Yes, the season is upon us, and this is about the silliest button I could find.
We’ve started decorating at Houndstooth Hall. Here are photos of the more nostalgic ornaments on our new, larger tree so far.
The ornament that celebrates the year we moved into The Compound. We had almost almost twenty great years there and infinite happy memories. I don’t miss it the way I thought I would because Houndstooth Hall has been so good to us.
I do miss these two very much, however.
Sweet Guinness and wonderful Margot. I don’t think a day passes that Tom and I don’t talk about them. Strangely, Anime has taken on some of Margot’s qualities, and that can be fun to observe.
There are people I miss, too. Lynne has this same ornament, and this one belonged to her sister Liz. When Liz died, Lynne gave it to me.
This is the tree as it looks currently–it’s a work in progress.
Wondering about that picket fence? It’s there because of another work in progress, Jack. Have you officially met Jack yet?
Jack, or Just Jack, as he is more often called, is a BARC dog we adopted. Jack has some issues. He’s brave around us, but has some fear-based behavior, which most often manifests itself in his being mean to Pollock, Tim’s largest and goodnatured (thank goodness) dog, as well as to Tim. I think maybe Jack had a bad experience with someone who Tim reminds him of. Jack is also young enough to still get into trouble, and I was sure the Christmas tree would provide him plenty of opportunity. Lynne suggested putting some kind of fence around it, Tom found the picket fence and modified it to work, and I hung those small stockings I’d bought after some Christmas past when they were on sale.
Is it working? Well, here’s some of Jack’s work we’ve found throughout the house. Hopefully features have since been added to stop Jack from expressing himself so destructively.
Visitors Minute and Paco are not impressed with Jack’s shenanigans.
And neither is that two-headed dog at the other end of the couch.
Oh, wait. That’s Delta and Anime. Sorry, girls.
Even though my blog readership has plummeted since I killed Facebook, just in case ‘Nathan ever drops in, I’ve kept up his tradition by decorating while wearing holiday socks.
And what the heck. If you DO read this dusty ol’ blog still, here’s your daily cow. You’re welcome.
I was going to say the fence was a good idea, until I notice those tempting socks that might pull the fence away. We learned to leave the lower reachable part of the tree non-decorated.
Weirdly, he has no interest in the little stockings. He’s a strange boy.
Monte also has a lot of fear based behavior. He is scared of new things in his environment, and we try to get him to investigate. He hates people lifting their feet around him, so in my mind I think he was kicked … and not a fan of men in general…. BUT he’s not the scared little dog he was two years, he’s gotten so much better big steps from where he was … and I can help him forever.
I regret that I never met the girls in person, reading about them always made me smile. I’m glad that you can talk about them and share your memories.
I’m JJ found such a wonderful home, I can’t wait to hear more JJ stories as he becomes the dog he was meant to be
Monte won the lottery the day you made him your forever friend.
I do think that I have had the most remarkable luck with dogs, each dog I have had, was the dog I needed. Trixie, Chelsea, Dash and now Monte … when I saw Monte I knew he was waiting for me. I will always believe that Dash made that match from wherever he is.
I am glad that JJ landed with you, seeing a dog living a far based life is heartbreaking and he is going to be the dog he was always meant to be… and that is a wonderful thing to see.
What happened to ‘Nathan? He disappeared long ago.
Hello Jack! What a lucky dog! I hope he overcomes his issues. Scruff and Poppy destroyed Chris’ leather sofa, but that was just puppy chewing.
It’s amazing how Christmas ornaments can carry so many memories and so much meaning. It’s a funny old time of year.
He blogs here: https://apostrophen.wordpress.com/ and is very active on Facebook. Maybe on Twitter, too, but I don’t use FB and rarely have time to check out Twitter. I don’t think any of my author friends read my blog–they’re all too busy writing, unlike me!