Christmas Is Over...

Christmas is over and now I can revert back to my bad ways.

Well, it's not exactly that I'm Bad, it's just that I am not on my best behavior. I have 360ish days until next year. I'm pretty sure Santa is taking it easy right now. He's not making any lists or checking anything twice.

I don't believe he will know that I've gotten into the outside garbage twice and the inside kitchen trash once.

And even if he does, oh well. I've got so many more days to make up for this lapse in goodness.

I'll just be extra good next December. Around the time the tree comes back into our house.....

So, for now, Santa isn't a worry. It's Mom. She is less than pleased with me. Maybe if I lie on the couch and look pathetic and sickly and give her puppy dog eyes.....

Nope. She says she has no sympathy for my sick tummy since I did eat so much garbage on my own accord.

Santa is much easier to deal with!

Christmas, A Story In Pictures

Christmas Eve: 10pm, the kids have their pajamas....

Where is my gift? I have to wait until morning?

MOM!!!!! Not fair!

Christmas morning: 7am, the kids are upstairs sleeping....

I don't get it!

Who can sleep on a morning like this?

Not me! And not Mom since she's sitting here with me....

Oh, wait. She says she'd rather be sleeping but I can't be trusted on Christmas morning.

Well, I know I've got cookies in that stocking! I can hardly wait!

Even Olive Badger knows those stockings hold sweet yummy goodness!

Okay, we are all up. We are all ready. Where's my stocking now?

The kids first? Really? I've been waiting so much longer!

Still waiting.....

Stockings!!!!!!!!

My stocking is empty. How did I eat all my cookies so fast?

Now to wait. I know (since I found it earlier) that there is a gift under the tree for me....

My present!

And now, it's over. I've eaten all my cookies. I've chewed my toy a little, then Olive Badger took it outside. Now I'm going to sit here and wait for Christmas breakfast. Please let there be bacon and please let Mom be feeling Christmasy and give me a piece!

Merry Christmas!

2010, According To Emma

I have been a very good dog this year. Are you listening, Santa? I sure hope so!

I was good when Leah brought home a puppy….a Puppy! And this puppy is Not A Beagle! She’s more like a Badger, fierce and fluffy. The fluffy part is more Pomeranian, I guess. I let her sit next to me on the couch and take my favorite toys, and Sarah Beagle and I even play chase with her in the yard.

I was good when we packed up our car and trailer and drove way down to San Francisco, camping all the way. Leah’s puppy Olive is a very car sick companion. Did I complain when she got sick all over our dog blankets? Well, maybe just a little. I didn’t get scared walking through the Dinosaur Park to see life sized dinosaurs (I kept telling the other girls they weren’t real). I only ran away once on our trip and it was technically just to the car. And even though I had to skip Alcatraz (no dogs allowed, can you believe that?) Mom and I and Sarah Beagle and Olive Badger had fun at our hotel while Dad, David, and Leah walked those ghostly halls. And frankly, since I’m a bit nervous of ghosts, I wasn’t too sad to miss that tour.

I have been very good when Leah has practiced her piano all day long. I don’t bark or howl or beg to watch TV. I just sit on the couch ever so nicely and enjoy her music.

I have been super good when David got into the driver’s seat of our family car and started driving us around. I’ve been so much better than Mom! Mom acts all calm and cool, but we all can tell she’s a nervous wreck.

I’ve been good while Dad did his work thing, his motorcycle things, his working on old truck things. I’ve been good while Mom did her blog thing, her PTA thing, and all her work things (although I do not appreciate it when she mops the floor. As hard as I try, I can’t get around the wet floors without getting my paws wet!) I’ve been good while David and Leah did their school thing (10th grade and 8^th grade seem to be lots of homework) and David did his making Animal Farm into a movie thing and Leah did her money raising things for a 2011 spring break trip to Washington DC.

