oh oh !

a Christmas card idea from the design files

Everything, this morning, is covered with a light blanket of snow, we're in the midst of our first village Christmas by the Sea weekend long festival, and I'm reaching my maximum Christmas spirit, in fact I think perhaps I reached the crest yesterday and may even be on the downward slide. I'm sorry to dissappoint but I think part of me just doesn't get it, this Christmas thing. When I look back on my life I think I've always wanted it to be that magical storybook time of the year, twinkling lights, beautiful ornaments, shopping for just the right gift and then carefully wrapping parcels & packages while drinking mulled cider, baking goodies with carolls playing & watching all the holiday specials and Christmas movies on TV. It's 3 weeks away, and I'm just not into it. This year I've decided to take what money I would spend on gifts and donate it, split between the food bank, the animal shelter, and a methadone clinic in Halifax that BFF Harry's daughter Mia volunteers at, she's in her last year of a Bachelor of Nursing, and it's a cause that she has become very passionate about and her passion rubbed off on me in a conversation she and I had last night. They make up baskets for the clients of food items and personal care items like shampoo and toothpaste.

So that's my Christmas plan. This weekend I will retrieve my pre-lit, pre-decorated, Canadian Tire, 3 ft artificial tree from the crawl space and plug it in -Voila! and I'm sure Gussie & Oliver will think that it has been displayed purely for their entertainment. I do plan to make my gifts of foodie things (caramel corn, gourmet bits & bites, fudge and almond cherry ice box cookies) for my local friends and an assortment of dog cookies for the gang of canines that we hang with. I hope to get those two projects done in the next couple of weeks. But then that's it - tout fini pour moi.

Jake and I went to the vet yesterday, to town and to our regular vet. His super duper blood work is fine, he has lost 5 lbs since the end of August (he weighs 73lbs which is his youthful dog weight), their guess is that his diarrhea is most likely related to the wildlife poop that he's eaten and we came home with a de-wormer/parasite medication and 5 days of a flagyl an antibiotic specifically for a bacterial/parasitic problem. Things should begin clearing up in a couple of days, if not then the diarrhea could be a symptom of something much more serious - like the dreaded "C" word. But we're not going there. He's my energetic, kooky, crazy, hungry, goofy, bright & alert noodle at the moment and he's not showing any other signs of illness. Actually he's lying here beside me as I write this ... snoring happily.