Question: What do you post on your blog during the holidays when you have no children? Answer: Dogs and other people's children. Above we have a few shots from Christmas in Green Bay. It does not include highlights from the pancake breakfast or the 4 bar slog through Green Bay culminating in (nadiring in?) a club called Confetti's, for which no photographic evidence exists. Thank you, Lord. Coming soon are highlights from Naperville, IL - the illustrious Chicago suburb. For those of you contemplating a trip to Madison, please follow this link from the Chicago Tribune's own Randy Curwen, who opted to impersonate a serial killer/high school chemistry teacher in the photo that accompanies his byline.

Snow!

With three major snow storms since December 1, we have done plenty of shoveling... The storm today dropped about five inches of fluffy snow and tied up traffic all day. I think the December total is about 12 inches. We haven't had snow like this since my first winter of grad school in 2000.



Although Coca gets cold quickly, she enjoys the snow. Her new favorite game is to find the treat hidden in the snow.



We bought two wreaths for our house: one for our front door and one for above the fireplace. To get in the holiday mood, we also set out our favorite ornaments and baked sugar cookies this weekend. Coca is working on her commands, "sit", "stay", and "shy sideways glance".



This is my favorite tree in our yard. Who needs to chop down a tree when we have something so beautiful living in our yard?! I love the way it looks when the snow sits on its boughs.

Trip to Chicago

Coca and I went to Chicago to celebrate Lula's and Jacki's birthdays. Here's a picture of Lula getting ready to eat her peanut butter cupcakes.



Here are the proud dog-parents:



Bella, Lucy, and Coca had a great time chewing on Lula's special birthday-girl outfit.



Susie and Keith made all of Lula's favorite foods. We enjoyed hotdogs, peanuts, biscuits, mango salad, and deviled eggs. They also sent us home with a doggie bag full of treats. Here's Coca curled up with her new favorite toy:




We stayed with the Lamont Grand-pup-parents' house after the dog party. My Mom is healing well after her surgery, in part because of my Dad's excellent care. My parents took care of Coca while I went to Jacki's 30th birthday party, and then Brad came out to the 'burbs for French Toast on Sunday.

Here's a picture of the other birthday girl Jacki, her husband Mark, and her Mom.



One of the highlights was playing beer-pong in Jacki's parents basement. It was just like junior high and high school, except with beer and almond champagne.