Happy New Year 2009!!

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired.  Is that really a good way to start the new year?  Bleary-eyed, groggy, day-long bed-head… sucking off a coffee pot all day.  I mean, I love hanging out with friends, grazing for 7 hours straight, playing games and chatting up a storm (after the kids have been bedded down) but when I have to be up at 6am New Years Day, I start to seriously consider swearing off all New Year’s Eves as my new year resolution. 

I’m starting to feel a little better though, after my 8th cup of coffee and 3rd helping of Monkey Bread.  Man that stuff is addicting.  And that’s why we restrict it to New Year’s Day breakfasts only.  It’s a treat.  It’s a celebration.  It’s special.  And it’s also the reason why I have to get up at 6am the first day of every year instead of snoozing in until 7.   It’s worth it.  I don’t feel that way at 6am but by 7am, when I’m stuffing my face with Monkey Bread, I’m singing the praises of alarm clocks and early morning baking. 

Since my brain is going to be fuzzy all day today (despite the gargantuan amounts of coffee I will ingest over the next 12 hours), I’ve decided to finish this post off with puppy pictures.  

I don’t know about you, but when I hear “New Year”, I think ”puppy pictures”.  Doesn’t everybody? 

Besides, she sooo cute.

One glance into her big baby eyes will clear the cloud of sleepy gloom from around your noggin’.

In the interest of keeping her cuteness and adorability intact, I will refrain from sharing the scene that greeted me last night when I ran home to check on her and let her out mid-way through our all-night revelries.   Let me just say, I wanted to shower when I was done.  And I would have, had there not been Guitar Hero Band going on in my absence at the party.  That stuff is good… blackmail good. 

This is Lucy’s sleepy look.  She tries real hard to keep those peepers open but gravity wins.

Her first chore, as a new member of the Runningamuck family, is to keep the windows clean.  And that’s no easy task let me tell you.  I was happy to finally be able to pass off the responsibility.  A girl has to lick ‘em all down at least 3 times a day to keep up.  And Lucy is proving herself very capable.

But all that licking wears her out.   This is how she lets me know her saliva’s all dried up and she won’t work under these conditions. 

And then Lil Blue decides he won’t work under those conditions either and they both lay down on the job.  Then the grime piles up, the dishes don’t get done, the laundry sits, wrinkling, in the dryer, and the grass grows 10 feet tall outside.  Just kidding, we have gardeners to mow for us.  Lil Blue doesn’t edge very well.

See?!  Don’t you feel a little less, tired?  

I do.

At least until I have to take Lucy outside to potty again.   

I’m here to testify that she has the teeniest bladder on the face of the planet. 

Course, after all this coffee, I may be needing to go just as frequently as she does.  So I guess I’d better stop pointing fingers at her and start worrying about my own bladder.

Happy New Year!!

A New Addition

The Runningamuck household has grown by one since yesterday. 

Isn’t she adorable?  This is Lucy Bear.  She’s an 8 week old Boxer and she has such a good temperament.  She loves the kids, despite their overwhelming and exuberant attention.  Last night (her first night) was better than I expected.  She cried some each time I had to close her door but only for a few minutes.  Then she’d settle herself down and go to sleep.   She plays hard and then crashes hard!  That girl can sleep through anything! lol  

(Pardon the bad pictures, I took them before I had my coffee and the moving subjects didn’t help… my brain was moving several seconds slower than they were!)

 

We’re totally and completely smitten.  Well, all but Hubby.  And he really is too… he’s just questioning his rush to action yesterday when he saw her litter for sale on the way home from dirt-biking.  Our wonderful friend who was with him “encouraged” him to bite the bullet  err, make the purchase. 

I can’t promise the next few days won’t be filled with puppy/children pictures.  I’ll fight it, I promise but I’m weak you guys.  WEAK!  I won’t even admit how many pictures I’ve taken today since I’ve had my coffee. 

It’s like having a new baby!  I’m tellin’ ya, people come by to visit and meet her… everyone wants to hold her… people send congratulating notes…  

I do have to admit though, there haven’t been any gifts.  And we don’t have pacifiers and burp rags strewn all over the house.  We also don’t have a wipe/diaper stash in every corner of the house just in case.  No bassinet in our bedroom (although I’m sure Lucy wouldn’t have complained at all) and I can sit with no tenderness what-so-ever.  My chest isn’t leaking like a sieve and my clothes still somewhat fit.

Although, I do have to admit, having a new baby to blame the old bowl-of-jelly-belly on would be a nice… but no, I can only blame my flabby gut on my Christmas over-indulgence. Darn!

Welcome Lucy Bear!!  You have some mighty big paw-prints to fill but I think you are gonna do just fine…  (I can hear the farmer from the movie Babe saying, “That’ll do Pig, that’ll do”. )

Puppy Breath

and teeth… and nails… and potty breaks… and training…

We’re smack-dab in the middle of it ALL right now folks.  The kids got a “little” early New Year’s surprise (read about our New Year’s Day traditions here) and it involves all of these things, plus a lot more. 

Photos to come a little later today.  Prepare yourselves yourself, your heart is going to do quite a bit of melting.

A Runningamuck Tradition

I realize this might be a tad late in the season to be addressing this but better late than never, right?

Here at the Runningamuck Household, we try to mix it up a bit.  Try to swim upstream.  Walk to the beat of a different drum.  Brace yourselves.  It’s a doosie…

We don’t do Christmas gifts.

Now before you wave me off as a Jehovah Witness, we’re NOT!  Hubby and I decided when Poppett was a baby that we wanted our Christmas to be all about Jesus.  Now, a lot of us have that intention but somehow in all the hustle and bustle of gift planning, purchasing, wrapping and giving, as much as we fight it – Jesus just doesn’t get the attention He deserves.  So our Christmas is purely a birthday party for Jesus.  We have a special breakfast, we read the Christmas story and we do fun family activities (board games, walks, crafts) during the day.  Then we put on a huge, scrumptious dinner for His party, wear party hats, sing happy birthday to Him and blow out candles on our birthday cupcakes.  For the first few years we did a birthday cake but then I wizened up.  Four munchkins all blowing out candles on the same cake is a recipe chock-full of spit and slobber… all over the cake that you are getting ready to chow down on.  Ummm, tasty!  So we switched to individual cupcakes… munchkin slobber averted.

But don’t start worrying that our children are deprived because they have no special morning of presents, we DO presents.  We celebrate the New Year with a morning of presents, much like the typical Christmas.  Celebrating New Years this way also provides a way for extended family members to still give gifts without landing us back where we started…with gifts at Christmas. 

I personally love our tradition.  Each year I strive to add something else to our Christmas day to make it even more special and to help us focus on our Lord’s birth and His love even more.  As the kids get older, we plan on devoting some of the time to the service of others.  Like taking dinners over to struggling families or visiting our homeless shelters with goodies to share or warm blankets to pass out.  The possibilities are endless and I look forward to a special project each year.  Maybe even letting one of the kids choose the outreach activity of their choice each year for the family to do together.

And a side bonus to gifts on New Years?  After Christmas sales. 

Ssshhhhhh! Ya didn’t hear it from me! =0) 

What special Christmas tradition does your family do?