Merry Christmas!

I've been very blessed to have my brother Tim visiting for the past week.   Since he flew, Elvis didn't get to come along and stayed with my cousins back in Michigan.   Reports are that he's been doing a lot of howling - especially at night, but that Pete has found the way to Elvis' heart is through his stomach.   Carrying around a few choice treats in the pocket makes any corgi (at least ours) an instant friend.

Part of my Christmas Eve tradition is to ring the Salvation Army bell for the Red Kettle Campaign at my neighborhood grocery store.   It was a lot more fun to do it this year with Tim, and, with temperatures in the upper 40's, we were able to bring the girls along and take the kettle outdoors.    I'm quite sure they brought in a few bucks - especially from the kids who were begging Mom to pet the dogs.  

On Christmas Day we went for a couple of nice walks - one of them over the Main Avenue bridge in Fargo (which is gorgeous) and the other at a large park a few miles north of town.   It's our favorite place to go in the winter for cross country skiing or just a good romp in the snow.   This year, with our lack of snow, it was a hike through the mud.  Hence, the girls have had two baths in the past 72 hours and I'm still finding clumps of mud in the carpet!   Nonetheless, we had a great time and were sad to say goodbye to Tim this morning.  Hopefully he and Elvis will do a speaking tour over spring break in the Upper Midwest and stay with us for a few days.