Joyful Family Chaos

I am sure that this title rings true to many of you readers to describe the festivities of last week. If you did have a restful holiday (or eight nights for my Jewish friends), filled with sleeping-in, bubble baths and long walks on the beach somewhere sunny……I don’t want to hear about it! Below is the abbridged re-cap of our holiday week:

My mom got into town on Dec. 16th… With all that time, and so few curtains in my house, I figured I would put her to work! Operation Sweat Shop Mom was in full effect and I would have to say that her little fingers never stopped sewing – except when the sewing machine broke and I had to track down a loaner from a friend – she got a 30 minute work break for that. I gave her room and board in exchange for her labor. Here are the end results:

I decided that seven adults, Matt’s baby nephew Henry (H-Bomb!), and two dogs under one roof was not enough, and agreed to dog sit another 125lb girl named Alta – I mean come on, how would you like to be in a kennel for Christmas!? Matt’s dog loving dad Wayne could not wait to meet the big girl. We drove the three hours to Bozeman in two cars, but had to drive 3 adults and two dogs home in one……Keep reading to find out who was strapped to the roof for the ride home.

When we walked in the door, it became obvious that Alta had a karmic past life beef with Wayne. It took 5 days, 100 treats, many attempted rubs and hours of exercise to get Alta to not bark at Wayne every time he came near her.

H-Bomb was really the highlight of the week. I mean look at him!

The low point of the week was Blue sneaking into the kitchen and eating two halves of a red velvet cake. Yup, she is so bad that she ate half of each half of the layer cake that was sitting out on the counter to cool. Maybe she was feeling the holiday spirit and thought it would be generous to leave us some. Apparently red velvet cakes have chocolate in them (who knew!) and once dogs have a taste of the coco-crack they become addicted. So now we have a little chocolate vampire dog that can sniff it out wherever it’s hidden – mom, send more Lindt Chocolate reindeer, Blue ate mine last night.

Alta, Charlie and Blue made finding a seat or walking across the floor without stepping on a dog part pretty difficult all week. Getting them outside to “play” was always “fun”. I use the term “play” because Blue thinks playing is herding, Alta thinks playing is sneaking up and biting Blue on the bum and Charlie thinks playing is standing next to us growling at the other dogs like an ornery old geezer.

Christmas day was a hoot. Here are 15 of the hot gifts of the year (take note Oprah):

1) Boo-ya! Finally, I got a KitchenAid mixer!! Check out my sourness on this subject from my first blog post six months ago.

2) The only thing that makes me complete is your face in a toilet seat. Yes, I bought Matt a new toilet seat and he is wearing it around his neck.

3) This was Blue’s gift, but we had to re-gift it to Alta since she looked so sad (and Blue would not touch it).

4) Homemade duck blanket from the sweat shop mom!

5) Sarah Palin toilet paper.

6) You can tell by this picture that Matt has been using a backpack with a busted zipper for the past 3 years – he may have forgotten how a zipper works!

7) Unbreakable pint glasses for Matt.

8 ) Replacement wine glasses from Matt’s mom for the set of mine Matt broke.

9) My mom gave Matt got my old sled to restore. Who knew that you could re-gift 25 years later. I have fond memories of my mom dragging me through a tree farm on my head at age 3 on this sled – by a mistake! She probably cried more then I did.

10) This classic heartbreaking picture of Matt and his sister Megan.

11) Yak Trax – They should start paying me for all this product placement!

12) Karate Kid Cambodian head dress – Come to findout it’s a belt

13) Butte Ethnic Cookbook – Mmmmm Pasties (not the things stripers wear, the Cornish delicacy)

14) Counter mounted bottle opener – I will never have to use my teeth again!

15) Henry’s first gift EVER. He opened it himself and then shoved it in his mouth.

But sadly, all good things must come to an end. Packing for the trip home was challenging, but NO we did not strap any person or any dog to the roof. Blue did have to ride on my moms lap, but it all fit (besides Matt’s skies, boots, and sled).

We said goodbye to my mom and Alta yesterday, and slept 13 hours last night. Now it’s back to reality, work and home improvements…. Sigh. How about one more cute picture of the H-Bomb in action…..I can’t resist!