Are You Kidding ... It Can't Be Wednesday Already???

Oh my ... where has this week gone?  I have been faithfully chipping away at my To Do list, day by day, paying very little attention to what day it actually is.  Since I was last here a few days ago, I have accomplished a LOT.  Settle in and let's get caught up.

Saturday.  

Toured four beautifully decorated houses in downtown Fredericksburg during the annual Christmas Candlelight Tour.

Played hostess in the living room of one of the tour houses in the afternoon.

Spent the evening with our grandsons while our daughter and her husband went to her work Christmas party.

This is how our daughter found me (and Grandson #1) when they got home.

Sunday.

Met a greyhound hauler from Florida to pick up three dogs who were going to an adoption group in Maryland.

Missed the Greyhounds Rock meeting, because the hauler ran into bad weather on his trip north and was running late.  Participated in the meeting via cell phone after I dropped off the dogs.

Hung out with some very fun, very crafty women at The Empty Nest ... making Christmas decorations, eating, and lots of laughing.  Thank you, Janet, for hosting us!!

Monday.

Bug out of the house while the cleaning lady is here, and continue to chip away at the Christmas Shopping List.  Made good progress.

Put lights on second Christmas tree ... this one isn't prelit, darn it.

This is our prelit tree in the family room, with shims under the stand because the floors in this old house are uneven in places.

I still have to put the skirt under it.

Edit and print Christmas Letter.  Letters from some people are nauseating brag fests, but ours isn't.  I tried to eliminate the letter years ago, but this was met with protests from everyone on our Christmas Card list.


Tuesday.

Go to Shumate Auction tag sale.  It was the estate of a seamstress, and I thought I'd find some cool sewing stuff.  I passed on the machines, notions, and fabric (though there was one bolt of Waverly toile that I really, really wanted ... but had no use for.)  I left with a wonderful 6-board antique chest that will live in our guest/grandkid bedroom.

Address and mail Christmas cards and packages.  I only had two packages to wrap and mail, and about 30 Christmas cards.  The cards have glitter on them ... and so do I after handling them.

Make dog stew.  I supplement Ruby's commercial dog food with home-cooked veggie-meat-rice mixture ... cooking a large batch every few weeks and freezing most of it.  With only one dog to feed right now, this batch of stew will last for about 10 weeks.

Wednesday (today).

Finish the last few Christmas decorations and get the boxes and totes out of the entry hall.

Go to the vet to pick up a case of Dorothy's cat food.  (she eats prescription food to help with her tendency to develop urinary crystals.)

Write and mail Christmas cards that I forgot about on Monday.

Do laundry and pack for our trip to New York City this weekend.  This is a bucket-list item for The Husband.  We quit putting it off, and this year we have made time to spend a long weekend seeing the New York Christmas sights and a show with friends.  Ruby is spending the weekend with my parents, so I have to pack her things, too.

One of the other items on Monday's list was to de-shed Ruby, since I noticed that she was starting to blow her undercoat.

Even with all of this seemingly-nonstop activity, preparations for this Christmas are fairly relaxed.  I'm not stressing about shopping or decorating.  For shopping, I made a list and have stuck to it, for the most part.  The Husband did most of the house decorating while I was out doing other things over the weekend, and the place looks really nice.

Family room mantel

  

I love Christmas and all that comes with it!!  I expect that this year may be the best one yet!  (I say this every year.)

How are you doing with your Christmas preparations?

Meeting Myself Coming and Going

This weekend is going to be a wild one, with multiple commitments on both days and very little time to spend at home.  Fortunately, every single thing that we have to do is something fun!

Saturday afternoon, The Husband and I will be hosting at one of the houses in downtown Fredericksburg on the Christmas Candlelight Tour.  Historic Fredericksburg Foundation goes all out every year, and the homes are always beautifully decorated.

photo from the house we worked on 2012 Christmas Tour.

Because we are working the tour in the afternoon, we are taking the tour in the morning so we can see the other houses. 

photo from the house we worked on 2011 Christmas Tour.

Saturday evening, we plan to go out for dinner somewhere to take advantage of the fact that we will both be nicely dressed and looking very Christmas-y, then we will spend the evening at our daughter's house to babysit the grandkids.  Now that I think of it, I should take a change of clothes with me so I can get on the floor and play.

Sunday morning, bright and early, I will meet a hauler to pick up three greyhounds who are on their way from Florida to an adoption group in Maryland.  Transporting dogs like this has always been one of my favorite parts of working with greyhound adoption!

photo from a greyhound haul in 2012.

As soon as I drop off the dogs, we have to turn right around to make it to a meeting for Greyhounds Rock Fredericksburg, our charity that raises money for canine cancer research.  GRF meetings are always full of food and fun.  Our benefit in November was a great success ... this is the meeting where we figure out how much money we can donate to this year's beneficiary, The Mosby Foundation, and we start to plan what we will do in 2014.

Sweet Daniel, who died of lymphoma in May ... he didn't mind wearing those bunny ears.  He was such a good boy!

Sunday afternoon will be full of even MORE friends and fun!  I will be with the crew at The Empty Nest for crafts and girl time (and more food).

