I only have a few passions in my life, God, my family (hubby, kids, and beyond), my friends, my crafting & decorating, and way up on the list, my dogs.  Chris and I had dogs when we were children so I think that that cultivated a love for ‘man’s best friend’ in both of us.  Our house just wouldn’t be the same without a fur-baby in our midst; we’ve been owned and loved by at least one at a time throughout our entire married life.  Currently, as most of you know, we have 3 wonderful beings that dwell with us, our 2 Newfoundland dogs, Sophie and Samson, and our Golden Retriever Gracie.  I took a little time away from my Christmas decorating, shopping, and other busyness of life and took each pup outside separately to take some shots around our yard, pairing the sweet gentleness that exudes from their pores with some of our Christmas decorations, then Chris came and helped me coral all three for some group shots.  All three were extremely well-behaved and posed with no prompting from Nillas (their usual “pose for a picture” treat) or any other kind of coaxing food.

I will quit yammering away here and just show you a smattering of pictures that I and then Chris captured:

This is Samson–Admittedly, there are more pictures of this fella–he is so easy to work with and he has a calmness about him that is just unsurpassed (except when he sees a deer or is barking at someone walking in our yard):

Here is Sophie–She is now 9 years old but still acts like she is 9 months old. She listened very well to me out there, but, she was laser focused on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g…haha:

And here is Gracie (that silly upper lip just didn’t want to cooperate), she is closer to 10 than 9 now-a-days:

We really need to get her her own silhouette! ❤

Gracie had eye surgery almost a year ago to take care of Glaucoma…As you see in this picture, her eye has shrunk down to almost smaller than normal now, she is blind in that eye, BUT, she feels no pain and is as happy as a clam every single day of her life:

And now for some group shots:

And then I climbed into the picture with them:

These three don’t get out front much, I do think that they’d stay around the house off-leash, but I never want to take the chance that they might take off after a deer…I can see myself trekking over the river and through the woods in pursuit…uh…not a pretty picture in my mind’s eye. 😉  Most of the time, they are either inside snoozing, or out in the safe fenced backyard that they all enjoy to the hilt.  That said, I do think that they really enjoyed their time out front posing, sniffing, watching, & surveying their property–We had a great little time of it…They are three wonderful blessings in our lives. ❤

And… now…, I’ll get back to the frenzied state in which I dwell every year in this interim time between Thanksgiving and Christmas–My favorite times of the year, albeit one of the busiest. 🙂

Until next time, y’all take good care!

~Arlynn—AND—Sophie, Gracie, & Samson