Days of Christmas - Day 10 - Costumed Christmas

Days of Christmas - Day 9 - Christmas Tree

Behold, our Christmas tree! Notice, no tree topper again this year. I cannot find a suitable angel to save my life. Oh well, there's always next year.

We also have a new ornament.

It's Mickey Mouse dressed as one of the caretakers of the Haunted Mansion, along with the date written on his foot to commemorate our visit to Walt Disney World in 2013. Alas, I had hoped to get a Merida ornament, but this Disney Princess is so popular they couldn't keep the ornament in stock! I will keep trying though, the next time we are in Orlando.

Days of Christmas - Day 8 - Cookies

My first attempt at making Gingerbread cookies. I'll admit, it was from a mix and I'm not that impressed with the taste. I'd like it to have a bit more flavor, but for my first try, not too bad.

I'm toying with the idea of making cookies for the corgs. I found some neat recipes online and I think they'll be a hit with our two and with our friends' dogs.  If I get around to making those, I'll post about it.

Days of Christmas - Day 7 - Cards

I know we are an electronic society now, hell, I work from home! But, there's something nice about going to the mailbox and receiving love in the form of a Christmas card.

Saturday Smiler - Little Runner

More Days of Christmas posts coming tomorrow. I have to catch up!

Days of Christmas - Day 6 - Wreath

This is the wreath I made last year and I'm quite proud of it, if I do say. It's held up quite well over the past year in storage.

We have another wreath hanging on the door via a suction cup, but it's so cold outside, the suction cup froze and gave out. *sigh*

Days of Christmas - Day 5 - Stuffed Animals

Years ago, each Christmas Sears did a holiday release of a stuffed animal. My mom started the tradition and I've kept the stuffies to place them around the house each year.

Penguin and the royal Corgi, who came from Buckingham Palace

Gingerbread Man

Someone's got to keep the Charlie Brown Christmas tree warm

Mr. Polar Bear

Mr. Moose

Mousey

Days of Christmas - Day 4 - The Staircase

We have a grand staircase. It's the first thing you see when you enter our home and it's one of the first items to be decorated at Christmas time.

We string a faux snowy garland and then crisp, white lights down over the banister. At the end of the staircase, we place our Mickey Mouse ears jingle bells.

Days of Christmas - Day 3 - Inflatable Mickey Mouse

We have an inflatable Mickey Mouse that we bring out during the Christmas season.  He usually sits outside, but this year, we were late in securing him to the ground. Now the ground is frozen and covered in about a foot of snow.

Mickey's going to have to hang out inside for a few days.

The corgis don't really like him.

Merida isn't sure what to do with it and Gimli views him as an invader to be stopped!


I must say, I like how Merida quickly departs the scene when Gimli starts in on Mickey Mouse.

Days of Christmas - 2

For today's post, I wanted to have the corgis in front of the Christmas tree - all posing and looking nice. As you can see, this did not happen.  They refused to look at me, choosing to look at the cookies on the coffee table. I had to work fast because Lady Merida has a short attention span and is apt to be distracted by a shiny thing and run out of the frame.

By the way, this is a preview of the Christmas tree. That post is coming later on.

Days of Christmas

December thus far has been a bit odd for us.  We've only just returned from holiday to find that Christmas is upon us in about a week and a half.  We have a great deal of work to do - ie we are far behind in our shopping, and as a result, I knew I would struggle to come up with blog posts between now and Christmas.

Therefore, I've decided to do my own sort of twelve days of Christmas, but showcasing us, the corgis and our home.  There will be one entry a day up to Christmas.

Today marks the first entry.

Puppy on a stocking

This photograph was taken in July, (hence the absence of a Christmas tree!), when I suddenly realized I didn't have a cute picture of a corgi puppy with a stocking.  Merida is much bigger now, but I do think this picture sums up her demeanor quite nicely. Quiet, reserved and a little confused.

Saturday Smiler - Happy

She's only happy when she's stalking Gimli.

Flat Gimli Friday - Disney Castle

Snowy play

Gimli of the fun police: caaandy, what's she doooinnnnn?

Wordless Wednesday - Lazy Afternoon

We miss you

GIMLI:  When are you coming back?
MERIDA: Did you forget about me?

What to do

Merida: Gimli, I'm bored. What can we do?

