Oh My Goodness, We Are Going to Get a Dog

First of all, we had a wonderful Christmas. I woke up Christmas eve morning early and went swimming, Adam and Jeff chopped wood. I stopped over all wet and hatted and visited the Caterers and Pete and Sheila—then we loaded up and headed over to my folks to eat not one, but two meals and spend the day together. We have a fun little tradition that my mom started called the code. Instead of labeling who the gifts are for, we make up some kind of combination code of whatever and label the presents as such. The kids and now the adults have to figure it out to know who each gift is for. Funny thing this year is that I did my own code and it was very similar to the one my mom did on her gifts. We must be on the same wavelength. The highlight for me was watching Johnny and David's expressions when they found out that they are going to be going to THAILAND with my mom in February. As follows: confusion, shock and in Johnny's case, fear. They are going to have a life altering experience and I can't wait for them to to come home and tell me all about it. The low point was telling all the kids constantly to stay away from the food dye. We are trying to do this together as a family, but it is not fun. We also popped out for a bit to look at a house for Lee and Chelsy. I hope they end up close by!

We woke up Christmas morning and I had one present wrapped for the kids. A giant dog toy and some pictures of newfoundland puppies. The kids are pumped. Then we headed up to Adam's folks for the day and opened gifts, spent time with family, Adam loves to play sheepshead and cribbage with his grandparents and brothers. I love to load up my prime rib with as much horseradish as possible. I always eat too much. 

So for the last two weeks I have been calling and emailing all sorts of breeders and doing research on what we think is the breed we want, a Newfoundland. I have admired these dogs for years and it finally feels like the right time to get one. I know that because I am probably wanting it just as much as the kids. What a switch! Anyhow, it could take months or we could have a pup in the next couple weeks. We will see! I investigated some dogs that were rescued and brought to an animal shelter, they seemed like they had some issues though and we were really hoping for a puppy. Just hoping that we find a great dog that will be great with our family.