Good news. Me and the Doods are back from holiday hiatus. I confess, I have never been a fan of the whole season. Thanksgiving I can deal with but it’s all downhill from there. It actually gives me anxiety. Well, there used to be one slight problem with turkey day too, aside from dealing with the giblets, whatever they are. When my girls were little I decided that it was a great time to take the family portrait for the family card. As they got older, that turned out to be one of my worst ideas except that now I enjoy seeing them try to take their own family photos.
One time I was in a store in August, yes August, saw Christmas displays and started hyperventilating. I’m not exactly Scrooge, but this year I found a couple of solutions for dealing with my issues. The first was the Hallmark Channel. I watched so many happy holiday movies that I almost overdosed on Christmas spirit.
The Doods were my other salvation. Unlike some family members (you know who you are), they enjoyed watching movies with me. We didn’t exactly share a bowl of popcorn but it was very cozy. When things got too hectic, I practiced total avoidance and took them hiking in the mountains. When I felt guilty about my bad attitude, I took them into the hospital to cheer up the patients. As a bonus, Santa was visiting in the hospital too so I got extra holiday points.
The most Christmasy thing the Doods and I did was an event at UCLA. About twenty human/canine teams from the People Animal Connection plus a bunch of really talented singers walked all around the hospital caroling. I’m one of those people, like my dear friend Lillian, who loves sing-a-longs but can barely carry a tune so this was perfect. The dogs sounded better than I did. On the other hand, Marilee, the woman who led the caroling, has a beautiful voice. I tried to stand by her and lip synch so people might think it was me.
I brought Charley and Gus this year since the little guy recently passed his national therapy dog certification. (Am I a bad person for fake singing and using every excuse possible to brag about my dogs?) They encourage us to make the dogs look festive and you know how much I love to dress them up. I bought them each an adorable sweater, and decked them out in tinsel and jingle bells.
I must admit we had one particularly moving moment. When our human/canine choir was in the emergency room, I made eye contact with a patient lying in bed in one of the side admitting rooms. It was an older woman who was singing “Silent Night” along with the rest of us. I lifted Gus up and when she saw him and Charley she got the biggest smile on her face. It was like just the two of us singing together and she couldn’t hear me. It was a Christmas miracle.
GUS I have been quiet long enough. There’s only so much even a sweet dog like me can take. Do you really think we wanted to watch all of those movies? Although I did enjoy the one about the Golden Retriever. As my big brothers will tell you, treats and petting can be very persuasive. As for those “adorable” sweaters, Charley’s had a sad looking snowman on the back and mine said “ugly Xmas sweater.” Is that supposed to be funny? Next year I’m sending Elbee in my place!
