Another Christmas Past . . .

Such a nice Christmas we've had.  Christmas Eve with Ron's brother and his family, Christmas Day with my family.  That's us on the right, picture taken at my sister's home in rural Elmwood.  We were missing nephew Davis who's leave from the Navy does not begin for a few more days.  We hope to celebrate at my mother's next weekend, with a Pizza Party for Davis.  Hopefully the weather cooperates.  We always miss my brother Al & his wife Alison who live in Costa Rica.   Mariah got to come along for our Christmas get-together, and had a wonderful time. She had been attacked by an ill tempered Labrador when we were out walking on Saturday, so it was great that she had a chance to play with her Cousin LD.

Mariah had a great time playing with LD.

The dogs had a wonderful Christmas, with new toys from Ron & me, packages of treats from Aunt Ginger, and the wonderful new Tuff Toy dinosaur from our friend Loretta & her Dal Cheyenne, a daughter of Josie's. Josie & Argus were particularly pleased with the toy.

I hate shopping the day after Christmas, but I have a gift card burning a hole in my pocket and I want to purchase some sort of MP3 player. I'm not so much into music, but it will be great for recorded books. When I discovered how many books were available to download through Net Library, I decided I needed one more new toy this winter. The EBook Reader is working out well, and I am enjoying it immensely. So many cool "toys" out there!

Mariah & Josie amidst the wrapping paper.

Tomorrow I'll drive to Mason City to meet Paula and pick up Patrick & Edward. They need to go in for their check ups and first shot, so that Patrick can go off to sunny Phoenix with his new mom who is flying in to pick him up. Fingers crossed that he will be small enough for the Sherpa Bag! Because there were only two pups, they got LOTS to eat and are large for their size. Eddie will stay for awhile, and then perhaps be "farmed out" with friends while we see how he develops. I was not pleased that he had a blue eye, and was not expecting blues in this litter. Argus' percentage of blue eyes is low, even when bred to blue-eyed bitches, and I did not expect that from Tess's pedigree either. BUT, like patches, blue-eyes go along with the extreme-white-piebald gene that makes Dalmatians look the way they do, unlike any other breed of dog. They are perfectly acceptable to showing in the U.S. though are considered a fault in other countries. We've finished the championships on multiple generations of blue-eyed Dals in the past, but haven't shown one for a long time. Well, someone has to be Argus's first blue-eyed champion kid! And if Eddie turns out not to be show quality, he'll be an extra handsome pet for someone.