This Christmas we decided to do something different. We decided to get another place- one that's close to where Mom works and super close to Grandma and Grandpa. I didn't really know what to expect bringing the puppies and the cats to a different house and then staying there. We had never taken the puppies anywhere to spend the night. I expected that they would be a little nervous and that they would pace up and down and not be able to sleep.
But, once again the puppies surprised us. They settled right in. Of course, it helps that they now have stairs to play on. They LOVE the stairs.

The cats completely surprised us. They don't travel well. This is not a surprise. They pooped their cat carrier on the drive to the new place- also not a surprise. Once we got there though, we put a baby gate up in the doorway to the upstairs bathroom so that they have a safe place. We put them a cat tree on the stair landing so that they could come downstairs and still have a refuge to get away from Mr. M. Before long, the cats got bold enough to even venture downstairs and come into the living room. They discovered the little window on the stairs and have been sitting in the window to look out. They found our closet and have been chilling out in the closet. They have actually been acting more at home than they did at home. 

Besides the stairs, the puppies' favorite part of the new house is that they get to run down to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Pretty much every time we go outside, they go to the back gate so that we can go to Grandma and Grandpa's. It's the best game ever. Christmas Day they got to take turns going down and visiting with everybody. Miss S got to play with kids for one of the first times. I think it was her very first time playing with kids where she even got to be off leash. Mom's nephews are 4 and 6 and are a little shy with dogs, but it only took them a few minutes to completely warm up to Miss S. Miss S was extremely polite and didn't jump up on them or try to steal food off of their little table- which was at a perfect food-stealing height. She was interested in saying hi to everyone, but for the most part, she just napped on the floor while all the present opening was going on. We were very proud of her.

I didn't have any pictures of Mr. M on Christmas Day, so here is a picture of him from last year. What a difference a year makes! He was so tiny!! 

Last Christmas, Miss B was very worried that her bad behavior would mean that her stocking would be filled with coal. She was very concerned and has decided to be proactive this year by stocking up on brownie points and thus earning her a spot on the nice list. She decided that her talents would be best used in the kitchen helping Mom cook. So she volunteered her supervisory services.

She already tried sniffing through the garbage to make sure nothing good was left near the top, but apparently that was not good and lost her some points toward the nice list. So she tried helping with the refried beans instead.

She's decided that this whole being good stuff is hard work and that Miss S and Mr. C only stay on the nice list because they suck up to the bosses. 

She is also convinced that Miss M and Mr. M are only on the nice list because of good looks. I mean seriously, Miss B hasn't had an accident in the house in a really long time. Miss M still poops on the floor if Mom and Dad aren't watching her like a hawk. Mr. M is the main reason that Mom and Dad couldn't put presents under the Christmas tree- at least no presents in boxes. He is convinced that his purpose in life is to maul empty peanut butter jars and destroy boxes. Anyway, what's a girl to do to stay on the nice list? She is going to just try to keep helping in the kitchen so that the fat man will bring her presents too. (Should she have called him that? That isn't going to cost her any points, right?)

Miss B guesses it could be worse though. At least she isn't as much of a trouble maker as this guy. Seriously, look at all of the poop on his perch. Surely he will be put on the naughty list before she will... 

Mom and Dad decided to take all of the puppies along with them to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas. After all, how could the fuzzy kids get left alone on a day filled with boxes to chew up and turkey?
As soon as we got there, the puppies each went about their normal business. Mr. M found his favorite toy and went to work on it- after the gift bags he was interested in were relocated to the coffee table.

Miss S and Mr. C decided that the smartest thing to do would be to keep Grandma company in the kitchen just in case she needed any help with the turkey (or any other people food). They are always eager to help.

Miss B decided that the safest thing for her to do ( and the least likely to land her in time out) would be to find something to chew on near Mr. M.

Miss M is still trying to find her groove at Grandma and Grandpa's. This was only her second time there, and she isn't big enough to jump in Grandpa's lap to give him kisses like Miss S. She doesn't know where all the good toys are kept yet and hasn't realized that keeping Grandma company in the kitchen always gets you treats. So instead, she tried chewing on Mom's shoe.

Then she went to the kitchen to see what Miss S was doing.

Miss M finally realized that there were toys to chew on in the living room. That Mr. M is pretty smart- and rarely lands himself in time out. She decided to follow him more.

The day after Christmas was just a nice quiet day at home. We all played in the yard for a while so that the puppies would be good and tired when Mom and Dad went to the grocery store.

What is a girl to do when the Christmas songs are right and the weather outside is frightful? Dress for the part of course!

We found these cute little jackets the other day and got small and medium for the littles. Much to our surprise, Miss M didn't fit the small and Miss S and Mr. M didn't fit the medium. So only Miss M ended up with a jacket. We are going to have to find a different kind of jacket. I mean seriously, it was like 50 degrees outside. It's practically cruelty to animals to not have a jacket in those kinds of frigid temperatures.
Luckily, the puppies all have plenty of treats to keep them warm.

