And Another Holiday Down

And here it is, a new year!  We’ve survived yet another holiday season (or at least I assume we all have), and things will soon settle down to normal.

So how did you spend your holidays?  I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about our holiday – Peeps has kindly helped me with a couple of my Things which I’ll tell you all about later on.

Let’s see, you do know Surly Boy was home for a few days – he’s going back to the Place sometime this week – though he’ll be driving rather than flying.

Fortunately, he did make it home in time for Christmas Eve, so Santa was able to find him and leave his stocking.

Don’t laugh – that’s the stocking he’s had since he was a baby.  His grandmother bought it for him, notwithstanding the fact that, had it been up to me, I would have chosen a traditional, sizable red stocking.  My parents have always known better than I, though, I guess.

Do you wonder why the dear boy is sleeping on the couch?

Yeah, don’t.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that Santa’s redneck elves were responsible for what we found in the kitchen Christmas morning. . .

But probably not.

So that’s probably why the boy slept on the couch.  And it’s probably also why we had to wake him up to open his gifts and head out for Grandma and Grandpa’s house, huh?

He did NOT learn that from me, let me tell you!

Gifts were opened, thank-yous were exchanged, and messes were cleaned up, then it was time to load up the cars to head for my parents’ house.

I say “cars” because Peeps and I took my car, loaded with gifts and dinner (we did the cooking) and, of course, the Baby.  The Boy drove separately in the Honda, so he could make a detour and spend a few hours with his dad.  (Peeps and I took a pass on that bit of holiday cheer, thank you very much.)

So we spent most of Christmas day with my parents, my siblings, their kids, and my grandmother.  And, of course, the dogs.  Dogs everywhere!

Believe it or not, the dogs may have been better behaved than some of the children!  They just laid there, next to their respective parents, and, well, let’s just say they did very little screeching, fussing, whining OR throwing stuff!

Then later on, after things quieted down and some of the kids had left and others had finally settled down, Jarly noticed something that seemed to pique his interest . . .

He’s staring quite intently.

What the heck is that?

What’s going on over there?

MOM!  HEY MOM! HELP!

There’s a BIRD attacking the little girl!

MOM!

Seriously, it was the funniest thing – my niece brought the parakeet out of its cage, I think to see what Jarly would do.

He lost his furry little mind, and she’s there trying to shush him before her mother caught her with the bird out!

I guess birds are right up there with squirrels and cats on his “vermin” list.