Pippin: On the Naughty List???

Hey all!! I hope you're all doing well and having a wonderful holiday season. This one has just been crazy for us and I hope to catch up with everyone after Christmas!!

We're still working on those $$##$$ floors. We are up to the poly stage, so the end is very much in sight, but we won't make it for Christmas. Brent is at home today putting the first coat of poly on, and we plan for 3 coats. Then it has to sit for 72 hours before furniture can come back in, so I'm currently trying to figure out how to incorporate mattresses and box springs into our Christmas Eve dinner. Maybe we should go for an Asian type theme? I'm just glad all the paint stripping and sanding is finished, that nearly killed us.

And Pippin - well, he's feeling a little ignored. We come home, work on the room (doors shut), and then pretty much go to sleep. You know he's sad when I woke up Saturday morning, went downstairs, and the poor thing is sitting outside the bedroom door, thinking we were already in there working. And when he feels ignored he acts out. So far he's destroyed a pair of Brent's underwear (from the laundry basket) and two of my fake mistletoe balls. He's also been "shopping" in all of our holiday gift bags. This year we're not wrapping anything, it's all going in gift bags. There's just no time for elaborate wrappings (or shopping, either!). Every year we always give little rawhide candy canes to all the dogs Pippin knows. We make little gift tags with Pippin's face on it and tie it on with ribbon. I had stuck one in Brent's grandparent's gift bag for their dog. When we came home from work Monday night (after greeting us) Pippin went tearing through the house with a toy in his mouth. Pretty normal. Then Brent noticed there was ribbon hanging from it. Not normal. The little sneak had gone through the gift bags - found something he liked - and hid it until we came home from work. Earlier in the week one of our friends had gotten him a bone for Christmas - also in a gift bag. When we got home yesterday he stared at the bag, then stared at me, and started whining. Apparently this time the little guy had found the bag he liked, but chose not to ask for it instead of just thieving it away. He's really into Christmas this year but with this kind of behavior I may just have to stick coal in his stocking. Pippin needs to learn to be a giver and not a taker. =)

Well, guess I'd better get back to work! Tomorrow is my last day here. YAYYYYY! I can hardly contain myself! I've got a mile long list of groceries to get for all our holiday cooking endeavors so I am ready for the work day to be over so I can get on with the good stuff.

And running? Well, that hasn't really been happening much. It's not like we have a 50K next month or anything. HA! I had a whopping total of 6 miles last week and this week I have 4 so far. Blah!!!! I'm really close to having 1200 miles for the year (my goal), so I am going to try to bump it up the rest of the year (hopefully).

In case I don't get to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas everyone!!! (Or Happy Hanukkah, which is almost over!!)

Rachel