Our Christmas Traditions

Today was Christmas and, as is our Christmas Tradition, we all went to Mimi’s house. The whole family gathers… our family, my aunt’s and uncle’s (humans), cousins (humans), and most of their dogs. It gets pretty exciting with so many people (at least 18) and dogs (at least 8) around. I’m not crazy about some of those dogs or some of the little kids that get a bit rambunctious. Our extended family, though, are all animal lovers and usually keep a pretty good eye on the kids to be sure that they learn appropriate behavior toward their furry friends.

Sometimes, though, the younger pups and kids aren’t very careful around some of us elders, and my hips don’t do well being bumped and knocked around.  Mom understands that I’ve been going to Mimi’s whenever we’ve gone into town since I was a tiny puppy, so she won’t leave me home. 

Before she got hurt, and she was going to work every day, I spent almost all day there with Mimi’s two Chihuahua mix pups ( Dolly and Kisses) and their mom (before she passed away a month or so ago.)

It’s Naunie’s dogs that are a pain! They live next door to Mimi’s. She has an old, grouchy Yellow Lab named Daisy, a middle-aged grouchy Shih Tzu called Mia, and a one year old, HUGE, Weimaraner that is all legs and energy. 

That Molly pup is completely INSANE, runs around wildly, doesn’t watch where she is going, bumps into people, sticks her WHOLE HEAD into a water bowl to drink and then sloshes water ALL over the place. She generally ends up getting kicked outside after a short time. She almost knocked my Mom down last time she came over.

Mom and the others played a song called “The Gift” by Randy Travis The chorus says: “He was the Son God sent to one and all, put on this earth to hang there on that cross… born to die so we could live. He had the birthday, we got the gift. On our Savior’s birthday, we got the gift..” After that, they all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and prayed to thank God for sending Jesus to earth to pay for people’s sins so that they can go to Heaven. They always make it a point to let the children know the real reason for this season before opening the Christmas gifts.


There was plenty of food and we all got a lot of handouts. We got my favorite chicken jerky treats and there were squeaky toys, too. I helped clean up the wrapping paper after everyone opened their gifts.  This year, I had to compete with my son, B.G. because he has learned to help too.

I learned that from Mimi’s old Chihuahua mix, Beast, who was totally brilliant and a good friend… an Einstein of dogs. I get a tiny bite of jerky whenever I give Mom a piece of paper (or anything else that hits the floor).

It was a nice day, in spite of the rambunctious young ones. I hope that you had a Merry Christmas, too!