Another rainy weekend...

.... the third one in a row. And yesterday was such a beautifully warm and sunny day. I'm not ready for Fall weather... I'll take another month of summer, if that's at all possible.

I've spent the last couple of days taking out the Christmas decorations. Except for the 1950s aluminum tree, everything else is out now on the first floor. I still have the second floor to do, but that usually goes much quicker. Each year as I unpack my Santa collection, I promise myself not to buy one more Santa. But then I'll find one with such a happy face that just needs to come home and join the parade here.

The invitations for the Christmas party have been written out, so everyone will have plenty of time to plan their Uniquely Ugly or Creatively Crazy Christmas Sweater. I think everyone will have fun with this party.  It seems like I'm rushing the holidays along, but it just seems that the holidays can be enjoyed more when most of the preparations are done weeks ahead. The month of December goes by in a heart-beat every year, and when Dec. 1st comes around, I hope to have all gifts wrapped and ready to mail, every last decoration out of the storage closet, and the only things left to do will be to read some Christmas books and bake some cookies.

Savannah and I are both sleeping much better these days... she still lets out one lonely-sounding bark at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, but I no longer come downstairs and take her outside. I let her know that I've heard her by saying "Go to sleep, Savannah!" and that seems to be enough... she does go back to sleep and so do I.  According to the dog books, some puppies just want to know that someone else is around in the middle of the night.

We took Savannah to the local dog park yesterday... she got to run around off-leash and play with other dogs, and she jumped into the doggie-pool with one of them. That pool was much cleaner than the neighbor's pond that she discovered last week, and I was prepared with a big towel because I knew the pool was there and I figured she'd get into it. Wonderful.... Savannah loves the rain and she loves the water. So much for having an 'elegant' puppy. "Puppy" is growing into a dog lately.... she must near to 50 pounds now. I bought her a pink sweatshirt with a hood but it's clearly too big for her, but I have a feeling that she'll grow into it by January.

Speaking of puppy.... she's ready to go out, and it isn't raining at the moment....