Three Kids and a Dog: The Long Weekend

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Gianfrancesco side of the family this year. It's always good to catch up and reconnect, eat good food, drink some wine and spirits, and get excited about the next day turning to full blown Christmas.

We usually head to Michigan on Friday but on Friday morning, I got Sadie up from under the table (her new dog house) to find her in a pool of what looked like rusty water. I immediately called Austen to take her outside while I cleaned up and then joined them in the yard. What we saw was her consistently peeing bright red blood all over the yard. Weird. Called the vet but she couldn't get to us until 6pm so we waited it out taking turns checking on her and taking her out every so often. Finally, the vet arrived. She suspected some type of bacterial infection or bad UTI so after some laser therapy (check out Sadie wearing her laser goggles), fluids and amoxicillin, Sadie stopped peeing blood and started acting more like herself. But by this time it was too late to head to Michigan.

So instead we headed to a drive through light parade and then the next morning, we got an early jump on heading out for our annual Christmas tree cutting with friends. Armed with hot chocolate and donuts, we headed just over the Michigan border into Indiana to Dudeck's Pine Country. We tailgated while waiting for everyone to arrive then we boarded the wagon that took us deep into the tree farm. There weren't many trees to be found so finding the perfect one was even more challenging. (There is a tree shortage due to the droughts we've had over the last several years so the trees haven't grown at the same pace.) But still we managed to find a really nice tree, preferring for the second year the Canaan Fir. Still my new favorite.

The kids sitting on Santa's lap dwindled this year with only Hailey partaking at our urging. She did ask for a cat (which Santa said he'd see what he could do). I remember being her age and wanting a cat. I'm not opposed to cats it's just one more thing that I have to coordinate when we leave to go out of town or head to Michigan. And, God forbid it gets out and runs away like my Bailey did! A coyote would surely eat it or even a fox - too much wildlife where we live now. I don't need that kind of heartache.

After tree cutting, we enjoyed an early dinner together with our friends at the Ghost Isle Brewery (a new restaurant choice in New Buffalo, Mich.). Saturday evening and Sunday had us decorating the house but Sunday morning we also decorated some Gingerbread houses. Austen had drivers ed so he didn't go but we enjoyed lunch at our club and the variety of candy to decorate our houses this year. Last year, it was whatever leftover candy and other things we had in the pantry. Not sure who won the gingerbread house contest this year but we sure had fun making them!