Feliz Navidad, des de Miami!

We had another warm and sunny Christmas in Miami!

Since the weather was in the 80's, we had a Christmas Eve pool party!

We had several friends over for a evening of good food and good dogs!

Our friends Jackie and Mike adopted their first greyhound and of course brought her to the party! She is a sweet, black and white girl named Leah!

Of course she fit right in with our hounds!

We set up the Wii which is always good for some entertainment!

There were some youngsters at the party that just loved the hounds and

of course they loved the attention!

This was Leah's first time around small children and she did great!

Luke got into the Christmas Spirit by wearing his Santa hat...

One of the little kids was fascinated with the dog door and kept himself occupied by using it as his own personal entryway!

On Christmas morning we all had huge breakfast before digging into presents and stockings. The hounds dug into theirs as usual.

After a HUGE breakfast and stuffing themselves with treats, the hounds fell asleep where they lay, surrounded by their spoils....

Later on they shifted around and

Luke and Jasmine had some snuggle time in front of the tree...

Later that afternoon, we went to the Zoo to watch the Chimpanzees and Gorillas

open their presents! It was hilarious!

We only caught the tail end of the Chimpanzees.

They were giving a huge snowman stuffed with treats that they happily tore apart!

The gorillas, on the other hand, were the most entertaining! There were given wrapped boxes stuffed with fruit, nuts and raisins!

Here are the zookeepers getting ready to toss out the gifts!

The zoo keepers tossed them in and the gorillas started grabbing for them!

It was really funny watching them fight to be the first one to the presents!

But in the end, the big daddy Silverback won most of the spoils!

After the treats were all gone, the gorillas started playing with the boxes.

"hhhmmmm....what do I do now?"

"I know! I'll rip it off like King Kong!"

It was a wonderful Christmas with my husband being home and celebrating with friends!

I hope everyone had just as wonderful holiday!

The Parting Shot:

Strut relaxing in front of the tree....

It was just one short year ago....

.... that Strut was the oldest dog in the kennel....

.... that Strut watched family after family walk by his kennel... without stopping..

It was just one short year ago.....

... that Strut came to live with me....

They say he was never chosen cuz he was just too big...

They say he was never chosen cuz he didn't like cats....

They say he was never chosen cuz after 8 years, he was just too old.....

I say he was never chosen cuz he was waiting for me...

(since we share the same birthday and all)

And he was waiting for Sandy,

and Luke....

and Jasmine just needed another hound to run with....

Strut adjusted quickly to his new home...

And he even warmed up to Kevin after awhile...

All in all, I think he is enjoying his new life...

So hears to my boy Strut..

(thanks for waiting for me)

Family, friends and food, OH MY!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I had a full house for Thanksgiving this year!

My wonderful husband was in town for the week along with his three teenage boys.

As boys tend to do, they just fought all week.....

They took turns in Kevin's sparring suit called a FIST SUIT....

Then it was Dad's turn to get in the suit..

Then they moved from land to sea and had a rousing good game of NOODLE WARS!!!

On Thanksgiving Day we had some friends over for dinner and the hounds, of course, enjoyed the constant attention.

Luke found a friend as always...

FYI: Our friends here, Jackie and Mike,

will be adopting their first greyhound this weekend!!!!

YAY!!!

We had planned on eating outside on the patio but, alas, the 3 o'clock sun was a shinin' right into the patio and no one wanted to be in the direct line of fire.

(It's a hard life in Miami)

After dinner and dessert, we had a nice round of night swimming.

Complete with heated pool....

(check out the steam coming off the pool..aaahhhh...)

And after all was said and done, Strut ended up with the hambone.

Kevin got a wild hair and decided to bleach his hair blond.

(I guess it is true when they say that husbands and wives

eventually start to look like each other)

Here is me, Jasmine and Luke

enjoying some quiet time by the pool...

Even Sandy got some me time in during the week....

While the boys were here, we took them to the zoo which is all decked out for Christmas.

The Elephants were very active that day

and were enjoying playing in their pool with their ball...

The monkeys put on a good show for us too...

We even got an x-rated show by the Howler Monkey.

A great father and son shot...

...aaawwww...

The Parting Shot:

I love this picture of Luke in front of the Christmas Tree.

I gave it a light antique finish and I think it reflects him well...