Christmas is Over, and I'm Over Christmas.

No, not in any ugly negative sense.  Just that I'm more than ready to put away the Santas and take down the tree and get back to normal life, or what passes for normal Chez Bossydogs. 2013 beckons, and I'm fired up and ready to plunge in and make it fantastic.

Murphy gave me a scare in the last couple of weeks. He went totally off his feed and started waking me at 3:30 in the morning to go out to pee.  He is also really thin, like, really, really thin.  I weighed him yesterday. 5.8 lbs.  His normal healthy weight pre-lymphie diagnosis was around 7.5.  He is bird-boned at this point, all sharp edges and knobbly spine, but he's as chipper, alert, playful and fun as ever, so I am just dealing with it.   But putting some weight on him again is Job One. He has decided that the canned food he'd loved until two weeks ago now sucks and he will never touch that crap again.  Okie dokie.  Thanks for telling me after I bought another case.  Luckily the vet's office will take returns, you little shit.  But putting weight on his bony ass is all that matters, so I bought some skinless, boneless, antibiotic-free, grain fed chicken breasts.   I didn't eat them myself, I'm plant based, but the dogs are on chicken and prescription crunches. Murphy is eating again, and I'm guessing his spine will be less knobbly in two weeks.

He will be 13 in March, and was diagnosed with lymphangiectasia in August, 2009.  At the time, his prognosis was "poor" and I knew his life expectancy might be shortened.  We've had our share of ups and downs in the last 3 years, but there is a slow, gentle decline, and I see it.  It's both the normal advances of aging in a senior dog, and the progress of an incurable condition.  He's wasting slowly, but doesn't seem to notice or care.  He now shivers in the cold winds of Florida, when two Christmases ago he was out walking in the snow, but he is definitely still bright, social, happy, and excited about life.  When he ceases to scream like a banshee when Delaney visits I'll worry.  I do see changes in the last two years, but he's still the One and Only Bossy Little Dog.  He was just totally sick of that canned shit day after day and went on strike to protest, and I caved.  

It was a very small Christmas, even smaller than usual. My son-in-law was felled by either a stomach virus or just massive over-indulgence in rich foods on Christmas Eve and slept away dinner on Christmas Day, so it was just my daughter and Miss D for dinner.  I had gone way off the plant based program to make the lasagna I used to make when the kids were little.  It was good, but you know, it wasn't THAT damn good, and it gave me heartburn at 3 a.m. (right in time to take Murphy out to pee).  I sent the lasagna and sides and cookies and everything home with them and got back on the plant based immediately.

Miss D was of course a joy and a riot.

This is Christmas in Florida. She was wearing an adorable sleeveless tartan dress, bare legs, and bare feet. She also decided that she wanted to open presents on the balcony. She LOVES the balcony.

She seated herself, gave me my gift, and then opened hers.

She has figured out unwrapping gifts.

This Fisher-Price puzzle turned out to be the best random gift ever.  When I picked it out I had wondered if our perpetual motion machine would sit still long enough for it.

Her mom said she hadn't been into puzzles before, and we were just amazed at how this one kept her busy.  She figured it out instantly and had no difficulty removing and replacing the pieces, but was content to do it over and over.  The next day, my daughter reported that it was the last thing she played with before being dragged off to bed under protest, and the first thing she grabbed the next morning.  Who knew?

Her tea set was also a hit.  She's just messing with the cup here, but when she picked it up she held it properly and pretended to drink from it.  Her BFF has the same tea set and we knew she coveted it.

The dogs were of course right there helping.

Serving tea.

I am struck by how she understands Pretending at 14 months!  Her mom reported that when they had dinner with work friends a couple of days earlier, Miss D had amused herself by pretending to take food from the pictures on the menu and "feeding" it to her Daddy.   She is also a born comedienne. She performed an act for us with a dog chewie.  She picked it up, showed us she had it, and proceeded to pretend to put it in her mouth, giggling all the while.  Her mommy said, "NOOO!!!" and she giggled harder and came closer to actually closing her mouth around it, but didn't.  We were laughing with her at this point. "Nooo, that's for doggies!"  Huge giggles from D.  The more we played along, yelling "Oh no! Ick! That's for DOGS!" the more she dissolved into belly laughs with us.

Supergirl also had a lovely Christmas. I sent her books and preschool card games, and she loved them. One of the books was suggested by the legendary Franklin Habit on Facebook. Extra Yarn.  When Franklin pronounced it giftworthy I knew Supergirl had to have it, as a point of contact with her knitting Namaw who moved back to Florida.   My son reported that she took it with her to her other grandparents' house when they went for dinner.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share, because my son sucks as a correspondent.  I actually called him on Christmas Day while they were at his in-laws and told him to snap and send some pictures, because I miss everybody.  Did I get pictures?  I did not.  He will apologize and send me three or four from his phone next week.  I do know, because he did tell me, that Supergirl got a small 2 wheeler with training wheels as her big Christmas gift.  Do I have pictures?  I do not.  Time to reach out to my daughter-in-law; SHE will send me pictures. MEN! My son will call me and talk on the phone for 40 minutes at a stretch, but remember to email me photos?  No!