Have a Very Doggy Christmas!

Merry Doggy Christmas

Christmas is a time of gratitude, a time to spend with family, a time of giving, and a time for family. Each year, my husband and I have three family Christmas events that we attend. This year, things were a little different. Instead of spending time with my family on Christmas night, we changed it up and spent time with them on Christmas Eve afternoon. We gathered together for a secret Santa with the adults and handed out gifts to the little one's--nieces and nephews.

Christmas Eve night was a time to spend with Cody's mother, father, siblings, aunt, and cousins. We always do a white elephant gift exchange, which I always steal from someone just to make things interesting. We do it a little different that what most people do. Instead of a free for all, we label boys and girls gift and play this way. This year, I decided to steal a guys gift. That really messed things up--for the better. It was a lot of fun. Eventually, a guy stole the gift back and all was right with the world.

We spent time with our sweet dogs as well. They got new toys for Christmas and we dressed in their Christmas sweaters and took picture--after several tries some of them cam out pretty good. It's never easy corralling four dogs in one area to take a picture. It was quit amusing watching my husband bribe them with treats while getting them together for a picture. It works much better if they are sitting on a dog bed while taking their picture, we found out.

While the holidays are a time to show gratitude and love to others, it can also be very stressful. We always do our shopping last minute--the weekend before Christmas--and it's a mad house ALWAYS! It's not too bad if we go through the self-checkout lines at Walmart. We try to spend less money each year, but it never works out the way we want it to. 

Last, every year we cook and bring food over to my mom's and Cody's family's house for Christmas lunch/dinner. This year, I made green bean casserole for the first time and I thought it was going to turn out fine. Little did I know that I would start a fire. I put all the ingredients together (without the french fried onions first) and heat it up in the oven. Then, I took it out, placed the french fried onions on top and put it in the broiler for a couple of minutes. I went to check on it and there were flames coming from the broiler. This was a complete shock. I had to put out the fire with a pan and go to the store to buy more french fried onions. In the end, it turned out fine. All in all, we had a great holiday with friends and family.