The Peanut Gallery: Lucy's First Christmas

This year is Lucy's first Christmas with us and we couldn't be happier. She has been such a joy and we cannot imagine our life without her. Christmas is my favorite holiday, so of course Lucy had to join in all the festivities! Lucy has been very patient with us...she let us dress her up with reindeer antlers and a jingle bell collar. I wasn't sure how she was going to react to having a tree in the living room, especially since it was going to go right next to her bed. But she loved it. Initially she did try to nibble on the branches, but soon realized it wasn't that tasty. What we quickly realized is that we couldn't put any ornaments on the lower half of the tree because her tail would promptly whip them right off the branches! So we put the breakable ones up high. She liked that with the tree, she could sit on her bed and look out the front window...something she cannot normally do because the loveseat is in front of the big picture window. While Lucy was probably looking down the street for her boyfriend, Roscoe, we liked to pretend that she was waiting for Santa and the Reindeer to come pick her up.

This Christmas we split time between our two families. We headed down to Portland on Dec. 23rd and spent Christmas Eve with the Tull family and then left for Spokane on Christmas Day. I was a little concerned since we were greeted by over a foot and a half of snow in Portland. I think the City of Portland literally only owns one plow and all the major streets weren't plowed, so getting around town was a nightmare. And I heard that due to environmental concerns, the City of Portland wasn't using de-icer on the roads. Oye! We had heard that parts of I-84 freeway were closed and nervous about driving along the Columbia River since the winds can get pretty bad. But Clark was determined as ever to see his family and make it to his Grandma's house for Christmas dinner, so we left around 7 AM. The first couple of hours were pretty bad because the roads weren't plowed, but once we got to Hood River, it got significantly better. The good news is that we saw some amazing sights along the drive. We saw three bighorn sheep, a handful of deer, and even some antelope! We didn't have time (and frankly were concerned about stopping on the freeway with the snow and ice) to stop and take pictures, but the animals were RIGHT along side the road...it was pretty awesome. It's pretty rare to see Bighorn Sheep in the wild, so it was very cool. We also passed Multnomah Falls, which was half frozen over, a rarity. Didn't snap a picture, but a cool thing to see.

I insisted that Clark get a set of chains in case we need them...despite all his objections and reassurances to me that he knows how to drive in the snow, he finally caved and bought them. I argued that if we don't need them that is fine, but at least we have them in the car just in case :) And as it turned out, we did need the chains while we were in Spokane (over 6 feet of snow!)

After spending a week in Spokane with Clark's family, we drove back to Portland on New Year's Eve and rung in 2009 with the Tull family.

While we were in Spokane, Lucy stayed in Portland with Grandma and Grandpa Dog. I cannot tell who was happier about it....Lucy or Grandpa Dog. We call my dad, Grandpa Dog, the Dog Whisperer because not only is he a dog lover, but he has a special connection with Lucy. Lucy absolutely LOVES their house and their huge backyard. She follows around Grandpa Dog because he feeds her treats, lets her lick his dinner plate, he massages her legs, and lets her lay on the couches. She really is spoiled at their house and we were really concerned that she wouldn't remember who we are!

Lucy joined us when we got our tree...she wasn't sure what to make of it at first. She was super sneaky and slipped out of the car while we were tying the tree down! I guess being on house confinement means any sort of car ride or outing is "extra special"

Lucy with her reindeer antlers...getting ready for Santa to pick her up

Lucy is probably yawning because she is bored to tears by my antics of dressing her up and snapping pictures

Andrea getting ready to put the lights on the tree...red and white lights to go with our Peanuts-themed tree this year. You will notice it is snowing outside. Yes, there was Christmas music playing and we were drinking hot chocolate...it was perfect!

Here is our tree after all the lights and ornaments are on...you cannot see up close, but I have all Snoopy and Peanuts-themed ornaments. Some are newer from Hallmark, but many of them were given to me by my mom. We chose the Peanuts theme partially because that is what Lucy is named after...the Lucy character in the Peanuts comic strip.

On our TV stand, we had red pointsetta plants on each side along with some Peanuts holiday decorations.

Here is the other side.

Side table with Peanuts decorations.

Our stockings hung from our TV stand since we don't have a fireplace. Mine and Clark's stockings are Peanuts-themed and Lucy's....well, I guess you can figure out which one is hers.