crazy holidays!

[Dawn (and Tim, the Dogfather)]

we had a delightful new year's day and following week! my sister and nephew (featured with cassie in my display pic) came for the day. my stepmother (my sister's mother) emigrated here from the netherlands in the 1960s, where traditions surrounding Christmas are a bit different than the regulation Christmas free for all. Christmas eve and Christmas day are observed very quietly and seen as true holy days not just "holidays", spent sometimes attending church services and always in reflection upon God's Gift and gratitude for our family and blessings. new year's day, however, is the usual party! even though her tradition was to exchange gifts on 6 january (Epiphany, when the wisemen "found" the Babe and bestowed their gifts), we would do this on new year's eve because that is when the out of state family would gather. so we have carried on that tradition in honor of the dutch traditions and in her honor (she passed over with breast cancer after a 20 year survival). cassie did very well over this time and did not sneak any forbidden food LOL and everyone understands that she does not get ANYTHING by mouth if she is not in the proper position, and even then it has to be blended etc. and since mommy is the only one not totally grossed out by her food, the all of the nieces and nephews in our family just let me deal with it. i did make a few mistakes this past week with her though, changing too many things at a time. YUCK!!!! we had 3 sleepless nights with lots of pain and trouble. first, she was doing so well and had gotten her appetite back, so i thought it would be brilliant to try to thicken up her consistency a bit, and i switched her from pumpkin to beef broth because she seemed to like it, AND we changed not the brand of her food but the formula. in 2 days we spent those 3 sleepless nights. as soon as i cut out the beef broth, and soupied up her feeds again, she has been fabulous and perky. she really LOVES the new food (plain old purina puppy food - nothing fancy anymore) - and i have added her pumpkin back in. no problems at all. well i have gone on for a bit, but we are so blessed (even with the sleep deprivation, yacking - oh, yeah, and the wrapping paper still strewn about and Christmas decorations still up LOL) it is my prayer that you all had blessings over the holidays and enjoyed the chaos as we did! - d - pic is of our great pyrenees last Christmas, when, in my manic phase, i "lighted" him! good thing GPs are extremely laid-back beasts !!

[Lara Kretler]

Glad to hear all went well over the holidays - we had family in around Christmas too and had to make sure the kids knew that Jack can't have anything - usually he gets a lot of extra treats when the nieces and nephews are around! But they were great about helping make sure he didn't get into anything he shouldn't, and they were sweet about being respectful during his vertical feeding times. ;)