Exchanging Christmas Gifts And Playful Puppies

It seems appropriate that this post should appear on Christmas Eve, for it begins with my sister and I exchanging Christmas gifts while visiting together up at the farm. She bought me a large chainsaw carved bear which I will keep inside my farm apartment. Seamus, as you can see, was not at all sure about his new friend:

My sister opened her gifts from me while sitting at the table while Madeline, her daughter's Papillon, waited loyally at her feet:

Madeline was by this point more comfortable with all of my dogs and quite comfortable walking around the apartment, in this case past Wally:

Clover, Daphne and Fergus inspected the new bear. I had some concern that a male dog might lift his leg on the bear (it began its life, after all, as a tree trunk), but that never happened:

Clover and Daphne took a nap by the bear:

My sister brought Madeline over to see if she'd join them:

But the young dogs were in no mood for sleep. A rowdy play session occurred instead:

Wally asked to be lifted up onto the bed to escape the rowdiness. Clover jumped up there herself to join him when she'd had enough of the roughhousing:

My sister called her daughter to tell her how well Madeline was doing:

And everyone took an afternoon rest n my farm apartment. The reason for the umbrella was an aborted attempt at walking across the south hay field in the rain:

And again the Papillons played. Fergus and Winky made a couple of attempts to join in, but apparently the Papillons had their own unique manner of play and had formed a sub-pack of three: