White Dog, The Other White Dog, Another White Dog, and Still Another White Dog have had experience with the snowballing pace of activity at our house as the Christmas holiday draws closer and closer. Our family is not one to stretch out and leisurely organize the season's approach starting after Halloween; rather the frenzy starts right around the beginning of December as we begin shopping and preparing for our annual Christmas Eve Open House.
We traditionally do not even put up our Christmas tree until the morning of Christmas Eve when we ritually enact the calling of friends. Our tree is entirely decorated by ornaments given to us by friends. Most of them are handmade and in some way represent the giver of the ornament. There are no lights. Our quilted tree top angel has only one wing to remind us that we have to work hard every day to earn those feathers. The White Ones gather around and nose the box as we hold the ornaments one-by-one to the light and remember aloud who it was from.
While it is still a bit early, those boxes have come out of the storage shed and more boxes have arrived from delivery people (gifts that have been ordered). Each is greeted excitedly and sniffed thoroughly when it comes into the house.
All of this is brand new to YoYoMa, Yet Another White Dog, who only joined our family this summer and who is a bit frightened but mostly fascinated by the goings on. At points he gets so excited that he just spins in circles, not knowing where to sniff or poke.
Today Steve and I began gathering together the boxes that will be filled with gifts and mailed to friends all across the country. The living room was a sea of empty boxes into which we were sorting items by destination. The White Dog Army, of course, supervised. They formed a conga line of snoofering and pawing as they moved from box to box as Steve added or moved gifts. Next we will wrap and tag the gifts in each box before we seal it with love, sprinkle it with Christmas magic and send it to the Post Office to be whisked to its new home under some distant tree.
But for now, it is duck jerky time and everyone is ready for a nap and we all want to take advantage of this cold dark rainy day to fit in a bit of blustery weather cuddling.
We traditionally do not even put up our Christmas tree until the morning of Christmas Eve when we ritually enact the calling of friends. Our tree is entirely decorated by ornaments given to us by friends. Most of them are handmade and in some way represent the giver of the ornament. There are no lights. Our quilted tree top angel has only one wing to remind us that we have to work hard every day to earn those feathers. The White Ones gather around and nose the box as we hold the ornaments one-by-one to the light and remember aloud who it was from.
While it is still a bit early, those boxes have come out of the storage shed and more boxes have arrived from delivery people (gifts that have been ordered). Each is greeted excitedly and sniffed thoroughly when it comes into the house.
All of this is brand new to YoYoMa, Yet Another White Dog, who only joined our family this summer and who is a bit frightened but mostly fascinated by the goings on. At points he gets so excited that he just spins in circles, not knowing where to sniff or poke.
Today Steve and I began gathering together the boxes that will be filled with gifts and mailed to friends all across the country. The living room was a sea of empty boxes into which we were sorting items by destination. The White Dog Army, of course, supervised. They formed a conga line of snoofering and pawing as they moved from box to box as Steve added or moved gifts. Next we will wrap and tag the gifts in each box before we seal it with love, sprinkle it with Christmas magic and send it to the Post Office to be whisked to its new home under some distant tree.
But for now, it is duck jerky time and everyone is ready for a nap and we all want to take advantage of this cold dark rainy day to fit in a bit of blustery weather cuddling.