Thursday, December 27, 2012

A TAIL of Christmas!

We do have a couple of good Christmas traditions that I started when Kylie was little. The first one is going to the barn on Christmas Eve night and spending some time in a dimly lit barn with the animals and praying a little bit. The second is loosely wrapping 4 dog toys that have squeakers in them and put them under the tree.

Christmas Eve I wrapped a couple of presents in my bedroom and the dogs naturally had to come in and supervise. It always gets a little tricky with retrievers when you take dog toys out of a shopping bag and instead of handing them over, you proceed to wrap and tape them. There was a sad procession down the hall to the Christmas tree where they are placed till the humans open their presents.

We went to the barn and when we got back the toys were where I had placed them. The night passed with the dog toys undisturbed and finally the morning. Stupid humans slept in a little darn... then uncle Gregg arrives and there's excitement and that must mean (to a certain retriever) that Christmas is on. So Daniel suddenly appears at my bedside with a dog toy that is still wrapped. Sorry Daniel, give it back, and under the tree it must go.

Finally, Kylie is ready to open her Christmas presents and one, two, three dog toys are immediately pouring over Daniels mouth as he briskly runs into the other room with them while the other dogs stand around me a little stunned.  

The next phase of Christmas morning is turning the radio on and listening to Christmas music while working in the kitchen. Like every year since we've had Nana (Cockatoo), the Christmas music is accompanied by Nana's singing.  She likes singing only occasionally throughout the year but Nana loves Christmas music. She knows most of the old songs with her favorite being I'm dreaming of a White Christmas, then Jingle Bells. She sort of sings along but you can only catch a word here and there that is clear, still she knows the melodies and puts her little heart into it even if a bit off key and nasally.

All the horses got treats, Nana got steak, the other birds and bunnies got treats and the dogs... well Daniel got everyone's dog toys until he fell asleep on them and the other dogs quietly sneaked away with them.  

No comments:

Post a Comment