And so this is Christmas

And so this is Christmas......
our first Christmas as a family. What happened? Tetley could feast on his favourite passion - inspecting the contents of shopping bags. Never has so much excitement been experienced by a dog as to the possibilities of the contents of a carrier bag. Not a gentle nosing for Tetley. A full blown diving head first into the mysteries of the bulging bag. The contents of their advent calender was also a scene for the eye, excitement, slavering and then the spitting from Tommy - a fussy eater if ever there was one- and the quick sniff, gulp and it's gone from Tetley. He is one mighty dustbin that dog. Nothing that can go down a dogs gullet is left untouched. His mission is to devour the world one slurp at a time.

Poor old Tommy has been suffering from a tummy bug for the past 3 days. Vomiting of lunch followed by much more vomiting of stuff that came from whence I do not know. Day two, more vomiting of gallons of water and the occasional burp in between. Hours of laying on the sofa looking sorry for himself, not even rising to follow me around like a bad MI5 agent, which is his normal occupation/pass time.
Day three - today- and we have a refusal to eat his breakfast tooth cleaning chew and then storing it behind the sofa in his den, growling when Tetley wanders into the 'den zone' to check out if there's a left over bone or two to pinch off him. This performance ceased when I caused a distraction of a fresh bowl of drinking water for him, and then dashing behind the sofa to retrieve the chew. Back to Dog, Dolphin and husband joining me for cuddles on the afore mentioned sofa. Bliss.

Christmas was good, and now the New Year is hovering over us. I did have a few tears the other day as I realised I would leave Chester firmly in the past. Him dying 'last year' seams like he has been gone a long time, not just a few months ago. Each month sees him being further and further away, and I don't like it. The New year does encourage me to feel the aniticipation of new experiences, new friends and also understanding life a little less. As you grow older you just become more aware of the things you don't kow, unlike our youth when you know you know everything there is to discover. Ahh the joy of growing older... life really does get better as time moves on.
Happy New Year.