This past Sunday, we took Miss M to have her ears cropped as well despite Mom's protests. This time though, Mom didn't cry. The ear vet's office was packed. When it was time to pick her up, there were several other dog owners there to pick up their dogs as well. Miss M behaved so well that the vet used her as an example to show everyone else how to put on the antibiotic gel and drops. That meant that we got to leave first, which was good for us. Most of the people there this weekend had dobermans and cane corsos. The vet was explaining to them that pit bulls have higher tolerances for pain genetically and return to their normal selves quicker than most other breeds. So the pit bulls only get 3 days worth of pain medicine, where all of the other breeds have to take the pain medicine for 8 days instead. I was proud of our little Miss S. She was the smallest one there but was one of the toughest.  

After being gone with Miss M all day, the other puppies were extremely upset when we got home. Miss B and Mr. C were practically in a frenzy. We let the littles out to go to the bathroom first and then Dad took them into our bedroom with Miss M so that they could check her out without big puppies jumping all over the place. Mom sat with Miss B and Mr. C and calmed them down before letting them out of their crates to go outside one at a time. Mr. C was so worked up that he was literally beside himself. Mom walked with him around the yard, spoke quietly to him and made him sit often to get him back focused again. He was extremely concerned about Miss M and his whole body wagged along with his tail when we finally took him back to the bedroom to see her. After a few minutes, everyone was happy and calm again and we let them all out to play. Miss M was very happy to see everyone and went to chewing on them immediately. 
By this afternoon, all was back to normal. Miss M is back to chewing on everything and everybody and back to barking at the other puppies to play. 
On a more Christmas-y note, we decided that it would be wise of us not to put Christmas presents under the tree this year. All of our dogs love boxes and love ripping up paper. Not too good for Christmas presents. We are very surprised that our live tree- deemed "awesome" by one of Dad's students- is still standing despite having 5 pit bulls flying around the room at top speed knocking chairs out of place. So far, we have only had one ornament casualty- and that was only a plastic ball ornament. Mom decided that it would be smart to put all of the glass ornaments up high, well out of reach of curious puppy noses- a system that seems to be working so far.

As Christmas approaches, Miss B has gotten increasingly nervous. It's her first Christmas, and she only just found out about this whole naughty or nice thing a couple of days ago. Now she is concerned that her sneaky ways may have caught up to her. Surely Santa couldn't possibly know about the time she poked her head into the garbage can and pulled out the chicken packaging. He couldn't possibly know that she then gave it to Mr. C and the littles so that they would get in trouble for it instead of her. He definitely couldn't know about how she runs up and down the fence to get the neighbor dogs excited and then runs off to play with Mr. C. 
Then there was the time that she showed Mr. M and Miss S that they could jump up on the couch. But seriously. He couldn't know that. Right?
She has been trying to be extra good to make up for the sneaky things she does, but she hasn't had much practice at being good and it's harder than she thought. She has been making sure to go inside right away whenever she is told and has been eating her food instead of playing with it. 
She hopes it will be enough. She doesn't really know what a stocking is but is sure that it tastes good. She doesn't want Santa to give everyone else stockings and skip her. It would make it awfully hard to catch up on the nice-o-meter for next year if she has to start out in the negative from stealing Miss M's stocking.

All of Miss B's worrying has Miss M thinking too. Biting Miss S and Mr. M's ears isn't enough to put you on the naughty list, right? What about peeing on the floor? What about chewing up stuff, then biting everybody's ears and then pooping on the rug? 

Saturday after Thanksgiving we decided to take the puppies to the beach for a walk and to see about getting some cute pictures with Christmas decorations in the background. The historic district is really cool normally with gas lit street lamps and Victorian style buildings that have been around since the 1800's, but at Christmas time, it is even prettier.
The pups don't have any experience walking around in large crowds yet, so we decided to walk on the beach instead and then just drive through the historic area to see how many decorations were already out. We learned a hard lesson on the way to the beach. We discovered that if we leave the leashes on and don't give the puppies something more interesting to chew on, they have a tendency to chew the leashes.
So before heading to the beach, we made a pit stop at Petsmart for two new leashes and some bones to chew on. 
Once we finally made it to the beach, Dad was totally stressed out and ready to just turn around and go home. Mom was worried that the puppies would need a potty break before making the long trip back home and convinced Dad to walk a little anyway since they were already there.
As luck would have it, during our walk, we came across a family trying to take Christmas pictures on the beach. They had a little Christmas tree decorated with starfish set up as a back drop for their two girls. While the girls were playing at the water's edge, we asked if we could take some pictures in front of their tree too. The mom was more than happy to oblige and even took a few pictures of the puppies using her camera and a few of us all with our camera.

Trying to get the puppies to sit still for a picture with an interesting tree and two kids playing nearby was not as easy as it sounds.

We loved the little Christmas tree was an excellent idea, and we loved the little white starfish. We were really glad they let us take pictures and were super happy when she offered to take pictures of us. I didn't catch her name, but mystery Christmas Tree Lady, if you find this, Thank you!!

Even though the trip got off to a rocky start, we were really glad we went for our walk when we did. We were also glad we went to that area of the beach. That's not where we normally go, but if we had gone to our usual spot, we would have missed the Christmas tree. It's funny how things work out sometimes.