"It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas"

Chapter 3



OK, Mom and I have decided to do a little something different. Well I am in charge and I've decided but there is that little "slobbering on the key board" issue, so ya know. We have decided to record my "exciting" days as they happen. Since I am almost 9 year's old Mom will catch up on my history on my "boring" days.. and I do have some of them :) and my exciting days will be reported on as they happen!

I knew immediately that this was going to be an exciting day! First thing this morning "Mr Nice Neighbor" across the road came out of his house all bundled up in his winter clothes, like he had a project for "us" to do! I bounded over to his workshed and immediately got my friendly pat on the head. I get those because I'm his favorite dog in the neighborhood, I know that because he told me!

When we got in to his workshed I was so excited about what we were going to be working on and then he pulled out this awful thing with a cord and a long huge pipe thing on the end. Things with cords usually don't mean fun! He started to blow our beautiful leaves! Now I just don't like things that roar or things that blow so I started backing up. First of all I backed up about 10 feet and watched, then about 20 feet and then I laid down at about 50 feet and just glared at him.. This is just not going the way I planned! So after about half an hour I started feeling drowsy and I ambled on back to my garage and laid down and my soft warm comforter that my dad had fixed for me in front of my heater.(The heater is mom's idea, she doesn't like to be cold either!)

Just as I was drifting off my Dad came out the door all bundled up just like Mr. Nice Neighbor and I just knew the excitement was about to begin. First of all he pulled down the steps from our attic. Now let me be clear about this, I personally have never been up those steps, but things that come out of that attic are AMAZING! Every time the steps come down I am eagerly at the bottom just waiting and waiting!

Today boxes and boxes and sacks and more sacks came down. All full of very festive very exciting stuff. Every box and sack got thoroughly examined and sniffed by me, in fact I nearly got my head stuck in one because I could not see what was at the very bottom. Now that was embarrassing!
This morning mom and dad had to put away their autumn things.. Scarecrows and the like. The one thing I found very rude, however, was they removed my bale of hay! Now I had that bale of hay just right, I had a lovely hole in the side and could lay there in the morning sun and I loved it.. Oh well, off with autumn and on with Christmas!
This afternoon we started with my mom's favorite, OUR REINDEER! I thoroughly sniffed them....well I am a dog! and they are very nice reindeer and were glad to be out in the yard. Now here I must tell you I have an annoying "little sister" named Toosweet. In later chapters mom will.. introduce her more to you but just let me tell you. This girl is never still. She just bounces around and around me and jumps in my face and tries to crawl in my mouth! Today when I had enough of her I spit her out and off we went to finish the deer. We decorated them with lights and garland and there are two snowmen in the wagon, which I thought looked very friendly. We will see, of course as the season progresses!

While we finishing up the deer Mrs. Very Nice Mail Lady arrived with the afternoon mail. Well, OF COURSE this set off "annoying little sister" She just yapped and yapped and tried to chase her down the driveway. I, of course just sat there with my most endearing smile, because Mrs. Very Nice Mail Lady always pats me on the head and bends down to let me sniff her mouth :) Daddy went in the house and put the leash on "annoying little sister" so he could step on her and keep her in line!

Then we were off to decorate our outside Christmas Tree. My dad put's beautiful twinkly lights and a Star on top. I help all I could with stringing the lights, because that is the fun stuff, also we had help with from my baby brother "Spike". Now let me explain Spike. Spike is a dog with a "feline" exterior. He is very playful, very fast and very clumsy! Spike likes to play with invisible bugs, some times he get's so excited that I start chasing them too! (mom will relate the baby squirrel in the flower bed story at a later time) Today he was mostly chasing strings of lights and jumping up on mom while she was hanging snowflakes on the tree. For some reason Mom likes to take pictures of Spike, but if you will look really close, I'm in most of the pictures :) Big beautiful brown me!

Now we are in the middle of hanging the bows on the porch when a very YOUNG new UPS driver stops in front of our house. Now, right here let me tell you I hate UPS trucks.. I just hate them, they totally get on my nerves and I think the drivers drive up and down our road just to annoy me! Well today, he gets out of the truck and approaches the house with a package.. This sends "Annoying little Sister" into orbit! She just took off chasing and yapping hyterically all the while Daddy is hollering Toooooooooosweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She of course pays absolutely NO attention. We all assure this very YOUNG driver that she is harmless, just annoying but he is antsy and starts running around behind Daddy while Daddy is trying to get a hold of the leash. At this point I think this looks like just too much fun to ignore! So I took off to greet him, expecting loving pats on the head and all, well let me tell you I have never seen anything so strange! This young man started hopping around doing something that resembled a Russian Dancer to me! So of course I had to "voice" my enjoyment and that sent him running full speed a head to his truck with Toosweet, Daddy and I fast at his heels. He got back in the nick of time! Dad picked up "annoying little sister" and retrieved the package and we all proceeding back to the decorating, with our hearts racing! Mom put "annoying little sister" in the house for the remainder of the day, which was of course the proper place for her :)

Why is it when situations like that arise that Mom just stands there and laughs or screams at Daddy......hmmmm contemplating this...

When it got dark everyone but me got to go in the house :(.... So a while ago when Dad was letting Toosweet out to go potty, I asked, VERY POLITELY, if I could just come in and get warmed up a bit. Dad let me and now I'm in the very back bathroom on the fuzzy rug laying on the heat that comes out of the floor. I'm being very quiet.......shhhhhhhhhh..... do you think they will notice me?