Whew!  I'm already tired from writing about this ... can't imagine how it will be after I actually LIVE it.  That's part of what Christmas is around here, though.  It's a season full of time with family and friends, doing good for others, enjoying decorations and great company.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Spending the Day with Mac

This is Mac.  He is a beautifully behaved almost-nine-year old gentleman who spent part of the day here on Sunday, on the way to his Forever Home in Florida.

 

 

He was recently returned to his adoption group in New York, for reasons I don't know ... doesn't matter why ... all that counts at this point is that he has a family waiting for him who is crazy about him and that can't wait till he gets there.

 

 

 

Mac was brought here on Sunday via a volunteer from Philadelphia.  My job was to keep him for a few hours, till it was time to leave for the meeting point near NC for the next leg of his trip.  He was nervous and paced a lot at first ... then I discovered that he was undoubtedly a sofa dog at his last house.  Once I invited him up onto the sofa with me, he was a happy, relaxed boy.

 

 

 

He got here just in time to hang out and watch the Redskins game with me on TV.

 

 

 

 

 

The cats each took turns carefully sneaking up to sniff the 'new guy'.  Mac didn't react at all to them, even when Maggie stepped over his head to get to the other side of me to lie down.  (didn't get a photo of that, darn it.)

 

This was Dorothy's turn.

 

 

Daniel and Ruby enjoyed having Mac around.  Mac was anxious to play, and he and my dogs did quite a bit of running and chasing in the back yard.

 

At 5:30, we loaded Mac and his stuff into the Jeep, and we headed out.  He quickly settled in and slept almost the whole two hours to the meeting point in Emporia.

 

 

 

It was dark when we met his next ride.  (I'm really glad this photo turned out so well ... Mac's white face and piercing gold eyes looked fantastic in the light of the truck stop lights.)

 

 

 

Mac spent Sunday night in NC, and his new mom drove there to pick him up and take him home on Monday. 

 

I am proud to be included among the small group of volunteeers who offers to transport these beautiful animals to their forever homes.  By doing this, I spend time with wonderful dogs like Mac ... and I get to know the other volunteers who also give their time to help ... thank you Tony, Bill, and Phyllis ... and I am sure Mac and Shellie thank you, too.

 

 

Sunday Snapshot ... The Greyhound Underground Railroad

Yesterday morning, while most other folks were trying hard to avoid the traffic that comes with Labor Day weekend, The Husband and I were willingly diving into it ... helping to transport four newly retired racing greyhounds to their adoption group.

 

At 7:00 am, we met the hauler ... who left the kennel in central Florida 12 hours earlier. 

 

 

He was carrying 20 dogs on this trip, and was met by four sets of volunteers who were transporting the dogs to four adoption groups in four different states ... Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. 

 

With the back seat of my Jeep folded down, and the floor padded with comforters, there is plenty of room for four greyhounds to ride comfortably. It didn't take them long to settle down.

 

 

 

 

 

Our passengers on this trip were:

 

Olive (race name, Barts Comin Home)

 

 

 

 

 

Okra (race name, WWK Fried Okra)

 

 

 

 

 

Cooper (race name, JW's Cooper)

 

 

 

 

 

and Nichole (don't know Nichole's race name)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As with all trips like this, we are dealing with all sorts of different personalities among the dogs.  Olive (the black one) just wanted to lay down and go to sleep.  Okra (the brindle) was a happy boy who thought Olive was adorable, and wanted to sniff her ... Olive didn't care for that and told him so on at least two occasions.

 

 

 

This is why the dogs wear muzzles while they are traveling ... for their safety.  If one of them gets cranky and snappy, no one (dogs or humans) gets hurt.

 

 

 

Nichole (white with black patches) was a snuggler, and she tried multiple times to climb into the front seat to get into my lap.  I spent quite a bit of the trip with my hand on the side of the driver's seat, holding her back.

 

Nichole wants to help drive.

 

 

Cooper (the white with brindle) stood up for a while, but quickly settled in and went to sleep.  The only time we heard anything out of him was when Nichole sat on his head.  (again, muzzles made sure that barking didn't turn to snapping or injuries.)

 

blurry photo of the head-sitting incident

 

 

We have had our Jeep for two years now, and this was the maiden voyage with four dogs in it.  (I have hauled two or three, but had yet to go for four.)  We figured it would hold four ... but we knew we couldn't be sure until we stuffed them in to test it out.  It was a bit tight, but each dog had enough room to lay down, stretch out, and get comfortable.

 

 

 

Yesterday's trip was a short one.  We picked up the dogs in Fredericksburg, and met the next set of drivers at the Maryland Welcome Center, just south of Baltimore.  We walked the dogs so they could potty and stretch their legs ... then we loaded them into the next vehicle to continue their journey ... to their new forever homes in New York.

 

 

 

Ferrying the dogs like this is my very favorite part of volunteering with greyhound adoption.  The Husband and I have done this since 2000 (or is it 2001) and I stopped counting years ago at 300 dogs that we have transported.  We love to meet them, enjoy them for a few hours, and send them on their way.  

 

As far as the holiday traffic was concerned, we had a pretty easy time of it.  We did the speed limit almost the whole way north along I-95 ... and we took an alternate route to get home, since we had seen back ups building in places on the southbound side. 

 

When we got home, we were subjected to a thorough inspection ... as Daniel and Ruby snuffled us all over.  We had been cheating on them with other dogs, you know.

 

Happy Sunday, Everyone!