December 17, 2013

White Dog nearly went through the window greeting the delivery guy who brought the package that was our printed Christmas cards. The rest of the Army, always looking for a good excuse to sing and frenzy followed her lead. Steve came out of the office where he had been doing homework.

"Christmas cards are here," I told him. "I wondered what the extra excitement was about," he said and went out trailed by Taiko, Puff and Oso to get the box from the stoop.

White Dog pushed her way to sit next to Steve. "OK. Open it!" she demanded as the others crowded and jockeyed to be able to see, too. He reached into the junk drawer and brought out the box cutter and carefully slit the tape. "Careful not to cut through and damage the cards," White Dog warned. He opened the box and removed what seemed like 139 feet of crumpled brown paper that had been used to protect the cards. The crowd pushed forward. Then he lifted out envelopes. WD blew air through her mouth, "There ARE cards in there, aren't there?" Finally Steve drew out the cards and the White Ones woofed and howled their approval.

"Can I see?" I asked. "Don't worry," WD replied, "you are going to see them plenty. Now we need to get going addressing envelopes and writing notes." "I meant now," I said. "So did I," answered my sassy girl.

I sat patiently while she explained how few days remained until Christmas and how unpredictable the post office was. Sadly, she reminded me that our friends overseas would already receive the cards late. Six pairs of black rimmed eyes turned their full power of pleading on me as she concluded, "so really, momma, you cannot do ANYTHING else today until you get these all ready to go out and dad takes them to the post office first thing in the morning."

Well, I met my goal even though it took the entire rest of the evening. Every so often one of the WDA or another would sit with me and watch me work; Oso insisted on trying to help with stamps. White Dog added her thoughts as I wrote notes on the card backs. They are ready: addressed, notes written, return address stickers affixed and stamps stuck on. Steve with the supervision of White Dog, Puff and Taiko drove them to the Post Office at 6 in the morning. Our Christmas wishes and greetings are on their way. I have been given until the weekend to scan the card in for electronic viewing since the WDA agreed that Christmas Eve would be the unveiling here and on Facebook.

"OK, now about our Blog post that you are behind on..."White Dog said....