Christmas in our house

There were only 5 of us plus the 3 dogs - age 7 to 87 very neatly - but it felt manic. Great time, actually, and Antony and I make a good team in the kitchen. Dogs were pretty good, although I suspect that was mainly because we made sure there was no food left in Satchmo's reach. Maxie developed a penchant for Quality Street - wrapper and all. They went down in one, so there can't possibly have been any flavour. Nonetheless, he still clenched his teeth tight when I tried to get a toffee penny back out. I had visions of it coming out the other end unmarked. If I really hated someone, I could perhaps have washed it an offered it to them. Fortunately, I don't hate anyone. By the time we were back on our own on Boxing Day evening, we were all crashed. As you can see...

Pregnant ladies

Some of you may remember that, last time she was preggie, Nina had a thing about eating compost and dug almost all the summer plants out of my garden tubs. This time, whilst not actually averse to a bit of compost, she's fonder of wood. She's demolished the tub that one of my clematis has been in for years, and she keeps taking logs off the fireside pile and ripping them up on the rug. Needless to say, this is only ever done when I've just finished vacuuming. (Of course, I say 'she', but we all know Satchmo will be joining in enthusiastically, don't we?)

Puppies!

Yes, she's pregnant. A litter of 3-4, due 17 January. Already got several people interested, which is a nice position to be in. Nina was scanned Weds; whilst waiting in the vet's reception I realised she had a real gash on her shoulder, so she had a scan and 7 staples in one go (needless to say, only 5 left now). These days they give you a printout of the scan. The embryos are about 2 inches long so far.