for a hot chocolate.  I can still remember the smell of wet, woolen mittens of the indoor space where you'd leave your winter boots and put on your skates.  I still can feel how your toes would feel after an hour or so of skating in -10 C temperatures.   First they'd feel cold and, yeah, painful... soon, you'd feel the warm, tingling sensation of frost bite... then, you didn't feel them anymore at all!  Ahhhh, precious childhood memories.     We were made of tough stuff back then.

So - tree.  Lights.  Cookies. Nutcracker.  Skating.  Peppermint Hot Chocolate and Gingerbread cookies.   Carols played around the clock from now until the 26th of December.   It sounds like Christmas to me.