Gimli: We can go cause mischief, let's go!

Merida: Oh, no, I'm a perfect little girl, I cannot do that.

Saturday Smiler - Cutie face

Flat Gimli Friday - Swim at Your own Risk

Wordless Wednesday - So tired

Unsuspecting

Right after I took this picture,she jumped on him.

Naughty puppy

We thought we were doing well and that Merida could be left on her own for short trips during the day.  She'd been fine many times before.

Except we returned from the store to find this:

Poor Gimli's bed in which he sits and enjoys the morning sun now has a hole in the base.

On another occasion, I found her inside the bed.

We now watch her obsessively and ensure she has enough toys with which to chew and play. Now, when we leave, off she goes into the crate.

We'll try her again once she stops teething, as I'm sure that's a big part of this behavior.

Year of Gimli - December

It's amazing that we're now at December already. This is the last of the calendar entries for a while as we didn't create a custom calendar for 2014. We needed more pictures of Merida, so we're hoping the calendar can make an appearance again in 2016!

Saturday Smiler - Crocodile and Alligator

You can see a crocodile's teeth when their mouth is closed. In this case, just one tooth.

With alligators, their teeth are hidden.

Flat Gimli Friday - That he is

Long leash

Yesterday, it was quite cold and windy over here so our morning walk consisted of walking up the street, then back down the street.

Later in the afternoon, I took Gimli with the long leash to the park so he could run around and play to his heart's content.  There was a light dusting of snow so he couldn't pounce in it or roll around in it, but he enjoyed himself all the same.  I think he was glad to be able to run around, albeit right next to me.

But I want to go that way!

Corgi on the hill

Just beyond this hill, in one of those backyards, they have ducks, geese and some chickens.  Gimli and I found them and he gave them a good stare. I couldn't figure out if he wanted to chase them or play with them!

We were out for maybe 15 minutes before the cold got to us and we returned home.

Then, I decided I'd take Merida for her first try on the long leash.

She was mildly excited about the long leash, in her reserved sort of way, but when I clipped on her collar, she was ready to go!  Off we went and she didn't even look back to see if Gimli was coming with us, ha!

At first she didn't realize the leash was long and I was giving her a little more freedom.  I walked in one direction and she stood and looked at me.  Then, I ran a little and she gave chase and finally got the message.  All went well until she came across one of Gimli's tracks, where she proceeded to follow it around to see all the places we had walked.  Sheesh, she's a herding dog not a scent hound!

I want to go dig in the sand pit.

I didn't have any cookies with me, but I thought I'd try her recall or even her attention just to see how far we have to go.  Well, her recall outside of the house - SUCKS!  Her attention outside of the house - SUCKS!

I know she's never been in this spot before and I'm sure it was sensory overload, but she didn't even look at me when I called her. Gimli, at least gives me that much!

Oh, you mean me?

We have our work cut out for us, but she's a smart little one and she'll pick up on things... just as soon as she stops destroying all of Gimli's stuffies.

Wordless Wednesday - Little ears

3 little corgis

A number of weeks ago, we met up with the corgis' breeder at a dog show.  Merida was able to see her sister - Rolex and her brother - Ranger.

The three of them got on famously and wanted to run around and wrestle.  Gimli, on the other hand, felt like barking and barking and then barking some more.

Merida and her brother - Ranger

You'll see from the pictures that my little Merida is smaller than than her siblings.  I have a suspicion she'll be a bit smaller than the rest, but we'll see.  What she lacks in size, she makes up in cuteness, lovableness and a generally good demeanor. Not to mention the need to let you know it's cuddle time and proceed to cuddle with you.

The 3 littermates

Merida was finally big enough to wear a bandanna. That used to be Gimli's but he outgrew it.

Halloween

Yes, I know, it's the middle of November and I'm just now getting to the Halloween pictures.

We were invited to a Halloween party and so Mike and I went as these two characters:

Carl from Up

Not too shabby huh?

Isabella from Dragon Age 2

Close enough!

The corgis even got into it!  Gimli was keen to pose. Merida on the other hand, wondered what all the fuss was about. Gimli was The Hulk, Merida was confused in purple lol.

This year I picked up some craft pumpkins at Michaels and painted faces on them.  They went over well, though I missed my Mickey Mouse ear pumpkin from last year :(

Saturday Smiler - Happy Boy