Happy Holidays

Happy holidays everyone!  Not much to report this week since I saw most of you just a few days ago.  Well I guess there are a few things.  The Big Game was terrible.  The tailgate was as good as ever, but Cal lost sooo terribly that we were debating leaving early.  We did stay until the end though because I wanted to follow the band through the tunnel since this was the only game I went to this year. Nick was unable to go because he had a wedding to shoot in Santa Clara so Linda came with me instead.  Besides the fact that we were freezing and the Bears got creamed, we had a pretty good time.  We were really worried about rain, but it didn't start pouring until we were about to go home so my dad drove us down to the Bart station.  I was also a little worried that Emmy would have a freakout attack when Pierce was doggy sitting her, but he said that after she got over us all leaving she fell asleep and he watched Disney movies all day.  Not bad at all.

Table flowers

Chocolate stuffed cookies that I saw on Giada at Home.  I can't find the link to the recipe, but I won't be making these anymore because they were way too sweet and more work than I usually spend on cookies.

Linda keeping warm with a cookie and some wine.

Josie is having a baby!  She announced it at Thanksgiving dinner via Google chat and Jen Jen's phone.   I already talked to Jen Jen and I will be helping with her  baby shower.  How exciting!  Our family is growing in leaps and bounds.

In other news, I will no longer be going to Paris and Dubai with Nick's family.  We weren't sure when the exact dates that we were going were, but just found out that it's the exact same time as my parents' Panama cruise.  Originally Nick thought that it was going to be at the end of March to the beginning of April, which would have been perfect since my parents' trip is at the end of April to May.  We were having dinner with his sister when she set us straight.  That was the end of that.  All these months of looking forward to going abroad were squashed with one phone call to Kuwait.  Since Emmy is living with me now I can't just leave her here or dump her on Christopher when he has school.  We don't know what Christopher's school schedule is or if Emmy will be trained well enough to be left home while he's gone by the time I need to get my plane tickets, which is very soon.  She's making progress, but I'm not sure if she will be 100% okay to be left at home for hours while Christopher is at school.  I guess sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the ones you love.  I'm much more willing to miss a trip than Emmy not having a loving home.  There will always be other exciting trips to go on.

At first I was really disappointed because I really, really wanted to go to Dubai, but it was a pretty big financial burden that was lifted off of my shoulders.  I was already having difficulty saving for a plane ticket, but once Emmy came fully back into the picture I was really beginning to worry about what I was going to do.  I was planning on taking money out of savings so that I could go on the trip, but wasn't really to keen on the idea.  Now I don't have to worry about that.  Nick was very disappointed also, but he's still going and has been to both places multiple times so I told him he couldn't be more disappointed than me.  I've been to Paris before, but only for two nights and a day so it would have been nice to be able to see more of the city and do some shopping.  We just keep reminding ourselves that we'll have the rest of our lives to travel together and I'm sure there will be other opportunities.  Nick has been wanting to go to New Orleans so maybe when he has some time off we can go there.  I've also been wanting to visit Shanna in North Carolina so this might be a good thing for us.  With the big trip I didn't think I'd have any money or time off to do anything.  I'm feeling much better about it now, especially since Christmas is coming and I worried that I'd send myself into debt with shopping, training, and the plane ticket.

Just a few additional pictures that I took with my phone.  I really need to get a phone with a better camera.  Whenever I try to take pictures of Emmy I have to be stealthy and pulling out a camera usually makes her turn the other way.  She doesn't seem to mind the phone as much, probably because I'm always texting on it and she doesn't associate it with a giant eye being pointed at her.  Maybe it's time to invest in a smart phone with a good camera.  I also use it a lot just because it's close by and I'm too lazy to go get my camera in my room.  Hehe.


It's a "Where's Waldo" Emmy





I've realized that Emmy prefers going to play frisbee more than our 3 milers (as if I should have been surprised) so I've been lazy and driving her to the park to throw the frisbee with her.  We did do a walk today since it wasn't that cold, but I've been really lazy about walking this week.  The park that we walk around has huge fields so she has plenty of room to run.  This one is in an area that isn't very open and fewer people and bikers go by.  When we walked by it this morning she really wanted to go play but realized that I didn't bring her frisbee along.  Having this field makes it easy for when I don't feel like walking but she needs some good running in.


Belly rubbing by Uncle Christophee


I got up one night to go to the bathroom and Emmy was sleeping belly up on her bed.



Spending some quality time with Nick


My mom's new fridge.  She's been wanting one for a long time and finally broke down and got a bigger one.  



Emmy and I also have started Clicker Training (I actually bought this lady's book and clickers) this week.  We've only been doing it for a couple of days, but she's responding really well.  I have a book on how to train different things, but so far we're just working on her being okay with me taking my keys out of the drawer.  She's getting the hang of it. When I take my keys out her tail starts wagging.  Good enough for me!