Holiday Spirit (and where we got George)

As I write this, it's my last day of school for two weeks. And finally, finally it is beginning to feel like Christmas around here.

My husband has been decorating while I'm at work all day.

Over the weekend, I looked for and found several boxes of Christmas decorations in the garage that I emptied and put on the dining room table. And slowly, I started putting the decorations around. My husband put up most of the rest, including 3 different sets of lights.

These pictures are of the mantel in the dining room.

The little Santa riding the polar bear is a Jim Shore collectible that I bought on a super sale last year. I was thinking of bringing it to the dirty santa game at my in-laws home as a gift, but decided to take something else instead.

I guess now it's mine.

And for the past two days, I've home come to rooms transformed by cuttings of fresh greens, strewn with little white lights, and little decorations set here and there.

And those of you who mentioned the tree thing, well I confess that I think you're right. If I don't get something in this house, it just won't be complete.

And I have a new favorite gift which I'll tell you about at a later date.

For now, I'll telll you briefly about where we acquired George.

It had been over 2 years since our beloved border collie, Ralph, had passed away. My husband had taken it particularly hard as the dog had been with him all through his brain cancer the first time. And years later, he was finally ready to get another dog. I will admit here that I was totally against the idea. A puppy would be so much trouble, I told him, and travelling would be more difficult.

But then I realized that we didn't really do a lot of travelling. And when he began showing me ads on the internet, I began to relent. Those puppies were absolutely adorable! And I began to notice that he only really liked the ones that had similar markings to that of our Ralphie.

We finally found a litter of puppies that we liked, but the breeder lived in Ellsworth, Maine. However, they were willing to meet us half way, so we drove up to CT in early September 2007 to pick up our new puppy.

And the rest, I guess, is our history.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

My prayers for the people who are having difficultities due to the weather in this country.