Now it’s Christmas time and I am being extra, extra good. Ever since the tree went up in our house, I knew the countdown to December 25 is on. Oh how I love Christmas!

I’ve been patiently explaining to Olive Badger all about Christmas and presents and our stockings that get filled after we’ve gone to bed on Christmas Eve… She insists that a guy in a red suit, sneaking into our house, is not something Sarah Beagle and I should have allowed. Olive is a great watch dog, by the way. Kind of reminds me of me when I was a pup, so worried about this guy called Santa.

I’ve told her over and over, Santa even remembers dogs on Christmas! Even sometimes naughty dogs who help themselves to food off the table or chew up parts of uniforms or bark at three in the morning just because they can. Santa’s great like that.

Do You Need Help With The Sprinkles?

My Mom is baking

Christmas cookie baking.

As soon as she stands where I can see her feet from my crate, I know it's going to involve food.

And when she pulls out the bins of flour and sugar and sets them on top of my crate, well then I know, it's going to be sweet baking.

I am up immediately, snuffling around, looking for bits of anything that might have fallen.

I see her mixing, then rolling, then beloved cookie cutters are used. I know frosting will be made (yummy, yummy, yummy!) and then the question I have to ask:

Mom, do you need help with the sprinkles?

'Cuz I'm a real helpful sort of dog.

And I'll only eat the first seven cookies I touch.

I'll save the rest for later.

Christmas Time Is My Busiest Time

You wouldn't know it, because I am just a dog, albeit a Beagle which makes me more than 'just a dog' but I am a dog, and you would not have any idea that Christmas is my busiest time of the year.

First, there is just the excitement of the tree, the stockings, the gifts I know Mom has hidden in her closet. Second, there is the baking. Granted, we haven't started to actually bake yet, but cookbooks are being dragged out and recipes shared and plans are in the works. Third is the excitement of Santa. I have never heard him come in the house on Christmas Eve, we don't have a chimney, but every Christmas morning when I get up, I know he's been here. My stocking is full of good dog treats and I have a present to tear off wrappings.

But for me, Christmas is the busiest time of the year because it is time to write the Family Christmas Newsletter. When I was a small pup, with a fat puppy tummy, I discovered I had a passion for writing. My Mom was kind enough to let me write the newsletter for our Christmas cards and a star was born!

I am funny and clever, but really, what else would you expect from a Beagle? Every year, I sit down and flex my creativity muscles and write.

This year, though, I seem to have come down with a case of my Mom's procrastination virus. Instead of writing the letter, even now when I have a moment, I'm blogging!

Blogging!

And it's only a week until Christmas!

The pressure is on. Mom says I don't have to worry too much, she hasn't started addressing Christmas cards yet, or gotten the family picture to put in the cards, but I know she's just being nice. I have to put my nose to the grindstone, and even if that grindstone smells inviting and tries to lead me off to on an adventure to find the source of the scent, I will not waiver.

Or I won't in just a moment. I think I hear someone in the kitchen making breakfast. I better check the floor for crumbs, and then I'll be write back here at the computer, writing my little witty heart out!

Hey! I'm Starving Here!

Mom.

I'm so hungry.

Starving, actually. How can you look at my puppy dog eyes and not give me food?

We Don't Need No Stinking Beds

Mom, you are laboring under the impression that we are babies. That we need soft beds and comfy pillows.

Not so, dear Mom. We are dogs. Wild dogs! Hear us growl our terrible growls and bark our terrible barks!

We don't need a fluffy mattress in our crate. We sleep outside in the gravel! Or the grass or the flower bed or just on the porch or in a patch of sunlight on the kitchen floor.

We are dogs! We can live in the great outdoors if we had to.

Although, I am awful glad to have a comfy place to lay and you know how much I love making a nest of blankets on the couch. Don't change a thing, Mom.

I just wanted you to not feel bad that Olive Badger can't help herself and can't keep bedding in her crate. She doesn't need a bed. She's the wildest of us all!