25 Dec 2008

When I woke up I could sense excitement in the air.  Today is Christmas Day - whatever that is.  Even though it was early morning, dad made one of those fire things in the window again.  Mom made breakfast.  Then Daisy and I sat with mom and dad by the tree.  Those packages under the tree... they are PRESENTS.  And we got to open some of them.  In fact - we tried to open them all.  It didn't matter who they were for, tearing into the paper was fun.  Daisy and I ripped into the paper.  But guess what.   There were DOG TOYS inside the paper!  This was really really great.  I wasn't sure what I liked better, the paper or the toys.  So I tried to play with both.  But pretty soon dad took the paper and put it in the trash can.  No problem - did dad think this would stop a GOOD-Dane puppy?  When dad wasn't looking I snuck over to the trash can and got the paper out again.  When dad caught me he took the paper from me and pushed it deeper down in the trash can this time.  But when he wasn't watching me I got the paper again.  I discovered another game.  Pretty soon dad was chasing me and laughing.  I like it when dad laughs.  As soon as he would catch me I would give him the paper, then race over and get another piece.  We played this game until both dad and I were too tired to play anymore.

Then dad sat by the fire thing again.  I sat next to dad, and he put his arm around me.  It felt real good.  I sensed that dad was thinking about Uncle Parker because I could feel his mood changing to sad.  So I licked his face.  Dad hugged me and said I was a good pup and that everything would be all-right.  OK - sooooo... when are we going outside to play?  The fire thing went out, and dad got up.  Mom put Daisy and I in our crates while dad cleaned up around the tree.  But soon we were back outside to play.
 
When we came inside again the house smelled really great.   Mom put another of those big chicken things called Turkey in the oven.  Soon the house was smelling like it did on that Thanksgiving day again.  I could hear Uncle Justin saying TURKEY-TURKEY-TURKEY from his bed.  All us dogs were drooling, we knew mom would feed us real good tonight.  Soon lots of human visitors came, and mom made a really big Christmas dinner for everyone.  All us dogs had to stay in our beds while the humans had the party.  But later we were allowed out a little bit to "socialize" as mom calls it.  The human visitors petted us and we had a good time.  They always comment on how much we have grown.  Well - like - YEAH... we are puppies.  We GROW!  Some day I will be as big as Uncle Parker was.  Maybe BIGGER!.  

After a while the humans got tired of us and mom put us outside.  The human visitors started leaving, and mom was cleaning up the table again.  Then mom started making our dinner.  It was as good as the Thanksgiving dinner was.  We had lots of that Turkey stuff, and juices and gravy and something called sweet potato.  I liked it all and gobbled it up.  I think I like Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Can we do that every week?

After dinner I sat with dad for a little while.  We just sat, no games and no training and no talking.  We just sat.  And I began to understand how Uncle Parker must have felt doing this with dad.  You really didn't need to talk or do things.  Just being together was fun too.  Uncle Parker was so smart.  I started getting sleepy, so dad picked up a few of my new toys and took me to my bed.  As I got in bed dad kissed my head and said "Merry Christmas River".  I gave dad a quick lick and went into my crate.  It was a Merry Christmas.