Our week started by continuing the Christmas celebration at Jim and Pat’s new house in Enon! We packed up our car with gifts and pups and headed there for some time to hang out together and enjoy a nice ham dinner. Dave, Steve, and Cookie joined as well and of course Uncle Brett and Aunt Missy were there too. Their house is really coming along – almost all the floor has been laid and the kitchen cabinets are now in. The counters are temporary but served their purpose quite well for the Christmas gathering.

Griffin helped to decorate Grandma and Grandpa’s Christmas tree – he really enjoys putting ornaments on the tree. He even got to add the tree topper!
Uncle Dave also asked Finn if he wanted to go and help feed the horses – of course he did! So Kevin, Finn, and Dave left for a bit and Finn loved it. He came back SO excited.  On Tuesday Griffin and I headed to Mansfield with Lily and Brutus for a quick one-night trip while the Bethune’s were still there. Brutus isn’t loving his crate at night for the first half hour or so. He whimpers and howls and barks! But then he settles down and goes to sleep. That night I heard him around 3 am and decided to let him cry it out – wrong! I went down in the morning to find a very messy crate – blech! I won’t make that mistake again!! So we started our day off with a bath right about 6:30 am 🙂  He is just a really big snuggler and loves to be around people at all times. When he sleeps he has to lay on your feet, not just at your feet. He constantly follows me around like a shadow and gets so happy when you bend down to pet him.  We also ventured downstairs to the seed room to check the progress of the hosta seeds we planted at Thanksgiving. Many are doing quite well and Finn enjoying pointing to the trays he wanted to look at so that Grandpa could bring them over and they could take the top off and see the plants. Lots of different colors and leaf shapes! Griffin loves to cuddle and snuggle with Brutus.  Brutus regularly finds a carpet or fluffy dog bed to lay on. We decided on Friday to move his crate to our room so that perhaps he wouldn’t whine so much. He loves it much better and usually just whimpers for a minute when you put him in his crate (he is NOT yet fond of going in there!) then he goes to sleep. The first night he slept 7 straight hours – no middle of the night potty breaks. We think he just wants to be where everyone else is 🙂 He regularly comes to my side of the bed if I’m in my room and lays on the carpet right next to me. That is, after he puts his front feet up on the bed to be sure I know he’s there.  Our neighbor, Brian, invited us to his house for New Years Eve so we happily headed over. Griffin loves to play with Cooper and Cole, and Abbie (another neighbor across the street) and her parents were there too. We watched the embarrassing OSU bowl game (yikes) and ALL of the kids made it past midnight to watch the ball drop. Several of Brian and Lisa’s family were there and there was quite the spread of food. We really enjoyed it – and the short walk home! I even came home once to let the dogs out in the evening, it was great! Lily is getting more and more used to Brutus.  They will sometimes share a bed and from time to time Lily will walk up to Brutus and want to play.  She still growls and shows her teeth to show him who is boss. Oh, and she gets a bit snarky and jumps on the couch and onto the pillows right in front of him since she knows he isn’t allowed up. I think they’ll become good buds before long.  As 2016 comes to a close we have much to reflect on and be thankful for. We look forward to the new year and what 2017 has in store!